Typhon

Typhon is the final son of Gaia and is the god of wind. He was fathered by Tartarus. In another version he was born out of Hera in Delphi. Typhon's aim is to replace Zeus as supreme deity. Typhon was described as the most largest and grotesque of all the creatures. He had hundred heads and serpent tails. He was defeated by Zeus and placed Mount Etna over his body.

Typhon was described in more detail by Hesiod. He described him as a grisly monster with hundred serpent heads, dark flickering tongues, fiery eyes, and a hundred serpent tails.

He was whelped in a cave in Cilicia and confined in the land of Arimi. It is also where Zeus overcame him. The battle was not an easy one, Zeus was temporary blinded and confined to a cave. The titanic struggle created earthquakes and tsunamis. Finally Typhon was overcome by the thunderbolts of Zeus. Then he was thrown into Tarturus or as many believe was crushed by Mount Etna and confined beneath it. He also leaded the Titans, when they were send to kill Dionysus.

Thus he is the deity of Volcanoes as Hephaestus who is the civilised god.

He has fathered many children with Echidna, like Cerberus, Lernean Hydra, Nemean Lion, Chimera, Ladon, Sphinx and Orthus.

Ladon

Ladon was a serpent like dragon that coiled on one of the trees in the garden of Hesperides and guarded the golden apples. It was slain by Heracles as the picture shows.


Ladon was given several parentages. He was considered as the child of Ceto and Phorcys , Typhon and Echidna, or of Gaia. It was also considered as a multi headed dragon

Heracles in his labor to retrieve the golden apples in the garden of Hesperides wanted the help of the Titan Atlas. Atlas agreed to help only if Heracles get rid of his burden of bearing the Heavans and Ladon. Ladon was killed by Heracles with an arrow over the Garden walls.

The Calydonian Boar

This is a picture of Calydonian Boar being killed in the Calydonian Hunt. It was another beast that had to be overcome by the Olympian heroes. It was sent by Artemis to cause destruction on the region of Calydon
in Aetolia beacuse its king did not owner her.

It was killed in the Caltdoinian Hunt where many male heroes took place in, but Atlanta made first wound on the creatures and caused chaos on the hunt which resulted in many fatalities.

The Calydonian hunt is one such event in which all the Greek heroes came together and par
ticipated like the quest for the Golden Fleece and the Trojan War. This competition had all the famous Greek heroes like Theseus,Perseus but with the exception of Heracles.

The great Poets Homer and Hesoid knew about the myths they did not convert it into classic like the Odysseus. Stesichorus's telling are all that remain of the Greek collection of the story. The Roman poet Ovid described the story in a more colourful manner in his Metamorphoses.

The King Oeneus of Calydon held annual sacrifices to the gods. Once he forgot to make a sacrifice to Artemis, insulted she let loose the most ferocious boar in the land. It rampaged towns destroyed vineyars and crops and forced people to escape inside the city walls where they starved.

The King Oeneus offered the Boar's tusks and pelts as prizes.

Many came among those were some of the Argonauts, and Oeneus's own son Meleager and the famous sprinter and huntress Atalanta. Atalanta succeeded in wounding the boar with a arrow but lateron Meleager finished it. The pelts and tusks were kept inside a temple of Athena.

Artemis did got her revenge. Meleager offered the prize to Atalanta but his uncles and cousins said they have the right to have after Meleager. Meleager slew his cousins and offered it to Atalanta agian. His mother seeing her brother's children die killed him with a deadly brand.
Then after many hunters turned on each other and the revenge was sweet for Artemis.

Harpy

The Harpy were winged death spirits. They are better known for stealing food from the Phineas. The literal meaning seems to be "that which grabs".

The Harpy could also bring life. It was mothered by the West Wind and Zephryos one of the horses of Achilles.

Though Hesoid describes them as beautiful -haired creatures, the came to be known winged creatures later on when the Siren a creature that was seductive in nature but later softened into a death angel.

