Ancient Greek Creatures - Terror, Beauty and Wonder in Fabulous Forms

Ancient Greek mythology contains a wide range of bizarre and monstrous creatures. Some were helpful to gods and mortals, while others were destructive. In fact, these creatures were often quite beautiful, while others were terrifyingly ugly. They played a prominent part in the myths of ancient Greece.

Mythological creatures represent our fears, desires, and unknowns in a way even more amazing and wonderful than the Greek gods, which is why they are still such objects of fascination to us today. Many of them developed as tall tales, hallucinations, or simple wish fulfillment. One idea promulgated today is that many of the areas associated with Greek mythological creatures had dinosaur bones or fossils buried in those locations.

Animals were very important to the agrarian society of ancient Greece. This is why most of the mythological creatures listed below are some form of animal. Some are human-animal composites, some are purely creatures of darkness, and some are altered humans. All of the creatures listed below had specific myths associated with them; some had more than one.

Argus

Argus was a hundred-eyed giant and was Hera’s servant. Only a few of Argus’s eyes were asleep at any one time. Once when Zeus was consorting with the nymph Io, Hera suddenly came upon them. Zeus transformed Io into a white heifer, but Hera was not fooled and demanded the animal from her husband as a gift. She then appointed Argus to guard the heifer, which was chained to a sacred olive tree.

Zeus sent Hermes to rescue Io. Hermes first put all of Argus’s eyes asleep with spoken charms and then killed him with his sword. Hera rewarded Argus for his service by placing his hundred eyes on the tail of the peacock, her sacred bird. Io then wandered the earth with a gadfly sent by Hera to annoy her.

Centaur

Centaurs are part human and part horse. They usually have the torso and head of a human and the body of a horse. There were also some deer-centaurs, dog-centaurs, and man-headed horses, but most were man-head horse-body.

Centaurs were followers of Dionysus and were known for drunkenness. They also tended to carry off attractive young girls. The centaurs were said to have been born of the union of Ixion, King of the Lapithae, and a cloud made in the image of Hera.

One centaur, Chiron, was the son of Cronus and an ocean nymph. Unlike the other centaurs, Chiron was sober, learned, and studious. He was a famous physician, teacher, and musician.

Cerberus

Cerberus was the monstrous guardian hound of the underworld and a faithful servant of Hades. Cerberus ensured that the shades of the dead could enter the underworld, but none could exit, and that no living persons were allowed to enter. He was a grotesque dog with three heads; sometimes the center head was a lion’s, while the other two were in the shape of a dog and a wolf. He also had a snake’s tail.

The final labor of Heracles was to capture Cerberus, which he did by wrestling with the monster. Orpheus lulled Cerberus to sleep with his lute, and Hermes put him to sleep with water from the river Lethe.

Charon

Charon, who worked as the ferryman between the living world and the underworld, brought the deceased souls over the river of Acheron. Collecting coins to pay for the journey, Charon only allowed those with money to cross over. Subsequently, in ancient Greece, decreased bodies were given coins, either placed below the tongue or on top of both eyes, to pay for Charon’s ride to the other side. Sadly, those souls who did not have a coin to pay for the fare would be banned to Acheron’s riverbanks, where they would wander aimlessly for 100 years.

In reviewing the illustrations and history, Charon is described as a double-hammer wielding demon with wings, or as a creature representing the Grim Reaper.

It is commonly believed today that Charon ferried the dead across Styx river, but in most accounts, it was the river Acheron. According to various myths, Heracles, Orpheus, Aeneas, Dionysus, and Psyche all journeyed to and from the underworld on Charon’s boat.

Charybdis

Daughter of Poseidon and Gaia, Charybdis was a sea monster, a whirlpool that devoured anything in sight. Three times a day, she would consume tremendous amounts of water before spitting them out again – subsequently creating powerful, dangerous, and monstrous whirlpools. In her earlier life, Charybdis was a sea-nymph, one who had been banished as a sea monster by Zeus when she stole the cattle of Hercules.

In a narrow body of water, Charybdis lived on one particular side, sharing the channel with Scylla, a sea-monster who lived on the other side. Sailors who did not want to fall into Charybdis’s path would find themselves in dangerous vicinity of Scylla, or the other way around. The phrase “between Scylla and Charybdis” denotes a situation where you are caught between two dangerous places, and thwarting yourself away from one will lead you into the dangerous zone of the other.

Traditionally, Charybdis’ location has been the Strait of Messina off Sicily, opposite a rock called Scylla. There is a whirlpool there but it isn’t often dangerous. Another possible origin for the story could be found close by Cape Skilla in northern Greece.

Chimera

The Chimera was a monster made of the parts of multiple animals. It was female and breathed fire from at least one head, but descriptions vary about the rest of its appearance.It had the body of a goat, the tail of a snake, and either the head of a lion with a mane or the head of a goat or both. The Chimera spat flames and devoured all living creatures in its path. Sighting the Chimera was a bad omen: storms, shipwrecks, and natural disasters (particularly volcano eruptions) would follow.

