This type of lizard, close to iguanas, is quite widespread in nature. A huge mouth, wrinkles around the eyes, a long jagged ridge that stretches along the back, and a growth behind the back of the head make this creature look like an ancient prehistoric dinosaur. His amazing ability to run on the surface of the water, for a long time, caused people a feeling of mystical fear. It is thanks to its unusual appearance and the only "fabulous" ability that this lizard was named after its mythical namesake Basilisk.
Gorgon blood
One of the first mentions of the mythical basilisk dates back to the 1st century BC. Then Mark Annay Lucan, in his historical poem "Farsalia", which tells about the war between Caesar and Pompey, told that all the snakes of Libya - asps, parks, two-headed amphisbens, ammodites and basilisks - came from the blood of a gorgon, whose gaze was drawn by living creatures into the stone. The most poisonous was the basilisk, whose breath turned plants into rot, his gaze split stones and killed birds flying high in the sky. Already in the 1st century AD, the historian Pliny the Elder, who described in his "Natural History" a really existing small poisonous snake of yellow color with crown-like thickenings on its head, retained all the mythical properties of a basilisk: the ability to walk upright, a murderous look and poisonous breath.
Since the 4th century, when Christianity has already taken root in Western Europe, the image of the basilisk has become an integral part of the vast pantheon of demonic evil. This was largely due to the Latin translation of the Bible by Jerome the Blessed, in which the basilisk was mentioned twice. From that time on, the image of the insidious serpent began to undergo a significant transformation in the works of theologians. So, already in the 7th century, the author of "Etymology" Isidore of Seville wrote that the kind of basilisks came from an egg laid by a seven-year-old rooster in a warm dung heap, and hatched by a toad. The 16th century Italian naturalist Ulysses Aldrovandi describes the basilisk as a creature with eight legs, covered with scales. In ancient engravings, frescoes and paintings, this mythological character appears either as a snake with a rooster's head, or as a yellow rooster with large spiny wings,the body of a toad and a snake's tail …
Even at the end of the enlightened 19th century, the French occultist Papus mentions in his books on magic the terrible basilisk, however, questioning its generally accepted appearance. Sir Thomas Brown agrees with him in his work "Vulgar mistakes, or Studies of many dogmas and common truths", who considered the image of a basilisk formed for centuries in the popular mind to be very unnatural and disgusting to wildlife, which may well question the very fact of the existence of this creation.
Russian basilisk
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According to a number of historians and ethnographers, the myth of the basilisk in Russia has pre-Christian roots. In this regard, a well-known pagan legend is even cited about the Prophetic Oleg, who died from the bite of a snake that crawled out of the skull of the prince's favorite horse. Some scholars hypothesize that the original version of this legend told that the commander died not from a snakebite, but from the deadly gaze of a basilisk.
17th century German engraving “ Basilisk and marten ”
Also, the legend that this creature appears from an egg laid by a rooster has pre-Christian roots. According to ancient Russian beliefs, once in fifty years (according to another version - in a hundred), it happens that a rooster brings an ugly egg called a knotweed. From this knotweed, at the right time, evil spirits are born that can bring evil to people. In ancient times, this creature was called mehun (or myahun), but from about the 12th-13th centuries, according to Christian tradition, the name basilisk has been firmly assigned to it. It was believed among Novgorodians and Pskovites that if a knotweed was carried under her arm by a virgin for six weeks, then the hatched basilisk would carry out all her orders. In Vladimir, Tver and Suzdal, there was a belief that sorcerers lay such an egg under a headless chicken, which, immobilized, but not losing its vitality,the allotted time incubates him. When the basilisk is born, he devours a chicken and begins to faithfully serve the person who first catches his eye.
In Chernigov at the end of the 14th century, a legend arose about how one witch for a long time could not get a knot. However, having met the devil one night, she found out from him the secret of how to get hold of the desired egg. To do this, the witch found the oldest rooster in the village, put him in the underground and fed him with millet that grew in the cemetery for six weeks. Soon the rooster took down knotweed, but the sorceress showed imprudence, and the basilisk hatching from an ugly egg killed her with his glance …
Over time, the use of knotweed in black magic in various regions of Russia became so popular that in the 16th century Tsar Ivan IV even issued a special charter, in which, under pain of death, it was forbidden to hide eggs laid by a rooster. And about all similar cases that became known, it was necessary to immediately report to the voivods or headmen.
African Bualu and Australian Intichauma
The myth of a snake-like monster that kills with a gaze was widespread not only in Western Europe and Russia, but also in many other regions of the world. Representatives of some tribes of East Africa that inhabit the shores of Lake Victoria believe in a lizard-like creature that appears from the water and is able not only to run fast, but also to fly. This creature, called boual, seems to spew out flames from its empty eye sockets, killing all living things.
Drawing from a German textbook on magic of the XII century
The elders of the tribes living in the territory of modern Congo, believe that some sorcerers are able to create a terrible creature with a rooster's head and a crocodile body, molding an egg from clay and placing it in a crocodile's clutch. By the onset of the next new moon, a "crocodile king" hatches from an earthen egg, feeding not on flesh, but on the souls of living beings. Even elephants, tigers and lions are defenseless in front of this creature, one glance of which deprives them of their senses. Sometimes finding corpses of large animals in the savannah, Africans believe that they were killed by the crocodile king.
The belief in a basilisk-like creature has a long history in the Australian aborigines. In North Kimberley, a large number of rock paintings have survived to this day, the age of which ranges from five hundred to two and a half thousand years. In addition to hunting scenes traditional for Australians, ritual methods of human reproduction, animal and plant species, archaeologists have repeatedly found drawings of a creature that resembled a basilisk, as it was customary to depict it in European mythology. Even today, the indigenous population of Australia believes that the intichauma - a long-necked rooster - lives in the hollows of old trees, making sounds that vaguely resemble the hooting of an owl. To protect themselves from the deadly spells of the inticauma, aborigines heading on a long journey often take a rooster with them, believing that its crowing can scare away these evil spirits …
This lizard looks really sinister.
Despite the numerous legends and traditions of various peoples of the world associated with the basilisk, this creature has been and remains one of the most controversial in Christian demonology. Some theologians saw in him the earthly embodiment of the devil, alchemists considered the basilisk to be the only carrier of the properties of the legendary philosopher's stone, believing that its burnt skin is capable of turning base metals into real gold. In the 20th century, the existence of the basilisk began to be questioned even in church circles. However, human memory still retains his terrible image associated with evil spirits that can kill a person with just one glance.
Sergey Kozhushko. Secrets of the twentieth century, no.23, 2010