Harpies were the sisters of Iris daughters of
Echidna nad Typhon
King Phineas of Thrace had the gift of a prophecy. Zeus angry that he reavealed too much decided to punish him by puttiing him in a island with lots of food that he could never eat because whenever he got the food the harpies would always steal it out of his hand.

This continued until the arrival of Jason and the Argonauts, the Boreads the sons of the north wind succeeded in driving of the harpies but did not kill any of them because their sisiter iris had promised that the harpies would never bother ever again. The harpies returned to Crete. Phineas thanked jason and the argonauts by telling them how to pass Symplegades.

The harpies then tortured people and were considered as agents of death as they made their way to tarturus. They were vicious and very cruel and they lived on Strophades. Harpies came to be seen as personification the deadly winds. They were considered as three Aello, Celeano and Ocypete.

Aeneas encountered the harpies on the Strophades as they stole food from the Trojans. Celeano cursed them saying that they would their tables before reaching the end of their journey. The Trojans fled in fear.

Harpies remianed in the middle ages as Dante in his Inferno XIII

"Here the repellent Harpies make their nests,

Who drove the Trojans from the Strophades
With dire announcements of the coming woe.
They have broad wings, a human neck and face,

Clawed feet and swollen, feathered bellies; they caw
Their lamentations in the eerie trees."

They were aslo made people poular by the term "virgin eagles".

Scylla

This is a picture of Scylla attacking a group of sailors. Scylla is one of the two creatures that lurked on the side of a narrow strait. The strait was so narrow that the sailors passing the strait would end up in the clutches of one of the monsters.

There also a Exists a city called Scylla. It was situated on the entrance of of the Strait Of Messiana.

The Phrase 'between Scylla and Charybdis' is used when someone is in situation of two dangers and moving away from one will let u into the other danger.

The strait of Messiana has been reffered to the Strait of Messina, between Sicily and Italy. But Tim Severin opposes it saying that it may have been a strait in northwest Greece.

The Scylla had six long necks with heads that contain three rows of teeth. She also had twelve canine legs and a cat's tail. She has been referred to be a child of many parents: Phorcys, Hecate, Crateais , Lamia or Ceto. Some sources say she was the daughter of Triton and Lamia.

In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus was given advice by Circe to sail through Scylla's part of the strait rather through Charybdis's part, because she could drown the whole ship. Odysseus safely navigated through the strait but with the loss of six men, who were devoured by Scylla.

According to Ovid, Scylla was once a beautiful nymph who was was being loved by the sea-god Glaucus, but she didn't want his company and fled to a land where he would never reach. He went to Circe' for her advice. As he began telling his love story to her she became in love with him. Glaucus, of course, did not showed any interests. Circe, enraged poured a vile of poison were Scylla had her bath, as soon as she enetered the pool, she was changed into the sea monster. She tried to brush it all off, but in vian. She became enraged and destroyed anything that came near her. Scylla began to devour men from the ships that passed thorugh her part of the strait.

In later Greek mythology it is said that Heracles slew her during a journey to Sicily. Her father Phorcys restored her to life. But Circe did mention to odysseus that she could not by anyone, not even Heracles.

It is said that when time passed Scylla was turned into a dangerous rock which still stands today

Manticore

This is a Manticore, a legendary creature with the body of a red lion, a human face with three rows of teeth and a trumpet type of voice. Other aspects include horns, dragon like tail, scorpion like tail or a tail with poisonous spines that can paralyze and kill its victims.

Manticore had its origin in Persia. Where it was called "man-eater", "martya" meaning man and "xwar" meaning to eat. The Greek translated it to Mantikhoras, then the Romans to Mantichora . In English they are Manticore.

The Greek Philosopher Ctesias, when he presented his notes in India to the Persian King.

Now, the natives of South-East Asia says that there's a Manticore living in amongst thick tall trees. It has ability to kill a person with a single scratch. When people go disappearing, the Manitcore is usually blamed.

Hippocampus

This is the Hippocampus is a sea- horse from Greek and Phoenician mythology. It is described as in this picture a sea-horse with two front legs and coiling long flippers.
Th e Hippocampus is Poseidon's own horse and in Roman mythology(where Poseidon is Neptune) is pulled by the hippocampus on a chariot.

