Description
An ancient Greek dark wizard widely regarded as one of the darkest wizards to have ever lived. Herpo the Foul single-handedly pioneered two of the most terrible magical techniques known to wizard kind: the creation of Horcruxes and the breeding of Basilisks.
Background
Herpo lived during the era of Ancient Greece, roughly between 1050 BC and AD 600. Very little is known about his personal life or origins, but his legacy casts a long and terrible shadow over the history of dark magic.
History
Herpo the Foul is credited with the creation of the first ever Horcrux, making him the earliest known wizard to successfully split his soul and bind a fragment of it to a physical object. This act alone would have secured his infamy, but Herpo went further still.
He is also known to have bred and perfected the first Basilisk, the enormous serpent whose gaze can kill instantly. The process by which he achieved this involved hatching a chicken egg beneath a toad, a method that would later be classified as banned by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
Together, these two accomplishments mark some of the earliest moments in recorded dark wizarding history and established precedents that dark wizards such as Tom Riddle would follow millennia later.