There is a lot of mysticism Greek Mythology Creatures. The problem is we do not know what they look like. Fortunately designers have been kind enough to draw a few pictures of what they look like. Here they are:
Centaurs: Half man and half horse. These mythical creatures were part of tale of Theseus in the course of their war against Lapiths. They were supposed to have attended Hippodamia’s wedding and having fallen for her attempted to nab her. She belonged to the Lapiths clan and they fought back along with Theseus to get rid of them.
Cerebrus: Is the dog with three heads that is guarding the entrance to the netherworld. He has been part of Greek as well as Roman mythology. Known to be born of Echidna a hybrid part female and part serpent and Typhon, Cerebrus is supposed to be the last challenge that Hercules had to face and capture alive with no weapons. The three heads are reputed to be past, present and future or the various stages of life, which actually come to the same thing.
Charybdis: She was either considered a whirlpool or a sea monster. According to the tales she is the daughter of sea god Poseidon and Earth Goddess Gaia. Because she had to consume enormous quantities of water everyday to fill the huge mouth instead of face, the resulting belch would result in whirlpools. In the story of Odysseus she was one of the challenges he had to face where she was on one side and Scylla, a hydra monster on the other side and he had to cross the channel with the ship touching neither.
Chimera: Is a being that is an amalgamation of goat, lion and a snake. Chimera shared the same parentage as Cerberus. Chimera is featured as being of female gender and having the capacity to spew fire. Chimera was supposed to have been killed by Bellerophin, a Greek hero along with Pegasus, yet another creature from Greek mythology. Pegasus could fly and this saved Belleroohin from being burned from the fire spewing from Chimera. A spear with lead helped kill Chimera in the end.
Cyclops: A monster with a single eye, cyclops were show as being giants. They were the makers of weaponry in Greek mythology for Zeua. They have been credited with making famous weapons like Hades’s helmet of darkness, Artemis’s bow, arrow of moonlight and Poseidon’s trident.
Empusa: A relatively less known character, she was supposed to be a demi-goddess born of a spirit Mormo and a Goddess Hecate. She is legendary for possessing long flaming hair along with feet of bronze. She feeds on the flesh and blood of men by seducing them in their slumber. She is not a vampire though and known to be the guardian of vital routes.
Erinyes: Reputed to be the entities of retribution they were supposed to have come to being from the blood of Uranus when he was castrated by Cronus. We do not know how many of them were there, but they could be identified by their snakes around their waist and tears of blood falling from their eyes. In Greek Mythology they make an appearance during the trial of Orestes for killing his sisters.
Gorgon: We all know Medusa as the one with serpents for hair, there were others known as Gorgons. There are many tales with regard to their origins and what they did. The three sister s Stheno, the mighty, Euryale the far springer and Medusa the queen were the most know. According to legend a look at Medusa’s face would turn the person looking into stone. Perseus was sent by King Polydectes to kill Medusa, hoping that Perseus would be killed. But using his shield provided by Athena the goddess of war to look at the reflection of Medusa, thus avoiding disaster, Perseus kills her. He presented it to Athena who used the head to convert Atlas into a stone mountain that then holds up earth and heaven.
Graeae: Sharing one mouth and one eye among themselves these three sisters born to Ceto and Phorcys. In truth sisters to the Gordons. Named Deino, Enyo and Pemphredo there is some confusions whether they were old hags or beautiful women. In the movie Clash of the Titans, these sisters gave directions to Perseus to reach the Gordons, by force when he took away their eye.
Griffin: Popularized by Harry Potter books, Griffin is a creature from Greek Mythology they are supposed to have the regal body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle. This clearly puts them in the royal category.
Harpy: They appear in the tale where Phineas was punished by Zeus for giving away the secret of Gods. Harpies are daughers of Electra and Thaumas. Their role in the punishment to Phineas was to steal the good food that surrounded him but he was unable to eat it. They did this till the arrival of Jason and Argonauts. They were driven away by Boreads who could fly.
Hippalectryon: Part horse and Part rooster, these creatures do not come up in many tales, but you can see these strange beings in the ceramics and sculptures related to Greek Mythology.
