[HPforGrownups] Basilisks and Cocatrice... (Was: Dumbledore, The Man...)

[Silverthorne]

No: HPFGUIDX 96212

Pippin writes:
**Snippity Snip**

Wiser and more learned wizards like Dumbledore would have "known" that
basilisks don't petrify people and they would have disregarded the fleeing
spiders and the slain roosters as disinformation--false clues left by The
Heir. Just like certain listies disregard the Snape-vampire clues because
they "know" that vampires are dead and crumble to dust in the sunlight ;-)

{Silverthorne}

*hehe*
(Thinks of Alan Rickman sprouting fangs and decides that's almost as funny
looking as "I'm as anatomically impared as a Ken doll" ^^)

Anyhow in regards to Basilisks...

Are reptiles, with lizard heads, webbed and clawed forefeet, two wings and a
serpent's tail. It could turn anything it's 'gaze fell upon' into stone.
Further descriptions claim it is a desert creature, yellow with toad like
eyes and that it held its tail over its back like a scorpion would. It had
three bony protrusions on its head that resembled a crown, which supposedly
related back to it's 'status' as 'King of All Reptiles'. It was less than
two feet long...

You didn't even have to look at it--all it had to do was it had to look at
*you*, so the part about looking *At* it was probably combined or confused
with the legend of Medusa, where you could not look directly at her  (or her
two sister Gorgons)  or get turned to stone (but not killed--in theory, you
could bring the victims back if you knew how, or if the gods interveined).
The hero Perseus (oooooooh look, there's that anagram!) managed to kill
Medusa by dint of looking at her reflection in the surface of a mirror-like
shield given to him by the Greek god of Physicians, Hermes, and using that
to tell him where she was so he could chop her head off.

The breath, body and blood of the Basilisk are considered poisonous to the
touch, and that poison could actaully 'infest' any weapon used against the
creature and thereby poison the holder of the weapon (rather like a lamp
wick sucks up oil until the whole thing is saturated with it).

You could kill a basilisk by holding a mirror up so it could see itself.
Weasels and mongoose are also good 'weapons', being immune to the
Basilisk--and they will kill the creature on sight. (wonder if that part was
taken by observation of both species and their habits of attacking snakes?).
It's spitting noises could split rocks and drive away snakes...it's breath
turned the land around it into wasteland with the poisons there-in.

Some lore point towards its generation as being one of the creatures that
was born from the serpents that rested on Medusa's head (perhaps the reason
for the misread or intentional alteration in regards to the HP basilisk
having to be looked upon to turn people to stone). It was a primarily
European creature, with a similar creature called the Skoffin known in
Iceland (Skoffins could only kill each other with their gaze).

Today, the 'real' basilisk is actually a small lizard of the
iguna-family-type.

There is also another similar creature called the Cockatrice, which shared
*very* similar characteristics. Below I will list only the *differences*

Physically, it had a roosters head and body, although the head carried three
spikes instead of a roosters comb. It had leathery reptile wings, and a
serpents tail.
A cockatrice was the progeny of a yolkless egg laid by a rooster, buried in
a dung heap and incubated while the Dog Star Sirius would dominate the sky.
It was guarded and nested by either a toad or a snake until it hatched...

It is said to have appeared in Rome circa the time of Pope Leo X and was
blamed for bringing  the plague, one was found in a well in Vienna in 1202,
and a third was found and killed in the basement of a Warsaw house by a man
with mirrors sown into his clothes. The last one was said to have killed two
girls before it was caught.

*************************************

Anne/Silverthorne
Silverthorne.Dragon at verizon.net (Nights and Weekends)
Anne-TMC-RCVG.Campbell at tenetheath.com (6am-3pm American Central, Mon-Fri.)

"It is better to die than to loose your wrench"--Paraphrased from a former
Navy Mechanic.