The Basilisk is one of the deadliest and most fearsome European mythological creatures.
Even so that
travelers in the 17th century brought with them weasels, cocks and mirrors, for it was said that it was the
animal’s weaknesses.
Its name comes from the Greek βασιλίσκος basiliskos, which translates as "a kinglet, a kind of serpent."
Some of the same aspects that this creature has with the European mythology and the Harry Potter
books, is its abilities, though in the mythology says nothing about its fangs being able to destroy
Horcruxes or being able to respond to a language that only serpents can understand, it does have the
power to cause death just by a glance and being able to kill its victims with just one bite as it is the same
in J. K. Rowling’s books.
This creature’s legend was first acknowledged by the author Bede, in which says that a snake was born
from an egg laid by a roaster and incubated by a toad, giving it an unnatural aspect and origin.
In the form of appearance, it is very different than the one we know from Harry Potter and the Chamber
of Secrets where is a very large serpent. The mythology describes the creature with the body of a
chicken and a tale of a snake, with very scaley wings.
It is considered that the cobra is the animal that gives birth to this being, since it shares some of the
same aspects, as well as being able to kills from a distance (it has the ability to spit venom instead of
killing with just a glance). Another, more-like symbolism it has with Christianity, being that the snake
represents a form of the incarnation of evil.
