![]() The Furies Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. It remained there until it was eventually killed by the hero Theseus with the help of Ariadne, the daughter of Minos. The Minotaur had an insatiable desire for human flesh, so Minos imprisoned it in a labyrinth built by the craftsman Daedalus. To punish him, Poseidon made Pasiphae fall in love with the bull and eventually bear the Minotaur. However, instead of sacrificing the bull as he should have, King Minos allowed the animal to live. ![]() It was the offspring of the Cretan Queen Pasiphae, wife of King Minos, and a snow-white bull that Poseidon had sent to be sacrificed to himself. The Minotaur had the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man. They were also responsible for causing changes in the winds. The Harpies also snatched away people and things from Earth and if someone went missing, they were usually to blame. They were called the ‘hounds of Zeus’ and their main role was to carry evildoers to the Furies (the Erinyes) to be punished. The Harpies were small, ugly mythological creatures with the face of a woman and the body of a bird, known as the personification of the storm winds. The Hydra was most famous for its battle with the hero Heracles who successfully killed it by cutting off its immortal head with a golden sword. The terrifying beast couldn’t be defeated since cutting off one head only caused two more to grow back. Some of its heads breathed fire and one of them was immortal. Born to Typhon and Echidna, the Hydra lived near Lake Lerna in Ancient Greece and haunted the swamps around it, claiming many lives. The Lernaean Hydra was a serpentine monster with nine deadly heads. Perseus took her severed head, using it to protect himself, and gifted it to Athena, who placed it on her aegis. Medusa suffered in isolation for many years until she was beheaded by Perseus. In Greek mythology, Medusa was a beautiful priestess of Athena who was raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple.Īngered by this, Athena punished Medusa by placing a curse on her, which turned her into a hideous creature with greenish skin, writhing snakes for hair and the ability to turn anyone who looked into her eyes into stone. They were also known for their inability to control their impulses and were lustful creatures responsible for raping countless mortals and nymphs. Satyrs were known for their ribaldry and for being lovers of music, women, dancing and wine. They had the upper body of a human and the lower body of a goat or horse from the waist below. Satyrs were half-beast, half-man creatures that lived in the hills and forests of ancient Greece. Towards the end of his life, he served Eos, the goddess of dawn, and was finally immortalized as the Pegasus constellation in the night sky. In other versions, Pegasus was paired with the hero Bellerophon, who tamed him and rode him into battle against the fire-breathing Chimera. The horse served Perseus faithfully until the hero died, after which he flew away to Mount Olympus where he continued to live out the rest of his days. Pegasus was an immortal, winged stallion, born from the Gorgon Medusa’s blood which spilled when she was beheaded by the hero Perseus. He was then either cast into Tartarus or buried under Mount Etna for all eternity. Typhon battled with Zeus, the god of thunder, who finally defeated him. While his depictions varied depending on the source, in general, Typhon was said to be gigantic and hideous with hundreds of different types of wings all over his body, eyes that glowed red and a hundred dragon heads sprouting from his main head. Typhon was the youngest son of Tartarus and Gaea, known as the ‘father of all monsters’ and was married to Echidna, an equally terrifying monster. Typhon Zeus aiming his thunderbolt at a winged and snake-footed Typhon. ![]() In this way, they lured the sailors to their island, killing and devouring them. The Sirens were famous for sitting on rocks and singing songs in their beautiful, seductive voices, mesmerizing sailors who heard them. In some versions, the Sirens are depicted as part woman and part fish, the famous mermaids that we know today. After the incident, Persephone’s mother Demeter turned them into bird-like creatures and sent them off to look for her daughter. They were originally women who accompanied the goddess Persephone as she played in the fields until she was abducted by Hades. The Sirens were dangerous man-eating creatures, with bodies that were half-bird and half-woman. The Sirens By Unknown author, Public Domain Here’s a look at some of the most popular and unique creatures in ancient Greek mythology.
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