Basilisk

I’m in the midst of reading Marie Brennan’s Voyage of the Basilisk, the third in her Steampunk/Victorian fantasy about an intrepid woman scientist who studies dragons. Basilisk is the name of the ship she’s riding on, but it’s also one of the seminal creatures in any fantasy bestiary. Though technically not a dragon, the basilisk is certainly a lethal legendary reptile.

Basilisk legends date back at least to the Roman Empire. It’s mentioned by the naturalist, Pliny the Elder, as a denizen of Cyrene (part of modern-day Libya). Pliny said it was not large, but so poisonous that anything on the ground where it passed would die. It had two identifying features: a crown-shaped white mark on its head, which led to the nickname King of Serpents, and it moved around with its head raised, not flat on the ground its entire length. A basilisk’s lair could be spotted because all of the vegetation around it would be wilted and withered. Even this deadly serpent had an enemy, however. Weasels were immune to its venom and were dropped into basilisk burrows to hunt them.

Modern scholars suggest that these basilisk tales could be an embroidered account of king cobras, which raise their heads and flatten their hoods when threatened. Cobras are hunted by mongooses, which could sound weasel-like to Mediterranean travelers. This may have created the connection to weasels as the basilisk’s arch-enemy.