Salazar Slytherin



Salazar Slytherin was one of the four founders of Hogwarts. He was best friends with Godric Gryffindor until the founders had a dispute about the type of students the school should admit. Slytherin wished to only teach pure-blood students, while the others wanted to take all who were able to perform magic. As a result of the dispute, Slytherin left the school, leaving behind the Chamber of Secrets for an heir of his to rid the school of impurity.

Slytherin was known to be a Parselmouth: a wizard able to speak to and command snakes in their own language Parseltongue. This ability has passed to many of his descendants including Voldemort and the Gaunt family. The name Slytherin is a homophone of "slithering" indicative of Slytherin's affinity with snakes as is the serpent symbol of his house.

Slytherin was the one who built the Chamber of Secrets and, after it was sealed, only the heir of Slytherin (this turned out to be Tom Riddle, a.k.a. Voldemort) could open it.

During the Sorting in Harry's fourth year, the Sorting hat describes him as: "Shrewd Slytherin, from fen."