Salazar Slytherin

Salazar Slytherin was a great wizard of Medieval times. He was a parselmouth (a wizard with the rare ability to speak with snakes), and skilled at Legilimency. He was one of the four founders of Hogwarts.

Like Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin appears to have carefully selected members of his House. According to Albus Dumbledore, the qualities which Slytherin prized in his "handpicked students" included resourcefulness, determination, and a certain disregard for the rules, along with the ability to speak parseltongue. He also selected his students according to cunning, ambition, and Blood purity. His House within Hogwarts is symbolised by a serpent, with House colours of green and silver.

The Sorting Hat described him as "power hungry Slytherin," and that he came "from a fen." A fen is a marshland, typically inhabited by water fowl, amphibians and snakes. This could be the reason why he and his family have the rare gift of speaking Parseltongue. The Fens of Eastern England are in Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and adjoining counties, although it is not established that Slytherin actually came from that particular region.

Physical Description
The statue of Salazar Slytherin in the Chamber of Secrets depicts an "ancient and monkey-like" man with a "long thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of his sweeping robes." Marvolo Gaunt, a blood relative, is similarly described as being monkey-like in appearance.

Family Heritage
Salazar Slytherin owned a locket emblazoned with the letter S that became an heirloom of his last known line of descendants, the Gaunts. Merope Gaunt sold the locket to Caractacus Burke. It was then bought up by Hepzibah Smith, who had a love for antiques. It was subsequently stolen from her by Tom Marvolo Riddle. Tom Riddle would later turn the locket into a Horcrux, and conceal it in a seaside cave he had visited in his youth. The same locket was later removed from the cave by Regulus Black with aid from his house-elf, Kreacher. Kreacher was ordered to destroy the locket, but this was not done. It was later stolen from the Black family home at 12 Grimmauld Place by Mundungus Fletcher, and eventually found its way into the hands of the Ministry of Magic employee, Dolores Umbridge. Dolores Umbridge used it as an intimidation tool by wearing it and claiming the S stood for Selwyn, a pure-blood family line. She either did not know better or wanted to conceal its real meaning from the public.

The locket was recovered by Harry Potter, and was later destroyed by Ron Weasley with Godric Gryffindor's sword. The act of destruction removed all of the Horcrux's power.

Chamber of Secrets
According to ancient legend, and as told by History of Magic Professor Cuthbert Binns, Salazar Slytherin was responsible for the construction of the Chamber of Secrets beneath Hogwarts dungeons. It was specifically created for the purpose of purging the school of all Muggle-born students after Salazar Slytherin and the other co-founders of Hogwarts disagreed over Blood purity; Slytherin wanted magical learning restricted to pureblood families as he believed Muggle-born students to be untrustworthy and unworthy. The Chamber contained a Basilisk which could be controlled by Slytherin's true Parselmouth descendants. After creating the Chamber, Slytherin departed Hogwarts. He left because the other founders did not agree with blood purity and got into arguments. See Chamber of Secrets.

Etymology
The name Salazar is originally a Portuguese family name. António de Oliveira Salazar was the dictator of Portugal (where Rowling lived for several years) from 1932 to 1968. Rowling stated that the name "Salazar Slytherin" was chosen after the Portuguese dictator's name. Meanwhile, slytherin may refer to "slithering", which is the form of locomotion of snakes, possibly refering to his rare abiltity to talk to snakes.

Behind the scenes

 * Slytherin was the featured "Wizard of the Month" for June 2007 on J.K. Rowling's website, where he was profiled thus: "One of the four celebrated Founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Salazar Slytherin was one of the first recorded Parselmouths, an accomplished Legilimens, and a notorious champion of pureblood supremacy."
 * Both pictures of Slytherin in the Wizard of the Month and at the Famous Cards depict Slytherin with steepled fingers.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Wizard of the Month

Notes and references
Salazar Slytherin Салазар Слизерин