Asp is an archaic term for a number of species of poisonous snake that live in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. The Egyptian cobra is the animal most often referred to by this name, but a wide array of other snakes were called asps. Today the asp viper Vipera aspis is the only snake correctly referred to as an asp.
The asp was regarded as a sacred animal in Ancient Egypt and was a symbol of Egyptian royalty. Cleopatra is famously said to have killed herself by holding an asp to her breast.
Both the Greeks and Romans used the bite of an asp as a tool of execution.