Mythological monsters[edit source | editbeta]

Greek myth includes many monstrous beings:

Centaur, a race of half-man, half-horse beings

Asbolus Chariclo, wife of the centaur Chiron Chiron, the eldest and wisest of the Centaurs. The ancient Trainer of Heroes.

Eurytion

Cerberus, the three-headed, giant hound that guarded the gates of Hades

Charybdis, a sea monster whose inhalations formed a deadly whirlpool Chimera, a three-headed monster, with the foreparts of a lion, the middle-parts of a goat and rising snake for its tail.

Empousa, a vampiric demon with a leg of bronze and a hoofed foot of a donkey; she seduced men in order to feed on their flesh and blood

Gorgons, cursed sisters with serpents for hair

Medusa, the sister capable of turning men to stone with her gaze, cursed by Athena for being with Poseidon in her temple.

Stheno, the most murderous of the sisters Euryale sister most known for her death-bellowing screams

Graeae, three old women with one tooth and one eye among them

Deino Enyo Pemphredo

Harpies, winged monsters with the bodies of birds and the heads and torsos of women

Hippalectryon, a creature with the fore-parts of a rooster and the body of a horse

Hippocampi, sea creatures with the fore-parts of horses and the tails of fish

Ichthyocentaurs, a pair of marine centaurs with the upper bodies of men, the lower fronts of horses, and the tails of fish

Ipotane, a race of half-horse, half-humans Kobaloi, a species of mischievous creatures, fond of tricking or frightening humans

Manticore, a monster with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion.

Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man; slain multiple times.

Mormo, a vampiric creature who bit bad children Lamia, a vampiric demon which preyed on children Hydra, a 7 headed, land and water-dwelling, serpent-like creature that guarded an Underworld entrance beneath Lake Lerna. It was destroyed by Heracles, in his second Labour

Furies, the three goddesses of pain. Worked for Hades in the Underworld to punish evil souls. Created from the blood of Uranus.

Nessus, a ferryman at the river Styx Ophiotaurus, a creature part bull and part serpent Orthrus, a two-headed, serpent-tailed dog, slain by Heracles Panes, a tribe of nature-spirits which had the heads and torsos of men, the legs and tails of goats, goatish faces and goat-horns

Pholus, a wise centaur and friend of Heracles Satyrs and Satyresses, companions of Pan and Dionysus which had human upper bodies, and the horns and hindquarters of a goat

Scylla - dwelt on a cliff on the side of a narrow strait where, on the other side, Charybdis lived. Scylla would reach down with one of her many heads and pluck sailors off the decks of the ships they were voyaging in. Scylla was loved by Poseidon, but Circe also loved him. Filled with jealousy, she turned Scylla into a monster with four eyes and six long necks, that had grisly heads, three rows of sharp teeth, 12 tentacle like legs, a cats tail, and six dog heads lining her waist. Poseidon still loved Scylla.

Sileni, a race of elderly Satyrs Sirens, three beautiful mermaid like women whose irresistible song lured sailors to their deaths

Taraxippi, ghosts that frightened horses Telekhines, skilled metal-workers with the heads of dogs and flippers of seals in place of hands

Mythical animals[edit source | editbeta]

These animals possess some fantastic attribute.

Amphisbaena,a snake with two heads, one at each end of the body

Arion, the immortal horse of Adrastus Balius and Xanthus, the immortal horses of Achilles Calydonian Boar, a gigantic boar sent by Artemis to ravage Calydon and slain in the Calydonian Boar Hunt

Ceryneian Hind, an enormous deer which was sacred to Artemis; Heracles was sent to retrieve it as one of his labours

Golden Fleece, from a golden-haired winged ram, which was held in Colchis.

Erymanthian Boar, a gigantic boar which Heracles was sent to retrieve as one of his labours

Karkinos, a giant crab which fought Heracles alongside the Hydra Laelaps, a dog destined always to catch its prey Mares of Diomedes, four man-eating horses belonging to the giant Diomedes

Nemean Lion, a gigantic lion whose skin was impervious to weapons; it was strangled by Heracles

Pegasus, a divine winged horse Phoenix, a golden-red bird of which only one could live at a time, but would burst into flames to form a new phoenix

Sphinx has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman

Stymphalian Birds, man-eating birds with beaks of bronze and sharp metallic feathers they could launch at their victims

Teumessian fox, a gigantic fox destined never to be caught

Giants[edit source | editbeta]

The Gigantes, or giants, were a class of unnaturally large and often monstrous men who were closely related to the gods. Their parents were Gaia and Tartarus. Each was born to oppose a certain god.

