Basilisk

Snakes are scary creatures but the snake we have here is way beyond the limits of scary.

The basilisk or king of the serpents is a fabulous beast which has been depicted as the most dangerous that ever existed on Earth.

The basilisk is fabulously alleged to be hatched by a cockerel from the egg of a serpent (the reverse of the cockatrice, which is hatched from a hen's egg incubated by a serpent's nest).

Old tales describe it as being born from a spherical, yolkless egg, laid during the days of Sirius (the Dog Star) by a seven-year-old rooster and hatched by a toad.

His appearance has always been a matter of dispute since there is no way to see a basilisk and survive. Looking at it, according to legend, brings death. The basilisk was depicted in a few illuminated manuscripts in the Middle Ages but appeared much more often as an ornamental detail in church architecture, adorning capitals and medallions. The best representation of the basilisk is found in the decorative field of heraldry where the basilisk had the head and legs of a cock, a snake-like tail, and a body like a bird’s. It seems that the wings could be depicted as either being covered with feathers or scales.