Since the Chimera was laying siege to the countryside of Lycia, the king, Iobates, sought for someone to destroy it. The young hero Bellerophon accepted the challenge, but was advised by a soothsayer to procure the horse Pegasus. Athena gave him a golden bridle with which to take Pegasus. Bellerophon flew with Pegasus to the location of the Chimera and killed it with a lump of lead that melted from the Chimera’s fiery breath.

Cretan Bull

The Cretan Bull was a handsome white bull sent forth from the sea by Poseidon. The Cretan queen Pasiphae, wife of Minos, fell in love with the animal, and thereafter gave birth to the monstrous Minotaur, a creature with the head of a bull. (In some accounts, the Cretan Bull is Zeus disguised while carrying away Europa.)Heracles was commanded to capture the bull of Cretan Bull as one of his Twelve Labors. Afterward, Heracles set the creature free and it eventually came to the Athenian town of Marathon where it laid waste to the countryside. There it was destroyed by the hero Theseus with the help of Minos’s daughter Ariadne. The gods placed the bull in the heavens as the constellation Taurus.

Cyclops

In Greek mythology a Cyclops is a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single round eye in the middle of its forehead. (Plural is Cyclopes.)In mythology there are two groups of Cyclopes. According to the epic poet Hesiod, the Cyclopes were the sons of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), and their names were Argos, Steropes, and Brontes. Uranus kept all his children imprisoned in Gaia. Cronus the Titan, another son of Uranus, decided to overthrow his father, the Cyclopes assisted. After that, Cronus imprisoned them in the dark pit of Tartarus.

Zeus, overthrowing his father Cronus in turn, set the Cyclopes free. Since they were metal workers and blacksmiths, they gave three gifts to Zeus and his brothers: the gift of thunder and lightning to Zeus, the trident to Poseidon, and the Helmet of Darkness to Hades. The gods used these weapons to defeat the Titans.

The other major epic poet, Homer, had a different group of Cyclopes, the sons of Poseidon. Odysseus encounters the Cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and a nymph, who lives with his fellow Cyclopes in a distant country. Since Polyphemus ate several of Odysseus’s men, Odysseus blinded him in order to escape.

Erinyes or Furies

The Erinyes (known as the Furies to the Romans) were three female agents of vengeance. Avenging crimes against the natural order, they were particularly concerned with false oaths, homicide, unfilial conduct, and crimes against the gods. A victim seeking justice could call the Erinyes to wreak justice upon the criminal.

The Erinyes usually punished their victims by driving them mad. Murderers might suffer illness or disease. The Erinyes could only be placated with ritual purification and the completion of some task assigned for atonement. When not on earth, the Furies were thought to dwell in the underworld where they oversaw the torture of criminals.

Virgil named them as Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. They were portrayed as ugly, winged women with hair, arms and waists entwined with poisonous serpents; sometimes they had the wings of a bat or bird or the body of a dog. Their eyes dripped with blood, and their whole appearance was horrific and appalling.

Gorgons

The Gorgons were female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living snakes. They were depicted as winged women with broad heads, large staring eyes, wide mouths, pigs’ tusks, and lolling tongues. According to Hesiod, there were three of them: Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. The Gorgons were birthed by Gaia to aid her sons the Titans against the gods. Of the three Gorgons, only Medusa is mortal. Yet all three could turn anyone who looked at them to stone. In ancient Greece an image of a Gorgon’s head was put on doors, walls, coins, shields, breastplates, and tombstones to ward off evil spirits.

King Polydectes of Seriphos commanded the hero Perseus to kill the mortal Medusa. Perseus was able to kill her without looking at her directly by cutting off her head while gazing at the reflection in a mirrored shield. From the blood that spurted from her neck sprang two creatures: the winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor. Perseus put Medusa’s head in a sack and fled, giving it to Athena, who placed it on her shield.

Griffins

Griffins were beasts with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. Most depictions give the griffin an eagle’s legs as forelegs and leonine hindquarters, but sometimes the forelegs are a lion’s. As the lion is considered the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of the birds, the griffin was an especially powerful and majestic creature. A griffon pulled Apollo’s chariot across the sky, but it also pulled Nemesis’s chariot as well.

Harpies

The Harpies were spirits of death, the embodiments of the destructive nature of wind. They were depicted as winged women, sometimes with a Gorgon’s face, or with the lower bodies of birds. The Harpies were sent by Zeus to snatch people and things from the earth to punish them.

The Harpies were once sent by Zeus to plague King Phineas of Thrace. Phineas had the gift of prophecy and revealed too many of the secrets of the gods. Zeus punished him by putting him on an island with a buffet of food. Whenever a plate of food was set before him, the Harpies would snatch it away before Phineas could eat, befouling the remains.