Agrius, a man-eating Thracian giant who was half man and half bear Alcyoneus, the eldest of the Thracian giants, killed by Heracles, made to oppose Hades

The Aloadae, twin giants who attempted to storm Olympus Alops, a Sicilian giant, slain by Dionysus Anax, a Lydian giant Antaeus, a Libyan giant who gained strength from constant contact with the earth and wrestled to death all visitors to his realm until slain by Heracles

Argus Panoptes, a hundred-eyed giant tasked with guarding over Io Chrysaor, a son of Medusa, sometimes said to be a giant Cyclopes (Younger), three one-eyed giants who forged Zeus' thunderbolt, Hades' cap of invisibility, and Poseidon's storm-raising trident

Arges Brontes Steropes

Cyclopes (Elder), a tribe of one-eyed cannibalistic dwarfs who shepherded flocks of sheep on the island of Sicily

Polyphemus, a cyclops who briefly captured Odysseus and his men, only to be overcome and blinded by the hero

The Hekatoncheires, the Hundred-Handed Ones, giant gods of violent storms and hurricanes.

Briareus or Aigaion (), The Vigorous Cottus (), The Furious Gigges (), The Big-Limbed

Hyperborean,The giants of the North, made of ice Enceladus, one of the Thracian giants who made war on the gods; he was defeated and buried underneath Mount Etna

The Gegenees, a tribe of six-armed giants fought by the Argonauts on Bear Mountain in Mysia

Geryon, a three-bodied, four-winged giant who dwelt on the red island of Erytheia

The Laestrygonians, a tribe of man-eating giants encountered by Odysseus on his travels

Polybotes, a giant who fought Poseidon during the Gigantomachy Porphyrion, a giant who made war on the Olympians and was killed by Heracles. In Hesiod, he was king of the giants

Tityos, a giant slain by Apollo and Artemis when he attempted to violate their mother Leto.

Typhon, a monstrous immortal storm-giant who was defeated and imprisoned by Zeus in the pit of Tartarus

Dragons[edit source | editbeta]

The dragons of Greek mythology were serpentine monsters. They include the serpent-like Drakons, the marine-dwelling Cetea and the she-monster Dracaenae.

The Colchian Dragon, an unsleeping dragon which guarded the Golden Fleece

Cychreides, a dragon which terrorised Salamis before being slain by Cychreus

The Ismenian Dragon, a dragon which guarded the sacred spring of Ares near Thebes; it was slain by Cadmus

Ladon, a serpent-like dragon which guarded the apples of the Hesperides

The Lernaean Hydra, a seven-headed dragon which guarded the springs of Lerna; it was slain by Heracles

Python, a dragon which guarded the oracle of Delphi; it was slain by Apollo

Drakons[edit source | editbeta]

Drakons ("" in Greek, "dracones" in Latin) were giant serpents, sometimes possessing multiple heads or deadly venom.

Cetea[edit source | editbeta]

Cetea were sea monsters. They were usually featured in myths of a hero rescuing a sacrificial princess.

Ethiopian Cetus, a sea monster sent by Poseidon to ravage Ethiopia and devour Andromeda, which was slain by Perseus

Trojan Cetus, a sea monster which plagued Troy before being slain by Heracles

Automatons[edit source | editbeta]

Automatons were men, animals and monsters crafted out of metal and made animate in order to perform various tasks. They were created by the divine smith, Hephaestus. The Athenian inventor Daedalus also manufactured automatons.

Caucasian Eagle, a giant eagle set by Zeus to feed on the everregenerating liver of Prometheus; it was variously described as an automaton and a son of Echidna

The Hippoi Kabeirikoi, four bronze horse-shaped automatons crafted by Hephaestus to draw the chariot of the Cabeiri

The Keledones, singing maidens sculpted out of gold by Hephaestus The Khalkotauroi, fire-breathing bulls created by Hephaestus as a gift for Aetes

The Kourai Khryseai, golden maidens sculpted to Hephaestus to attend him in his household

Talos, a giant man made out of bronze to protect Europa

Legendary tribes[edit source | editbeta]

Arimaspi, a tribe of one-eyed men Monopodes or Skiapodes, a tribe of one-legged Libyan men who used their gigantic foot as shade against the midday sun

Panotii, a tribe of northern men with gigantic, body-length ears Pygmies, a tribe of one and a half foot tall African men who rode goats into battle against migrating cranes