101 Amazing Mythical Beasts: ...and Legendary Creatures
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- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Not the best writing, and also there were a few typos.
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101 Amazing Mythical Beasts - Jack Goldstein
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Classical - Part 1
Salamander: Although this species of Urodela (amphibians with a lizard-like appearance) is certainly real, the classical civilizations believed they had occult properties. For instance, although Pliny the elder was smart enough to distinguish the Salamander from actual lizards (in a taxonomical sense), he also held a belief that they could extinguish fire with their bodies. The Talmud (a Jewish Rabbinic text) states that smearing yourself in the blood of a salamander will make you immune from fire, and some believed that the creature was so poisonous that just by climbing around a tree it would poison its fruit so badly that anyone who ate even a single bite would perish immediately.
Faun: Half human and half goat, the Faun of classical mythology is often related to the wood-god Pan. Sometimes considered friendly (helping lost humans in need) but other times evil (causing intense fear in travellers in remote woodland locations), the creatures are often depicted in art playing the flute.
Minotaur: Half bull and half man, this creature was said to dwell in the middle of the Labyrinth; a maze on the island of Crete. Interestingly, there seems to be some disagreement between authors as to which half of the creature was which; whilst today we generally picture it as having the head of a bull but the body of a man, there is plenty of literature from the middle ages which depicts the reverse, more akin to a Centaur! In classical mythology, the Minotaur was eventually slain by Theseus.
Centaur: Perhaps one of the best-known of all creatures of classical mythology, the Centaur has the head, arms and torso of a man attached to the body and legs of a horse. Depicted most often as noble creatures (yet occasionally as the very embodiment of untamed nature) they are almost always male; female Centaurs are generally known as kentaurides.
Phoenix: The ancients believed that when it was a Phoenix’s time to die, it would be consumed by flames and burn to a pile of ashes. From these embers the bird would be reborn, continuing an eternal cycle of death and rebirth. Believed to have been colourful and vibrant (although some believed it was red, others purple and a few even blue), the bird was said to be anything between the size of an eagle and an ostrich! Interestingly, there appear to be Phoenix parallels in many cultures, from the Firebird of Russia to the Turkish Kerkes, the Fenghuang of China, the Hindu Anka and more.
Werewolf: Although belief in a human/wolf hybrid was popularised in Europe in the middle ages, there are plenty of references to this beast in classical literature. For instance, a tribe called the Neuri were said to all have the ability to transform into wolves for several days