Basilisk

"Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it."

- Excerpt from Most Macabre Monstrosities.

The Basilisk was a giant serpent, also known as the King of Serpents. It was a creature bred by Dark Wizards. Herpo the Foul was the first to breed a Basilisk; he accomplished this by hatching a Chicken Egg beneath a Toad which resulted in the creature known as a Basilisk. Basilisk breeding was banned in Medieval times. The practice could be hidden when the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures came to check by simply removing the egg from the toad.

Although classified as an XXXXX creature, meaning it was a known wizard-killer that could not be domesticated due to its immense powers, because the Basilisk was still a serpent, a Parselmouth may place a Basilisk under his or her control. This depended on the relationship between the Basilisk and the Parselmouth, as Tom Riddle, alias Lord Voldemort, was the only one who could command Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk, while Harry Potter had no control over it.

Traits
The Basilisk could grow up to fifty feet in length, and was a dark green color with large yellow eyes. These eyes had the power to instantly kill anyone who looked into them. Basilisk skin was armored like that of a Dragon's, which deflected spells cast upon it. The Basilisk shed its skin at intervals, like all other snakes, when it grew.

Basilisks could live a natural life of at least nine hundred years, though Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk lived for approximately a thousand years. This was accomplished by using Parseltongue to put the creature into a deep sleep that prevented it from aging, similar to suspended animation. Their mortal weakness was the crowing of a rooster. Basilisks fed off of vertebrate animals. The male could be distinguished from the female by a single scarlet plume on its head.

Petrification
When a victim looked indirectly at the Basilisk's eyes, such as its reflection, they would merely become Petrified, as was the case with Hermione Granger and Colin Creevey, however Myrtle (commonly known as Moaning Myrtle) was not so fortunate, and looked directly into the Basilisk's eyes, which resulted in her dying immediately. Another way of surviving a Basilisk's gaze was by seeing it through another object. Another example mentioned above was when Colin Creevey saw it through his camera, resulting in his petrification and his camera lens becoming melted. Justin Finch-Fletchley saw the Basilisk through the translucent Nearly-Headless-Nick, and both were Petrified. Sir Nicholas, being a Ghost, was already dead; as such, he only became Petrified as well, although he did look at the beast's eyes directly. This petrification seemed quite powerful, as even the Elder Wand-wielding Albus Dumbledore concluded that the only way to reverse the effect was through the use of Mandrake Restorative Drafts.

Phoenixes were immune to this deadly gaze, and spiders, such as Aragog and his ever-growing clan, were terrified of the Basilisk, and described it as their enemy, and refused to even speak of it or mention its name.

Basilisk's venom
Basilisk venom was an extremely poisonous substance that only has one known cure: Phoenix tears. Basilisk venom was so powerful that it could kill a person within minutes, and made the person drowsy and blurry-visioned before they died. It had a very long lasting effect which still remained potent even up to five years or more after the snake had died. It could also damage inanimate objects so thoroughly that they were impossible to restore, and thus it was one of the few substances powerful enough to destroy a Horcrux.

When Harry Potter slew Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk with Godric Gryffindor's Sword in 1992, the sword became imbued with the Basilisk's venom, and gave it the ability to destroy Horcruxes.

Basilisk egg
A Basilisk egg was the egg of said creature. They were chicken eggs that were hatched beneath a toad, thus creating the deadly King of Serpents. This method was first discovered by Herpo the Foul, in Ancient Greece, and had been banned since medieval times.

Etymology
The Ancient Greek basil(eus) means "king", with the suffix -iskos being a diminutive, the whole having the sense of "princeling" or the like, purportedly for the crown-like white spot on its head.

Behind the scenes

 * According to Igor Karkaroff, Alastor Moody smashed apart a birthday present that he thought in paranoia was a cleverly disguised Basilisk egg before he found out it was a carriage clock.
 * The Basilisk was often confused with the Cockatrice, but the Basilisk was born from a chicken’s egg hatched beneath a toad, while the Cockatrice was hatched by a chicken's egg incubated by a serpent. The Cockatrice was also usually depicted with wings, while the Basilisk was not. Due to this, it can be assumed that J.K. Rowling either had the two confused, or decided to combine the two. A Cockatrice was the product of an egg laid by a cock (a male chicken) and incubated by a toad or a snake, could kill by looking at a person, touching them, or sometimes breathing on them, and was slain instantly by a rooster's crow.
 * Although an average Basilisk was said to have an average lifespan of 900 years, Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk lived for approximately 1000 years, being that since Slytherin had built the Chamber of Secrets around that time.
 * In LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, the Basilisk was male because it had a red plume on its head.
 * Newt Scamander stated in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them that there had been no recorded sightings of Basilisks in Britain for the last 400 years. Harry Potter wrote in his copy of the book: "That's what you think".
 * Wearing glasses would not protect a person from the fatal effect of the Basilisk's stare, because glasses still allowed one's line of vision to connect directly and clearly with the serpent's eyes, unlike looking in a mirror or through a camera.
 * It had been theorized that spiders feared Basilisks because arachnids could see 360-degrees around them and could not shut their eyes, which left them extremely vulnerable to the monster's killing gaze.
 * In the Film Adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry watched the Basilisk by its shadow on the floor.
 * It was unknown why there were male and female Basilisks, as they were produced by a chicken's egg hatched by a toad. However, it's possible that, unlike real-world hybrids, Basilisks were capable of reproduction as Moody had a present that "he thought was a well-disguised Basilisk egg", which suggested that Basilisks could lay eggs.
 * Rubeus Hagrid asked Aragog "many times" to name that creature, but Aragog refused to speak of it.
 * In the Film Adaptation for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the Basilisk was shown to hear Harry Potter, something that Tom Riddle's memory also pointed out. However, snakes lack ears and could only detect things approaching by feeling vibrations. In the book, Riddle instead only told the Basilisk to smell Harry Potter.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) 
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
 * Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
 * Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Characters of the Magical World
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
 * Harry Potter LEGO Sets
 * Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
 * Pottermore
 * Harry Potter for Kinect

Notes and references
Basilisk Basilisco Василиск Bazyliszek Basilic Basilisco

Basilisk Basiliski בסיליסק バジリスク Basilisk Basilisk pt-br:BASILISK (BASILISCO) Basilisk 蛇怪