My blog focused on the history of the Romanian people (based on works by Neagu Djuvara and Radu Oltean), as well as Romanian tradition and folklore
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Basilisk/Vasilisc - the King of Serpents
by Alexandru (Sasha) Bogdan - the Great Wanderer of Valinor
The Witcher S02 concept art: Basilisk
In my article about the balaur, the Romanian dragon, we briefly touched upon this beast: the basilisk, the infamous King of Serpents, popularized by fantasy works such as J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World franchise or Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series.
So, without further ado, let us dive into Romanian folklore, as well as other European mythologies, and take a look at the basilisk or, as we Romanians call it, vasilisc.
What is a basilisk/vasilisc?
Basilisk is derived from the Greek term basiliskos (tr. “little king”), which is composed of the diminutive -iskos and the word basileios (tr. ‘chieftain’, ‘king’ or ’emperor’). As for why it is rendered as vasilisc in Romanian: suffice to say that when it entered our language through Byzantine influence, the term shared the same transition from b to v as its root basileios; as a fun fact, the latter became the origin of the quite common Romanian name Vasile, the equivalent of the English Basil.
“HARRY POTTER and The Chamber of Secrets: BASILISK”, by Jerome K. Moore
Now, as I previously explained, the traditional basilisk was a serpent, described by Roman writer Plinius (English: Pliny) the Elder in Naturalis historia as follows:
Its destructive nature is so apparent, that scorched soil around a snake hole/pit or at the entrace of a cavern was interpreted as a clear giveaway of a basilisk’s lair. Plinius went as far as to claim that if “a man on horseback” were to slay the monster with a spear, then the basilisk’s venom would cling to the weapon and slowly worm its way up until it killed not only the rider, but his mount as well. According to the Roman author, it seems that the only cure for this plight was… bear with me… the weasel! Plinius states that “the effluvium [i.e. odour] of the weasel is fatal”for the basilisk. Scholar and archbishop Isidore of Seville reiterated this in his encyclopedia, titled Etymologiae:
“The Basilisk and the weasel”, by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder
More than likely this exagerrated belief from Antiquity concerning the enmity between the weasel and the basilisk was inspired by real-life mongooses preying on cobras, snakes that can maintain an upright posture much like the mythical basilisk.
It is also Isidore who first refers to the basilisk as “the king of the snakes” – which British writer J.K. Rowling later adapted into the title“King of Serpents”for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The archbishop of Seville further identifies the basilisk with the creature “sibilus [lit. ‘hissing one’)”, which he says kills with its mere hiss. Of course, as the years went by new details were added to make the beast even more terrible. The size of the basilisk was increased to gigantic proportions and its frightening glare turned into a vision of oblivion: whatever unfortunate being stared into the monster’s eyes would fall dead as a doornail. J.K. Rowling’s portrayal of the basilisk was clearly based on the works of Plinius and Isidore and related accounts. And it is also this classical serpentine interpretation that, through the translation of the Greek Christian text Physiologus, found its way into Romanian folklore as the vasilisc, “împăratul târâtoarelor” (tr. ‘the emperor of crawlers’ or ‘the king of reptiles’ – a slight variation of the title bestowed by Isidore). I also believe that some of the vasilisc's features were assumed by the more popular monster called balaur, the quite serpentine Romanian dragon.
The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt concept art: Cockatrice
But, curiously, the version that was widespread across Europe in the Middle Ages was not the same as the one described by Plinius or Isidore centuries earlier. You see, in Western Europe people came to confuse the basilisk with the monster called cockatrice. Now the cockatrice was another thing entirely. It was a half-rooster half-snake creature, partially akin to the wyvern-type dragon, but more bird-like, being often depicted with feathers and a cockerel's head. Regardless, for an unclear reason, the two mythical beasts became synonymous in the collective mentality: Cornish writer John Trevisa even translated the basilisk mentioned in De proprietabibus rerum by the Franciscan Bartholomaeus Anglicus as cockatrice, while in Canterbury Tales English writer Geoffrey Chaucer combined the terms into the portmanteau basilicok.
Ever since, the basilisk has morphed into a reptile-bird hybrid, almost like a prehistoric dromaesaur: always shown with a snake’s tail, a chicken or turkey body and dragon-wings, most illustrations (as well as one statue in Warsaw, Poland) borrow the rooster head from the cockatrice , though a few depict it with a serpent’s head (occasionally crowned or adorned with a diadem). Though the weasel remained the basilisk's chief adversary and slayer, some legends claimed that the creature could perish if it heard the crow of a rooster or if it beheld its own visage in a mirror. Other features were soon attributed to the basilisk: now it could breathe fire like a dragon, and it had an odd origin story according to which the monster hatched from a rooster’s egg “that was incubated by a toad”, or a snake. Of the basilisk’s gender, German scholar Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa stated that it “is alwayes, and cannot but be a male”.
The Witcher S02 concept art: Basilisk (2)
The vasilisc in works of literature
The vasilisc is mentioned in the poem Vasiliscul și Aspida (tr. The Basilisk and the Aspid) by Romanian writers Șerban Foarță and Andrei Ujică, which in turn served as the basis for the song of the same name played by the Romanian rock band Phoenix. In the poem (inspired by the compilation of Christian meanings associated with animals from the text Physiologus), the vasilisc signifies the foreshadowing of the fierce temptation that marks the boundary between the innocence of childhood and the erotic openness of adolescence:
“Mythic Battles Pantheon: The Basilisk”, by Guillem H. Pongiluppi
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