The hippocampus is often called hippocamp. The hippocamp was often decorated on Roman structures and baths. The Hippocampus was worshiped near the coast and also far inland. This is so because the Greek thought that the sea water was the origin of the springs not the rains. They thought that sea water oozed backwards through underground caverns and came out through the springs, filtered.

Centaur

This is a centaur are a race composed of part human and part horse bodies. In vase-paintings they are creatures with the whole upper part of the human body fixed on where the horse's head should be.

The Centaurs are found in various myths mostly as vicious creatures. They are famous fir their battle with the Lapiths. The most well known is Chiron, a healer and mentor for many of the Greek heroes.

They were said to be the children of Ixion and Nephele, another versions says they were the children of a certain centaurus who might have been either Ixion's or Apollo's child.

The Centaurs were said to have inhabited Magnesia and Mount Pelion in Thessaly, Mount Pholoe in Arcadia and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia.

The Centaurs are famous for their battle with the Lapithae, they tried to carry away all the women in Lapithae including the Hippodamia the one who was going to marry King Pirithous, the king, who was also a son of Ixion. Theseus who happens to be there assists him and drive all the centaurs away.

The Centaurs are potrayed as wild and untamed beasts in Greek mythology. Except for Chiron.
Unlike other Centaurs who were the offspring of Ixion and Nephele. He was the son of the Titan Cronus, who turned into a horse to mate with the nymph Philyra.

Chiron married the nymph Chariclo who bore three daughters Hipee, Enderis and Ocyrhoe and Carystus. He was a great healer and a tutor for many heroes like Achilles, Theseus, Jason and some say even the god of revelry Dionysus.

He was ironically hit by an arrow from Heracles, and it is said that he could not heal himself and gave his immortaliti to the titan Prometheus. He is now honored with his his constellation Sagittauris and Centaurus.

Cyclops

This is a statue of a Cyclops. The cyclops were one- eyed giants .
Hesiod describes three cyclops who were the sons of Oranos(sky) and Gaia(Earth). Hesoid describes that these three cyclops were free from Tarturus. The three cyclops made Zeus his thunderbolts, Hades his helmet of invisibilty and Poseidon his trident. The weapons that were used by these gods to defeat the Titans.In Homer's Odyssey the cyclops Polyphemus son of Poseidon was desciribed in a tale between him and Odysseus.

According to Hesiod the cyclops are described as the sons of Uranus and gaia. They were giants with only one eye in their forehead and a foul deposition. They were also described as strong, stubborn and " would suddenly get emotional". They were described as forgers.

Uranus felt their strength and locked them at Tarturus along with Hecatonchires. Gaia did not like this at all and told her youngest Titan Cronos to dethrone his father. Cronos did so and freed the Cyclops and Hecatonchires, but later he prisoned them back in Tarturus, until Zeus freed them again. They made the weapons for the Olympians and helped them to overthrow the titans. They also made Artemis' bow and arrows of moonlight, Apollo's bow and arrows of moonlight and many other structures and weapons.

It is said Apollo slew them in revenge of his son's death who was killed by Zeus using a Cyclopes- forged thunderbolt.

In Homer's Odyssey a scouting party leaded by Odysseus landed on the island of the cyclops. They entered the cave and feasted upon the food they found in the cave. This cave belonged to Polyphemus and when he returned, Odysseus tries to befriend him but instead the cyclops trapped them in the cave. The Cyclops soon started to devour the crew. Odysseus summoned a cunning idea to escape the cyclops.

Odysseus gave Polyphemus a vile of extra strong wine, Polyphemus then asks Odysseus what his name is and he says that it is 'Outis' Greek for no-one. Then the cyclops fall asleep. While he was sleeping Odysseus and his men take the spit from the fire drive it through Polyphemus' eye.
He cried in pain and his cried were answered by his fellow cyclops, but they all turned when he told that 'Outis' was the cause of his pain.

