Greek Mythological Beasts

NAME

DESCRIPTION

MYTHOLOGICAL CONTEXT

Argus	100-eyed giant, also known as Panoptes ('the all-seeing')	Made guard of Io, turned into a white cow by goddess Hera, he was charmed to sleep and slain by her rescuer Hermes. In one version his eyes after death were transplanted to the peacock's tail
Calydonian Boar	Boar of huge size and strength	Atremis angered with the king of Calydon, Oeneus, sent the boar to devastate the land; his son Meleager finally killed it in a hunt with various heroes
Centaurs	Drunken and lecherous monsters inhabiting the mountain regions of Thessaly and Arcadia, with human torsoes and horses' legs	Hero Theseus and others drove them from Thessaly after their attempt to abduct the bride of the king of Lapiths from her wedding feast
Cerberus	Three-headed, dragon-tailed guard dog of the entrance to Hades, sometimes with fifty heads and a mane of snakes	Never permitted anyone to leave Hades; however, musician Orpheus charmed the beast with his lyre and escaped
Cetus	Terrible sea monster sent to ravage Ethiopia	Sent by Poseidon in anger at the boastfulness of the king of Ethiopia's wife, Cassiopeia, and slain by hero Perseus to save Cassiopeia's daughter, Andromeda
Charybdis	Monster whirlpool, sucking and belching forth water three times daily; dwells opposite Scylla, on the side of a strait identified as the Strait of Messina	Odysseus managed to avoid Charybdis on his perilous voyage
Chimaera	Fire-breathing creature that had a goat's body, a lion's head and a serpent's tail	Slain by the hero Bellerophon at the treacherous request of Iobates, king of Lycia
Cyclops	In Hesiod, storm gods, sons of Uranus and Gaea; in Homer, a cannibalistic race of giant beings; also sometimes Hephaestus' assistants; they have one big eye in the middle of their foreheads	Homer's Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, was tricked and blinded by hero Odysseus
Echidna	Half woman, half serpent, the mate of Typhon and mother of various other monsters with him	Slain in her sleep by the giant Argus
Erinyes or Furies	Hideous avenging deities that punished mercilessly offences against human society, with snakes for hair, and blood dripping from their eyes	In later legends they are merged with the ancient earth spirits, the Eumenides, as in Aesychlus' account of the pursuit of the matricide Orestes
Geryon	Triple-headed monster that reigned over the coast of Iberia or Epirius	Owned a herd of red oxen, which Hercules, after killing Geryon and his guards, took possession of for his tenth labour
Gorgons	Monstrous dragon-like daughters of the sea god Phorcys and wife Ceto, covered in golden scales, with snakes for hair, huge wings, and hanging tongues; their glance could turn to stone	Perseus, with the help of Hermes and Athena, killed the only mortal Gorgon, Medusa; from her blood sprang Pegasus
Graeae	Old sisters, daughters of the sea god Phorcys and wife Ceto; grey-haired from birth, they share one eye and one tooth amongst themselves	Perseus stole their eye and tooth, only returning them after they agreed to help him with his quest for Medusa's head
Harpies	Daughters of Thaumas and Electra, they originally appear as beautiful deities, and later as winged monsters with hag-like female faces and the talons of birds of prey	Tormenters of blind prophet Phineus, they were vanquished by heroes Zetes and Calais of the Argonauts, who needed Phineus' advice
Hydra	Nine-headed monster from a marsh near Lerna, with poisonous breath and one immortal head	Slain by Hercules as the second of his labours; he made his arrows poisonous by dipping them in its blood
Minotaur	Man-eating monster that is half man and half bull; the offspring of Pasiphaë, wife of Minos, and a snow-white bull	Killed by Theseus in the Cretan labyrinth, with the aid of Ariadne, daughter of Minos, and her ball of thread
Nemean Lion	Supernatural lion whose skin cannot be penetrated by any weapon	Ordered to bring back the skin of the lion for his first labour, Hercules succeeded by throttling it to death
Orthrus	Two-headed dog and guard, along with herdsman Eurytion, of the cattle of Geryon; he is the brother of Cerberus	Hercules killed him to take possession of the cattle of Geryon for his tenth labour
Pegasus	Wild winged horse, son of sea god Poseidon and Gorgon Medusa, that becomes carrier of Zeus' lightning and thunderbolts	Captured and tamed by hero Bellerophon, but later threw him off when he attempted to fly to top of Mount Olympus
Python	Giant snake from the wooded slopes of Parnassus, near Delphi; son of Gaea, Mother Earth, and once a nurse to Typhon	Guarded the oracle until killed by Apollo; the Pythian Games and the Septeria festival were said to be established to commemorate this victory
Satyr	Deities of the woods and mountains, and companions of the god Dionysus, with pointed ears, horns, cloven hooves, tails, and sometimes goats' legs	In Hesiod they are brothers of the nymphs; another tradition suggests they were men punished with transformation by Hera for negligence in watching Dionysus
Scylla	Sea monster that has 12 feet and 6 heads with 3 rows of teeth; dwells in a cave on the opposite side of a strait to Charybdis	Originally a beautiful maiden loved by a sea god, her rival, the sorcerer Circe transformed her; no ship would pass without some victim being devoured by her
Sileni	Sometimes associated with Satyrs, sometimes regarded as a separate class of rural deity, distinguished by being part horse as opposed to goat	Silenus, the drunken and prophetic tutor of Dionysus, is the main representative of this class; Midas' kindness to him was rewarded with the golden touch
Sirens	Sea nymphs, with the bodies of birds and the heads of women; later represented with a woman's body terminating in the tail of a fish; daughters of sea god Phorcys	Would lure passing mariners to their death on the rocks with their sweet singing; however, Orpheus matched their singing, allowing the Argonaut' ship to pass safely
Sphinx	Monster with the head and breasts of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of a bird	Presented all entering Thebes with a riddle, killing them if they could not solve it; Oedipus succeeded, bringing about her death
Stymphalian Birds	Monstrous man-eating birds from the marshes of Stymphalus, with bronze beaks, wings and claws	For his sixth labour Hercules scared them with an instrument, and killed them with arrows or a slingshot as they took flight
Triton	Merman, with a human torso and the tail of a fish; son of sea god Poseidon and wife Amphitrite, he had the ability to raise and quieten the waves with his sea shell. In later legends a generic name referring to attendants of the water deities	Saved the Argonauts when a storm drove their ship on to the Libyan coast
Typhon	100-headed dragon, the offspring of Gaea	Although conquered by Zeus was believed to spew forth the mountain flows of Etna