According to zoonaturalist Yvan Kereun, and contrary to what most fans might think, the basilisk, this gigantic reptile from the Harry Potter saga, does not belong to the family of snakes but to that of lizards.
At the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second installment of the magic saga, the young wizard finds himself confronted with a monstrous creature obeying the orders of Tom Riddle, alias Voldemort: the basilisk.
At first glance, observing this gigantic reptile waving in the bowels of Hogwarts, scrutinizing its forked tongue and its long pointed fangs, one would be tempted to call it a giant snake.
However, as zoonaturalist Yvan Kereun recently stated in a TikTok video shared by neo.tvofficiel, this would be an error. Indeed, as this enthusiast of reptiles and small animals had already explained on his Youtube channel, in a video dedicated to the animals of the Harry Potter sagathe basilisk is not a snake, but a lizard!
A very precise little detail makes it possible to tell the difference between the two… in the blink of an eye: the monster that Harry fights at the end of the film has eyelids, and we see him close his eyes several times times, something that snakes are literally unable to do, having no eyelids.
If we are to believe the arguments of Yvan Kereun and the morphology of the basilisk, the latter would therefore be rather related to the family of lizards, and more specifically to that of slow worms, which are the only lizards without legs, therefore crawling on the belly like snakes.
Warner Bros.
Be that as it may, in the Greco-Roman mythology from which it comes, the basilisk is indeed considered as a kind of serpent, and even as “the king of serpents”, since its name literally means “king” or “little king”. In the Middle Ages, on the other hand, it was sometimes described as a mixture of a snake and… a rooster! A chance that the producers of the Harry Potter saga did not choose to favor this version.
(Re)discover all the hidden details of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”…