In the morning Odysseus tied himself and his men to Polyphemus' sheep, when Polyphemus let the sheep out to graze the mean were also carries out. Polyphemus blinded checks the back of the sheep to ensure that the men are not riding on the sheep, he did not know that the men were tied on the underside of the sheep. As Odysseus sails away he taunts Polyphemus and told him his name. Polyphemus told this to Poseidon and this caused the rest of hid journey to be miserable.

Polyphemus wanted a sea-nymph named Galatea, but instead she married a man named Acis a Sicilian mortal. Polyphemus killed him by dropping a huge boulder. Galatea turned Acis's blood into a river of the name in Sicily.

Minotaur

This is an animated minotaur drawing. The minotaur was an offspring of a human and a bull. The king of Crete, Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow- white bull as a sign of approval by the gods. He said that he would sacrifice the bull as a. A snow -white was presented, but the King grew fond of the bull and decided to keep it for himself. This angered Poseidon and made the wife of Minos(Pasiphae) to fall in love with the bull and their child was Minotaur. She nursed it when it was a baby, but soon grew ferocious and Minos had Daedalus construct a labyrinth in which the creature dwelled.

One of the sons of king Minos Androgeus was killed by the Athenians in jealousy over their victory in Panatheniac festival. Sone say he was killed by the snow-white bull also known as the Cretan bull as an order from the Athenians. Minos in all his wrath avenged his son's death and won. Some other account says that Athens was condemned with a plague for killing Androgeus, and asked Minos to help them. In botth the accounts Minos asked the Athenians to sacrifice seven Athenian youths and seven maidens every nine years( some say every year) to the Minotaur to be devoured.

When the third time for sacrifices came Thesus (son of Aegus) agreed to go and slay the monster. He promised his father that he would tell the sailors to raise the white sails if he succeeded in his quest or put up black sails if he died. Thesus departed and when he was ic Crete the dauightaur of Minos Ariadne fell in love with him and helped navigate through the labyrinth.
In most accounts she gave Thesus a ball of thread, allowing him to retrace his path. Thesus killed the Minotaur with the sword of Aegus and freed the remaining Athenians.

Unfortunately, Ariadne was abondened and married Dionysus but later was killed by Artemis. While for Aegus he was waiting on the clifftop the day since Thesus left him. Unfortunately there was a terrible atorm in the sae and Thesus's ship lost all the white sails and they had to put up the black sails instead. Aegus seeing the black sails thought his son was dead and he could not suffer the grief and jumped off the cilfftop. Poor fellow.

Medusa

This is a picture of Medusa who was one the three gorgon sisters. She was the most beautiful amongst them and thus attracted the attention of Poseidon. She was seduced by Poseidon in a Temple of Athena. Athena,angered, punished her by making her disgusting looking with snakes instead of hairs.

Medusa was so terrifying that whoever saw her face turned into stone. She was beheaded by Perseus while sleeping. The photo describes Medusa after she was beheaded. When her blood spilled on the ground two creatures were born. One was the winged horse Pegasus and the other was Chrysaor.

The Sphinx

This is the Sphinx usually depicted with the body of a lion or a lioness and with the head of a human. It was an Egyptian monster although it is said that it is one of the monsters of Echidna and Typhon. The Ancient Greeks called it the "strangler". The picture on the left is the Greek Sphinx.

In Egyptian mythology is usually depicted with the body of a lion and a head of a human. Sometimes the head maybe of a falcon, hawk or a ram.
They were related to the deity Sekhmet which had a lion's head and was the god of warfare. The Sphinx had the role of temple guardians or tomb guardians. The Great Sphinx of Giza were on such example.

Other popular sphinxes are the one who bears the head of pharaoh Hatsheput and the sphinx of Memphis.

The Egyptian Sphinxes were guardians of temples. As you know there are other Sphinxes throughout the world.


The First picture is the picture of a Greek Sphinx. The Greek Sphinx was also considered as the offapring of Typhon and Echidna. The word "Sphinx" means to strangle. This name may have originated from the lions that strangle their victims to death. In Greek mythology the Sphinx is considered as a creature of bad luck.