Hippocamps: Known to be the creatures that Poseidon rode, seahorses were called Hippocamps as per Greek Mythology.
Hydra: A snake with 9 heads, this has been featured in many movies. It is not a natural creature and known to have been raised to earth by the wife of Zeus, Hera. It was brought with the objective of killing Hercules. As part of his second labor Hercules was challenged to kill Hydra. With the ability to regrow heads, Hydra was difficult to slay until Hercules’s cousin Iolaus schemed to burn the stump once the head was cut off.
Lamia: Reputed to be the gorgeous queue of Libya she was converted to a man eating demon possessing of a snake tail. There are different versions of this tale of transformation. She was forced by Hera to consumer her own children which resulted in this transformation. Another legend suggests she was directly transformed by Hera.
Manticore: A being that looks like the Sphinx, this too has a human head and lion’s body. Part of both Persian and Greek Mythology the Manticore has different pictorial depictions with variations like wings and/or possessing the tail of a scorpion.
Minotaur: A being that is half man and half bull, there are only vague indications of this creature’s origins. According to the story, King of Crete, Minos prayed to Poseidon for help. Poseidon sent a white bull which had to be sacrificed. But Minos becomes attached to the bull and substituted it with another. Enraged Poseidon had a spell cast on Minos’s wife Pasiphae by the goddess of love, causing her to fall in love with the Cretan Bull. This love is consummated and Minotaur was the offspring of this union. Once it is revealed that Minotaur ate men for food, Minos had a special maze built for him by Daedalus. Minotaur was killed by Theseus when he volunteers to be killed on behalf of the citizens of Athens. But the love of Minos’s daughter for Theseus results in her helping him negotiate the maze. However on successfully killing Minotaur, Theseus picks the other daughter Phaedra to be his wife.
Ophiotaurus: Once again a relatively unknown creature who is known to possess the body of sea snake along with the head of a bull. Arising from the Chaos that give rise to mother of earth, Gaia, Ophitaurus is known to be very powerful. It is a common belief that this creature’s viscera can provide the power to overpower the gods.
Pegasus: Born of the blood of Medusa one of the Gordon sisters Pegasus is the horse with wings. Pegasus helped Bellepheron in killing Chimera, but Bellepheron died after falling off Pegasus’s back during their descent to Mount Olympus.
Satyr: Known to be half men and half goat these creatures represent passion and pleasures, though sometimes are shown to be having darker shades to them as well.
Sirens: Legendary creatures possessed of great beauty, Sirens used to draw Seamen to the cliffs and ultimately to their death using their voices. They are shown as creatures having either a fish or bird’s body. In the tale of Odysseus, he orders his men to cover their ears with wax so as to resist the call of the Sirens. But he falls prey to the call himself when the ship nears their hideout and implores his men to take him there. They ignore him and once the ship is away from the call of the Sirens he recovers his senses. The Sirens kill themselves by falling into the water.
Sphinx: With the wings of a bird, the head of a woman and the body of a lion, it seems to be related to Chimera and Cerberus. According to the tale, Sphinx guarded the road to Thebe. It would ask travelers the riddle “Which creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?” All people who could answer this would be consumed by the Sphinx. Only Oedipus answered it correctly by saying “Man”. According the tale, Sphinx killed itself by eating itself or in other versions by bounding off a cliff on finally getting the right reply.
Stymphalian Birds: These comprised the 6th labor of Hercules. He was supposed to kill these birds which had an appetite for human flesh and beaks of steel, in the swamp. Hercules was aided by Hephaestus, the god of technology, who provided him with the means to divert and scare them with a rattle so that he could kill them with a arrow as the flew around.
Typhon: A really huge creature, the upper part of the body is human and the lower half had to two vipers that can stretch in all directions. He is reputed to be as tall as a mountain, this creature along with Echidna gave birth to monsters that include Chimera, Sphinx, Cerberus and more. In the war between Zeus and Gaia, Typhon almost managed to capture Zeus’s sinews, but he manages to release them. Later on he vanquishes Typhon and buried him under Mount Etna.
