Tuesday, July 23, 2013

BASILISK

BASILISK
"The old man had looked at him out of eyes that were basilisk and answered, "Boy, we do not speak of Sarah here."
H.P. Lovecraft & August Derleth, The Shuttered Room

"Of all the legendary monsters, none was deadlier than the basilisk, or cockatrice. Part serpent, part rooster, it came from an egg laid by a seven-year-old cock during the time that Sirius was high in the heavens. The egg was spherical and covered by a thick membrane, and sometimes it was hatched by a toad, who sat on it for nine years. This elaborate gestation produced a creature whose breath could scorch the earth and whose glance was lethal-even to itself."
Mysteries Of the Unknown, Mysterious Creatures

"Previously described as a serpent it was now said to have the head, neck and legs of a cockerel, the tail of a serpent and the wings of a dragon."
Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons

"To Aristotle the basilisk was the "king of snakes." To the Roman naturalist Pliny it was simply a snake that had some sort of crownlike structure on its head."
Daniel Cohen, The Encyclopedia Of Monsters 

No comments:

Post a Comment