Pandemoniac Pages

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