Herpo the Foul is an ancient dark wizard that hailed from Greece. The era when Herpo was alive and practiced the darkest kind of magic is unknown but it is known that he was one of the earliest and prominent practitioners of dark magic. He is known to have practiced the darkest and evilest of magic. He is known to have created the darkest sort of magic that ever existed: Horcruxes.
“A Horcrux is the word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul.”
“Well, you split your soul, you see, and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one’s body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged.”
It is said that he created exactly one horcrux which is believed to have not been destroyed. This makes Herpo the Foul immortal as a part of his soul is still earthbound.
Herpo the Foul is also believed to be the creator and the original breeder of one of the most sinister magical creatures: The Basilisk.
“Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious and more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach a gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken’s egg, hatched beneath a toad. 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 crowning of the rooster, which is fatal to it.”
A wizard had to be extremely power-hungry, bloodthirsty and a sociopath to be as dark as the creator of these two particular forms of magic and Herpo was all these things. Herpo the Foul produced some of the worst kinds of dark magic imaginable. It is also known that Herpo was born a parselmouth. This meant that he could communicate with snakes. It is believed that to be a parselmouth, a wizard had to be a descendant of Salazar Slytherin as he was a known parselmouth, and being a parselmouth is a hereditary trait.
But, Herpo the Foul walked the earth way before Slytherin did, and this makes Herpo an ancestor of Slytherin, and by extension, an ancestor of Voldemort. This makes a lot of sense as Voldemort and Slytherin are both infamous for using two of Herpo’s creations very significantly.
Salazar Slytherin created a secret chamber inside Hogwarts premises which was later known as the Chamber of secrets. Inside the chamber, he placed a basilisk in order to eradicate muggle-born students from Hogwarts by killing them. If Slytherin was indeed Herpo’s descendant then it is also possible that Slytherin had used Herpo’s basilisk.
It is also believed that no other wizard has been known to be successful in performing the dark art of creating Horcruxes besides Herpo the Foul and Voldemort. It is well established that all six of Voldemort’s intentional Horcruxes and one unintentional Horcrux have been destroyed.
But it is unknown if Herpo’s Horcrux, which was the only one he created, has been destroyed or not. If it has been destroyed, that would mean that Herpo is long gone for good. But if that is not the case, it would mean that a part of his soul is still earthbound. Does that mean that Herpo is immortal? Does that mean Herpo the Foul is still alive?
[…] my previous article, I discussed in length about Herpo: who he was, what kind of magic he practiced, the possibility of […]