'Snake' on breastplate (Was: Book Covers)

[Marion Ros]

No: HPFGUIDX 166875

AmanitaMuscaria 
>> The snake, however, has a bird's beak.. and what 
_is_ the scaly thing?<<


Marion
A 'snake' with a birdbeak is (by the looks of it) a Basilisk. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilisk)
The basilisk has a rather interesting history. The name itself means 'little king' because it was originally described by a Roman author as a snake with a 'drawing' of a crown on its head. The Roman/latin name for the basilisk therefore is a 'regulus'...
Why does it have a bird's head in later (medieval) depictions? The myth about the basilisk developed, and it was said that the monstrous, petrifying beast (as it had now become) was hatched from a rooster's egg by a toad. Probably because of this connection with a rooster, the basilisk is usually portrayed in bestiaria etc as a serpent with a rooster/bird head/beak and sometimes even birdfeet/-claws.

Hmm... Basilisk, Regulus, Slytherin... hmmm.... Or are we reading too much into a simple picture?

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