Belong to the ancient
Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices,
Greek mythology is known for some extremely out of this world mythology.
The Greek legends have been the subject of popular culture for thousands of years. The most famous characters in these myths are the gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and mythological creatures.
10.
Typhon
Typhon was the most deadly monster of Greek mythology. The last son of
Gaia, fathered by
Tartarus, he was known as the “
Father of All
Monsters”; his wife
Echidna was likewise the “
Mother of All Monsters.” He was described in pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke, as the largest and most fearsome of all creatures. His human upper half supposedly reached as high as the stars, and his hands reached east and west.
Instead of a human head, a hundred dragon heads erupted from his neck and shoulders.
8. Echidna
Half woman half snake, Echidna known as the “Mother of All Monsters” because most of the monsters in Greek mythology were her offspring.
Hesiod’s Theogony described her as:
“the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in
Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days.” (wikipedia.org).
7.
Sphinx
10
Legendary Greek Mythological
Creatures
A mythical creature with the body of a lion and a human head. In Greek tradition, it has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. She is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer her riddle suffer a fate typical in such mythological stories, as they are killed and eaten by this ravenous monster.
6.
Griffin
Regarded as king of the creatures, the Griffin, with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle’s talons as its front feet. As the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle was the king of the birds, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. In antiquity it was a
symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine.
5.
Chimera
The Chimera was a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of
Lycia in
Asia Minor who was composed of the parts of three animals; a lion, a snake and a goat. Usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that ended in a snake’s head, the Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as
Cerberus and the
Lernaean Hydra.
4.
Gorgon
A dreadful female creature in Greek mythology.
Perhaps the most popular Gorgon is
Medusa, generally described as having the face of a hideous human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. She was the only mortal among the three sisters who’s gaze would turn anyone into stone. She was famously decapitated by
Perseus who was armed with a mirror and scythe.
3.
Centaur
The centaur is a mythological creature with the head, arms, and torso of a human and the body and legs of a horse. They are best known for their fight with the
Lapiths, which was caused by their attempt to carry off Hippodamia and the rest of the
Lapith women on the day of Hippodamia’s marriage to Pirithous, king of the
Lapithae. Perhaps one of the most popular centaurs in Greek mythology is
Chiron. He stands in contrast to the typical depiction of centaurs being indulgent and violent drinkers with his intelligence and enviable medical skills.
2.
Minotaur
Described as “part man and part bull”.
The Minotaur was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man. He dwelt at the center of the
Cretan Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze designed by the architect
Daedalus and his son
Icarus. The bull-man was eventually slain by the Athenian hero Theseus.
1.
Siren
The dangerous and beautiful creatures in Greek mythology. They were often portrayed as femme fatales who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. They were considered the daughters of the river god
Achelous.
Roman writers linked the
Sirens more closely to the sea, as daughters of
Phorcys. Sirens are found in many Greek stories, particularly in
Homer’s Odyssey. Their number is variously reported as between two and five.
- published: 24 Feb 2016
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