Post by Elena O'Malley on Dec 10, 2010 15:47:45 GMT 10
Mythological Creatures
[/size][/size]Animal-Like
Cerberus: Is the guardian of the gates of the Underworld, Hades. Its sole purpose is to prevent doomed souls from escaping. Cerberus; like his brother, Orthrus, was spawned from Echidna. It is most commonly depicted as a giant dog with three heads, and sometimes a mane composed of snakes, much like the hair of Medusa. The tails are that of a serpent.
Pegasus: Usually white (though once in a rare while are black), winged horses. They live in the forest and live in small herds. Very rarely one Pegasus will befriend a human, or elf and become his/her companion.
Chimera: The Chimera was a monstrous beast which ravaged the countryside of Lycia in Anatolia that was to be able to breathe fire. The chimera is also female and is the youngest daughter of Echidna and Typhon
Hippocampus: It has typically been depicted as a horse in its forepart with a coiling, scaly, fishlike hindquarter.
Hydra: The hydra has 9 heads, with the middle one being immortal and it has very poisonous venom and breath. If the heads are cut off, the heads would grow back. One head cut-off would result to two heads growing back in its place. The Hydra is said to to have live in the Lernean marsh which is located near Argolis, the region around Argos, Greece. The Hydra guards the entrance to the Underworld.
Human-Like
Centaur: One race having the head, torso, and arms of a man, and the body and legs of a horse. The head and torso of a human joined at the (human's) waist to the horse's withers, where the horse's neck would be. Often caught between the two natures, embodied in contrasted myths, of centaurs as the embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the Lapiths, or conversely as teachers, as Chiron. Centaurs are said to be extremely heavy drinkers, and were usually depicted as beasts of Dionysus. They were thought to carry bows and are very short tempered creatures.
Cyclops: Is a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of its forehead.
Echidna: Half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days.
Erinyes ("the angry ones") or Eumenides ("the gracious ones"): Are female, chthonic deities of vengeance or supernatural personifications of the anger of the dead. They represent regeneration and the potency of creation, which both consumes and empowers. The heads of the Erinyes are wreathed with serpents and their eyes drip with blood, rendering their appearance rather weird and disturbing. Sometimes they are seen with the wings of a bat or bird and the body of a dog.
Gaia: The mother of the seas, mountains, valleys, and all other earthly features. She is known to preside over marriages, nurse the sick, and is the first among the oracles.
Harpy: Is seen mainly as winged death-spirits though can also bring life.
Kempe: Kampe is a monstrous centaurine creature who, from the waist up, has the body of a serpentine-haired woman. Below that she has the body of a scaly drakon with a thousand vipers for feet and sprouting from her waist the heads of fifty fearsome beasts--lions, boars and other wild animals. Dark wings rise from her shoulders and above her head she lifts a furious scorpion's tail.
Lamia: Once the beautiful Queen of Lybia and was seduced by the great king of the Greek gods himself - Zeus. His jealous wife, Hera, reacted by killing Lamia's children and turning her into a hateful monster - a woman above the waist and a serpent below. In this form she bares more children, the vampiric Lamiae or Lamya, which prey particularly upon sleeping children. Their reptillian bodies have a woman's head and breasts, with cloven hind hooves, a horse's tail, and feline forelegs.
Medusa: Half snake and half woman, she was once a beautiful blonde haired woman who was taken by Poseidon on the floor of Athena’s temple. Disgusted with the woman who had tempted the God of the Sea, Athena punished Medusa by turning half her body into that of a serpent and replacing her hair with snakes. She can turn those who look into her eyes to stone.
Minotaur: Half human and half bull. It is said to live at the center of a great labyrinth.
Nymph: Any member of a large class of female nature entities, either bound to a particular location or landform or joining the retinue of a god or goddess, particularly Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Nymphs were the frequent target of lusty satyrs. Nymphs take the appearance of young, beautiful, gentle girls. They are not immortal, though they are very long-lived, and their lives end with the death of a particular natural object, such as a tree, to which they are attached.
- Water Nymphs, called Nereids, are similar to Mermaids. The 3,000 Oceanids, the Nymphs of the oceans, are the daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys.
- Land Nymphs are linked to particular geographic locations. Oreids, who inhabit mountains and ravines, often accompany Artemis on hunting expeditions. Alseids protect glens and groves, while Auloniads are found in pastures and mountain valleys, often in the retinue of Pan.
- Wood Nymphs are identified with particular species of trees. Often their bodies become part of the trees they inhabit. Dryads are associated with oak trees, Hamadryads with nut, elm and fig trees, and Meliae with ash trees.
Satyr: Satyrs have a strong human torso and goat legs, a goat tail, pointed ears, horns, curly hair and full beards, like fauns.
Siren: Naiads (sea nymphs) who lived on an island called Sirenum scopuli. Approaching sailors were drawn to them by their enchanting singing, causing them to sail into the cliffs and drown. They were considered the daughters of Achelous or Phorcysthey were playmates of young Persephone and were changed into the monsters of lore by Demeter for failing to intervene when Persephone was abducted.
Other Creatures
Charybdis: Charybdis is a sea monster, once a beautiful naiad and the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia. She swallows huge amounts of water three times a day before belching them back out again, creating whirlpools. Charybdis was very loyal to her father in his endless feud with Zeus; it was she who rode the hungry tides after Poseidon had stirred up a storm, and led them onto the beaches, gobbling up whole villages, submerging fields, drowning forests, claiming them for the sea. She won so much land for her father's kingdom that Zeus became enraged and changed her into a monster.
*codeword: Peregrine*
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