Mythology: Introduction/The Cockatrice

This blog is going to center around monsters and other creatures from myths, legends, and folklore. We all know about Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology and some legends, they're the most popular and typically get the most attention. So I'm going to switch it up a little. I'll still write about the more popular subjects too, but I hope that you'll find some monsters that you didn't even know existed. I'll write about 7 monsters each week. Let's go.

First Monster: The Cockatrice

There are so many monsters that I've found that it's not even funny, but I think one of the most memorable ones has definitely been the cockatrice. A cockatrice is a giant rooster, with the tail of a snake or dragon. It breathes fire and is said to be able to kill someone just by looking at them, supposedly turning the person to stone.
Remind you of someone? Yep Medusa. Crazy snake haired lady running around turning things into stone because they looked at her. Like Medusa, the cockatrice also stems from Greek mythology, however it is more commonly known in old English folklore.
You can also find that the cockatrice resides in Japanese bamboo forests. There it's named the Basan. It doesn't have the dragon tale, but still breathes fire, and if you hadn't guessed already this monster wasn't deep in Japanese myth. The Basan was introduced to the Japanese by Europeans, the description is a bit different but it was derived from the cockatrice.
According to research a sure fire way to kill the cockatrice would be to have it look in a mirror. It can also be killed from hearing a rooster crow.