Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents… Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it. Most of this description is what Pliny the Elder describes in his Natural History. The only difference is that Pliny says that the weasel destroys the basilisk, Rowling having probably changed this so that Fawkes could save Harry rather than a regular weasel. The appearance is also different, as the basilisk Pliny describes is “not more than twelve fingers in length” whereas Rowling’s basilisk “must …show more content…
This is the character of Firenze compared to the ancient character of Chiron. Both of these centaurs were known teachers. Firenze becomes the Divination teacher after Dolores Umbridge fires Trelawney. Chiron is also a known teacher of heroes such as Achilles, Jason, Ajax, Theseus and Heracles. Both of these centaurs are more human- friendly than the rest of these species. This can be shown with the quote before as Firenze carries Harry on his back and can also be shown with the depiction of Chiron as being less barbaric than other centaurs, more humanised. Homer describes him as “Chiron the most humane of Centaurs”. He is also in the Argonautica and is seen as a friend of heroes as he was kind to the Argonauts when they came to his residence. By having a similar character to ancient myth it displays that Rowling was influenced by ancient materials within her work. She tried to make her own characters but the basis and the background is still