Basilisk: Alchemical mutation. Yurchenko A.

The book reveals the causes and the anatomy of the transformation of the ancient snake-city (basilisk) into a snake. In medieval bestiarias, a basilisk is the only figure that completely lost the original appearance and properties. We can talk about two impulses that created a new creature. The first is associated with the alchemical recipe for the manufacture of the “Vasilisk powder”, which is necessary for the transmutation of copper in gold. To conceal the secrets, the process of oxidation of copper is presented as an unnatural birth of petushs with snake tails. The second impulse is a theological nature. Hildegard Bingenskaya in her infernal fantasies was depicted by some hellish creature, called by her vasilisk. The whole further history of the medieval basilisk is the crowding out of the ancient “king of snakes” with his gloomy shadow, the product of darkness. The result of this war is paradoxical: in the rash texts it speaks of a snake, and in the illustrations we see a snake. An indefinite number of basilisks arose, which is convinced by the analysis of new translations of Latin texts.