The
mythical king of the serpents. The basilisk, or
cockatrice, is a creature that is born from a
spherical,
yolk-less egg, laid during the days of
Sirius (the Dog Star) by a seven-year-old
rooster and hatched by a
toad.
The basilisk could have originated from the horned adder or hooded cobra from India. Pliny the Elder described it simply as a snake with a golden crown. By the time of Middle Ages, it had become a snake with the head of cock, and sometimes with a human head.