The Pegasus

This is of course the mystical son and of Poseidon the sea-god and Medusa the Gorgon.Pegasus. The Pegasus was born when Persus the Greek hero cut Medusa's head like the birth of Athena who also was born out of Zeus's head. There are many other theories reagrding his type of birth, it is also said that he was born from the earth when Medusa's blood spilled on to it, or when medua's blood and the sea foam joined together.

The Pegasus was captured by Bellorophon when he was drinking with a golden bridle that was given to him by Athena. He also killed the Chimera and fought agianst the Amazons. Bellorophon tried to climb mount everest with Pegasus but Zeus did not let him do so and he fell on to the earth when Zeus stunned Pegasus. Then onwards Bellorophon did not see the Pegasus and was made a servant to Zeus. Pegasus had the job of carrying Zeus's thunderbolts to him and was ridden by Eos the goddess of Dawn.

Bellorophon mated with Ocyrrhoe and had two children. Pegasus was immortal, On his last day of life Zeus transformed him into a constellation and it is said that a single feather of him fell in the city of Tarsus.

The Chimera

This is the Chimera. This is also a sibling of Cerberus and the hydra. It lived in Lycia in Asia Minor. It is the strangest monster i have ever seen, with the body parts of a goat, a lion and a snake. Even though there is a mane on it it is considered as a female. In some stories it is said that theChimera mated with her brother orthus and gave birth to the Sphinx and the Nemean lion.

The Chimera was killed by Bellorophon, greek hero who captured the legendary Pegasus. He was commanded to do so by king lobates of Lycia. Since Pegasus could fly, Bellorophon had no trouble killing the Chimera with his arrows. It is also said that he also equipped his spear with a lump of head and melted it with the fiery breath of the chimera which killed the chimera.

The Lemean Lion

This is the picture of Heracles killing the Nemean Lion. The Nemean lion was said to be the sibling of the Hydra and Cerberus or the offspring of Zeus and Selene.It was the first labor of Heracles to kill the Nemean lion and to take its skin.

The lion lived in the village of Nemea, inside a cave. When heracles had many arrows with him to use against it but not knowing that the lion's skin was one of the toughest and the lion itself was immortal he tried in vain with the arrows. Then he blocked the cave entrances and fought the lion with bare hands.

Using his incredible strength he strangled the lion to death. Then he tried to cut the skin but it was too tough even for him. He used the lion's claw to cut it and he was so impressed that he weares it as a cloak. He returned to the king Eurystheus(his cousin who ordered Heracles to do the labor.) He was so impressed that he gave Heracles the the lions invisible pelt.

The Hydra

This is the Hydra the multi-headed, dinosaur looking monster of lerna. This is one of the siblings of Cerberus. It lives in the lake of lerna, where it is the guardian of an entrance to the underworld. The Hydra was killed by Heracles because it was the second labor of his twelve to do do so.

It was not easy to slay the hydra as it had a poisonous breath and heads which grew back with one more as one head is cut.Heracles needed the help of his nephew to defeat it. Everytime one head is cut Heracles's nephew Lolaus burned the open stump, and thus the head could not grow back. The Last head was immortal and Heracles buried it under a rock and used its poison to make his sword or arrow poisonous.The alternative to this is that after cutting off one head he dipped his sword in it and used its venom to burn each head so it couldn't grow back.

The Hydra is my favorite monster because i liked it when i was playing Age Of Mythology.

ZerbereX- All you want to know about Mythological monsters

Mythological creatures have always enchanted and terrified us. If you want to know more about them this is the place where you want to look.

On the left you can see the famous Cerberus of Greek mythology, it is the dog of Hades which guards the door to the underworld. It allows spirits to go in there but allows no spirits to return out of the door of the Erebus(underworld).

The Cerberus is the offspring of Echidna and Typhon two monstrous beings from which most of the Greek monsters came from. Cerberus has three heads and snakes all down his back, also had a snake for a tail, like his sibling the Chimera. It had a brother Orthus which was killed by Greek demi- god and hero Heracles or better known as Hercules. Hercules had his own encounter with the three headed when he was to bring the Hell hound to the living world to complete the last of his Twelve labors.