LEGENDARY CREATURES FROM GREEK MYTHOLOGY

PYTHON

Usually represented as a serpent, he presided over the Delphic oracle.

Unfortunately he became enemies with the Olympian deity Apollo

who ended up killing him and taking the oracle for himself.

ORTHRUS

A two headed dog tasked with guarding a huge herd of red cattle,

he was killed by Hercules who then kept all the cattle as proof of his

victory.

ICHTHYOCENTAURS

These were a pair of centaurine sea-gods with the upper body of a man,

the lower front of a horse, and the tail of a fish. They were set in the sky

as the astronomical constellation Pisces.

SCYLLA

Scylla was a monster that lived on one side of a narrow channel of

water, opposite its counterpart Charybdis. The two sides of the strait

were within an arrow’s range of each other—so close that sailors

attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla

with disastrous results.

TYPHON

Known as the “Father of All Monsters”, Typhon was believed to be

the most deadly monster of Greek mythology. 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.

OPHIOTAURUS

Ophiotaurus was a creature that was part bull and part serpent.

It’s entrails were said to grant the power to defeat the gods to

whoever burned them.

LAMIA

Lamia was apparently a beautiful queen of Libya who became a

child-eating daemon. In the myth, she is a mistress of the god Zeus,

causing Zeus’ jealous wife, Hera, to kill all of Lamia’s children (except for

Scylla, who is herself cursed) and transform her into a monster that

hunts and devours the children of others.

GRAEAE

The Graeae were three sisters who shared one eye and one tooth among

them. Not surprisingly they weren’t known for their beauty.

ECHIDNA

Half woman half snake, Echidna known as the “Mother of All Monsters”

because most of the monsters in Greek mythology were her offspring.