Hydra

The Hydra was a huge, many-headed, serpentlike beast with poisonous breath that haunted the swamps of Lerna.Heracles was sent to destroy her as one of his twelve labors. He covered his mouth and nose with a cloth to avoid breathing the poisonous fumes and then fired flaming arrows into its lair to draw the Hydra out. But for each head he severed, two more sprang forth. Heracles then burned each stump with a brand, preventing regeneration. In the battle he also crushed a giant crab that had come to assist Hydra. The Hydra and the Crab were afterwards placed in the heavens by Hera as the constellations Hydra and Cancer.

Minotaur

The Minotaur was a bull-headed monster born to Queen Pasiphae after she had coupled with the Cretan Bull. It dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth, an elaborate maze designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus. In the center of the Labyrinth, the Minotaur ate sacrificed girls and boys. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the hero Theseus. Theseus was aided by Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, who gave Theseus a ball of thread to retrace his path from the center of the Labyrinth.

Nemean Lion

The Nemean Lion was a huge animal whose hide was impervious to weapons. It was terrorizing the area of Nemea in the Argolis. King Eurystheus commanded Heracles to bring back its hide as the first of his twelve labors. Heracles’s weapons were all ineffective, so he wrestled the lion to the ground, and strangled the beast.Heracles then spent hours trying unsuccessfully to skin the lion. Athena, in the guise of an old woman, told Heracles that the only way to cut the hide would be to use the lion’s own claws. Heracles thereafter wore the skin as a cape. Hera afterwards placed the lion into the heavens as the constellation Leo.

Pegasus

Pegasus was a winged horse. There are two stories associated with his inception: that he sprang forth from the neck of Medusa when she was beheaded by the hero Perseus, and that he was the son of Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and the Medusa. Pegasus was tamed by Bellerophon, a Corinthian hero, who rode him into battle against the Chimera. Later, Bellerophon presented Pegasus to the Muses at Mount Parnassus.Pegasus was not immortal, and after his death, Zeus turned him into a constellation.

Phoenix

Featuring gold tinged red feathers, the Phoenix’s body would shine gorgeous rays of stunning, pure light. With a lifespan of 500 years, the Phoenix was a resident of Arabia, finding home adjacent to a well. When the sun rose, the phoenix would bath itself in the well’s water, while Apollo would stop by in his chariot to hear its sweet song.At the end of its life-cycle the Phoenix built itself a nest of cinnamon twigs that it then ignites; from the conflagration a new young Phoenix arises.

Satyr

The Satyrs were rustic fertility spirits of the wilderness and countryside, companions of Pan, Dionysus, Rhea, Gaia, Hermes and Hephaestus; and mated with nymphs in the mountain wilds.Satyrs were depicted as animal-like men with the tail of a horse, the ears of a donkey, pug noses, and curly hairs and beards. They often carried the thyrsus, the rod of Dionysus tipped with a pine cone. They were usually shown drinking, dancing, and playing tambourines, flutes, cymbals, and castanets. They are often represented holding cups of wine, and appear often in decoration on wine cups.

Scylla

Scylla was a monstrous sea goddess who haunted the rocks of a narrow strait opposite the whirlpool Charybdis. In the Odyssey, Homer vividly illustrates Scylla as a monster, sporting twelve feet coupled with six snake-like necks topped with ferocious heads – and complimented by three rows of razor sharp teeth. fShips that sailed too close to her would lose sailors to her darting heads.

Circe told Odysseus to sail closer to Scylla, for Charybdis could drown his whole ship. He did, but Scylla managed to eat six of his men alive. Odysseus then helped the men row the ship out of harm’s way.

Siren

The Sirens were three seductive bird-women who lured sailors to their death with a bewitching song. Named Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leucosia, they were depicted as birds with either the heads or upper bodies of women. They were formerly handmaidens of the goddess Persephone. When she was seized by Hades, Demeter gave them the bodies of birds, and sent them to help search for her. They eventually gave up and settled on an island.

The Argonauts encountered the Sirens, who passed by unharmed because Orpheus played a song louder than theirs. When Odysseus sailed by, his men couldn’t hear the Sirens because they had plugged their ears with wax. The Sirens then threw themselves into the sea and drowned.

Stymphalian Birds

The Stymphalian Birds were vicious creates, who ate men. Their prowess was further compounded with their brass wings, featuring piercing metallic feathers that could be utilized as launching weapons. They lived in Arcadia’s Lake Stymphalia, plaguing the region by destroying the agricultural crops and fruit-bearing trees. Their destruction was the sixth labor of Heracles. Heracles used gigantic bronze clapping instruments to rouse the birds into taking flight, and then he utilized his arrows or a catapult to bring them to death.

Many of these creatures were killed in spectacular fashion, but to commemorate them, they were often made into constellations by the gods and goddesses. This is because the idea of balance in all things was paramount to the ancient Greeks, unlike the Judeo-Christian concept of good triumphing over evil.