Bulfinch’s Mythology · Chapter
The Cockatrice, or Basilisk explained
This chapter describes the mythical basilisk, or cockatrice, as the king of serpents, endowed with a crown-like crest and deadly powers including burning, petrifying looks, and lethal breath.
What happens
This chapter describes the mythical basilisk, or cockatrice, as the king of serpents, endowed with a crown-like crest and deadly powers including burning, petrifying looks, and lethal breath. It recounts ancient and medieval beliefs about its origin from a cock's egg hatched under a toad, its enmity with the weasel and the cock, and its use in temples. The chapter also references Pliny, Lucan, Shakespeare, and Shelley, and critiques the credulity of earlier naturalists like Aldrovandus.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and Immortality
The basilisk's deadly power and its own vulnerability to the weasel and cock illustrate the cycle of life and death, as well as the use of its carcass for protection.
Hubris and Divine Retribution
The basilisk's royal pride as 'king of serpents' is countered by its defeat by humble creatures (weasel, cock), echoing themes of overreach and downfall.
Characters to notice
- Phoebus Apollo
The basilisk's carcass was suspended in the temple of Apollo as a remedy against spiders.
- Diana
The basilisk's carcass was hung in the temple of Diana, preventing swallows from entering.
- Medusa
The basilisk is compared to a wandering Medusa's head, whose look causes instant death.
Key passages
“He does not impel his body, like other serpents, by a multiplied flexion, but advances lofty and upright. He kills the shrubs, not only by contact, but by breathing on them, and splits the rocks, such power of evil is there in him.”
Unlike other snakes that slither, the basilisk moves upright and tall. Its mere breath withers plants and cracks stones, so great is its malevolent force.
Pliny's description of the basilisk's unique movement and destructive breath.
“What though the Moor the basilisk hath slain, And pinned him lifeless to the sandy plain, Up through the spear the subtle venom flies, The hand imbibes it, and the victor dies.”
Even if a Moor kills a basilisk by pinning it to the ground with a spear, the poison travels up the weapon, infecting the hand and killing the victor.
Lucan's poetic account of the basilisk's venom killing the hunter through the spear.
“Be thou like the imperial basilisk, Killing thy foe with unapparent wounds! Gaze on oppression, till at that dread risk, Aghast she pass from the earth’s disk.”
Be like the royal basilisk that slays its enemy invisibly. Stare down oppression until, terrified, it vanishes from the world.
Shelley's exhortation in 'Ode to Naples' to use the basilisk's gaze as a metaphor for confronting tyranny.