Mythical Creatures

                                                                                                                 

 

                                                                                                                Pegasus  Winged Horse of Greek mythology that was the offspring of Poseidon and Medusa, having been born from its mother blood after slain by Perseus. It was a wild, untamed horse that no one could capture until It happened upon the well Pierene in the Acrocontinth, the fortress of the Corinthian Prince Bellerophon, who caught and managed to mollify it with a golden bridle given to him by the goddess Athena.

Unicorns   are Symbols of love and Purity. Whether they really existed in unknown. In alot of  legend's  they are said to look like a common white horse. Only the pure of heart and I think it was virgins could see the true beast instead of a horse like other people.

The black unicorn is less famous than the white one. Those have black fur, and their horns are not white, silver or golden, but dark red or black

      Mermaid's     Legendary sea creature with the head and torso of a woman and the tail of a fish. Its singing was said to bring about or warn of storms and shipwrecks. Mermaids are known to sing extremely beautiful, and they are often identified with the Sirens of Greek mythology. Sightings of mermaids are thought to be nothing more than open-sea mirages. Scientists today believe that the manatee might have been the actual creature known as a mermaid. I myself do not find a manatee to be the beautiful creature described in legend and myth  when thinking of a mermaid   

Sightings When, Where and by Whom

 

  Griffin/ Gryphon Creature originating from Mesopotamian art, it eventually worked its way to Greek mythology, where it was described as having the ears, body, hind legs, and tail of a lion, and the head, foreparts, and wings of an eagle. They were exceedingly strong, and their young was fed with human flesh. They were the "hounds" of Zeus that guarded Arimaspias, a stream flowing with gold that was supposedly located in Sicily.

Griffins symbolized knowledge (eagle) and valiance (lion

 

The Minotaur   In Greek mythology, King Minos of Crete had prayed for a pure white bull from the gods as a sign of their approval of his reign, which he would then sacrifice back to them. The gods consented, and Poseidon made such a pure white bull, later known as the Cretan Bull, rise from the sea and presented it to Minos. The king, however, decided to keep the bull for himself and instead sacrificed the best bull from his own herd. Poseidon, outraged by this, made Minos's wife, Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull. Daedalus, the renown architect of the time, was called upon to make a wooden cow hollowed out inside. Pasiphae crawled into this wooden cow and successfully mated with the bull. Their offspring was the Minotaur, a monster that had the upper portion of a bull and the lower portion of a man .

The Minotaur began terrorizing Crete, so Minos summoned Daedalus and had him build the Labyrinth, a maze impossible to get out of, where the Minotaur would be trapped in. Such a labyrinth was built, and the Minotaur was thrown in. Then, every year for nine years, seven young men and women came as tribute from Athens; these youths were thrown into the Labyrinth as sacrifices for the Minotaur to feed upon. Later, the hero Theseus learned of these atrocities and, while in Athens, volunteered to be one of the sacrifices.

At Crete, Theseus invoked the help of the princess Ariadne, whom he promised to marry, and she gave him something that would help him escape the Labyrinth—a ball of thread. He fastened the ball of thread at the entrance and unwound it as he traversed through the Labyrinth; this way, he could find his way back to the entrance. He eventually encountered the Minotaur, and he beat it to death as it slept. He then led the other youths back to the entrance.

 

gorgon - medusa                                               

The Gorgons are three hideous sisters from Greek mythology. It is said that they live in the far west and are the offspring of sea-gods. Instead of hair, they have live snakes; their necks are covered with scales; they have tusks like a boar's, golden hands and bronze wings. It is said, that the Gorgon, Medusa, was once a beautiful maiden, but because of her boasting that she was even more beautiful than Athena, the goddess of wisdom stripped her of all her beautiful qualities leaving her the hideous monster of infamy. Because of her appearance, Medusa has the power to turn anyone who gazes upon her to stone. Unlike her sisters though, Medusa is mortal, and is killed by Perseus with the aid of Athena and Hermes. Her sisters, the other gorgons, Stheno and Euryale, are immortal. The blood of the Gorgon had special powers. It was a lethal poison, but it also granted Erichthonius the power to reanimate the dead. From the blood of Medusa, it is said that the winged horse Pagasuswas created. The decapitated head of Medusa was used by Perseus to kill the sea monster Centus. He then gave the head to Athena who fixed it in the middle of her Egis, her shield (or breast plate)

The Blood of Medusa:

Even in death Medusa's blood retains its powers. It gives life to Pegasus, the winged, militant steed of Zeus that creates serpents in the earth with the touch of his hoof, and who also introduced Dionysiac worship to Athens. Also Chrysaor, the golden bladed giant, is born from her bleeding neck. Medusas' blood is drained from her body and later used to raise the dead, (making Asclepius a great healer). Used from her right vein it heals and nourishes life, from her left serpent it kills.

The snakes, her dreaded face, her look of stone, and her magical blood all correlate with the ancient menstrual taboo. Primitive folk believed that the look of a menstruating woman could turn a man to stone. Menstrual blood was also thought to be the source of all mortal life and also of death, as the two are inseparable.

 

    Centaur

The most famous centaurs are those from Greek mythology. In these myths, the centaurs were a race of creatures that were half man and half horse. They were sired by Ixion and a cloud. By definition, the centaur is a creature, half man and half horse. However, there are many variations of the centaur. Some had a human body terminating in human legs and feet with equine body and hind legs extended behind the waist. Another variation gave the centaur wings. Some times they have equine ears and sometimes they have both equine and human genitalia. Other variations include the Onocentaur , Bucentaur, and Leontocentaurs. Aside from Chiron and to a lesser degree Pholos, the centaur population as a whole was associated with drunkenness and physical, especially sexual, violence. Nevertheless, the people of antiquity were too fond of horses to consider the union of horse and man as a degraded compound. In fact, the centaur is the only of the fancied monsters of this time to be given any good traits. Before the appearance of the Greek centaur there are earlier examples of man-horse creatures.

It is depicted as a hunter using a bow as it's principle weapon. After the Greek period it became a very popular symbol in art right through the middle ages.

 

                Sphinx                     

Originally in Egyptian mythology, the sphinx was depicted as having the body of a lion, wings and a human face. It is invariably male and is a benevolent creature. It is seen as the embodiment of royalty. There are three types of sphinx. The androsphinx, which is the typical lion with a human face/head. There is the criosphinx which is a ram-headed lion. Finally, there is the hierocosphonx which has the body of a lion and the head of a hawk. In Greek myth the sphinx is female and a malevolent being. It usually represents a form of divine punishment. The name sphinx comes from the Greek sphiggein, meaning to draw tight. Hence, the Greek sphinx is envisioned as a strangler. She would sit on the top of a rock and stop all travelers that came in that direction, challenging them with a riddle. According to Apollodorus, the sphinx is a daughter of Echinda and Typhon. He also said that the riddle for which the sphinx was famous for asking was taught to it by the muses. This riddle,

What animal is that which in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?

Had to be answered by the traveler to pass the sphinx. If the traveler did not answer correctly, he was eaten by the sphinx. However, Oedipus solved her riddle. When asked the riddle, he answered man, as a child crawls upon its hands and knees in childhood, walks upright as an adult, and walks aided with a cane in old age. Upon hearing the correct answer, the Sphinx, so mortified at the fact that someone had answered correctly, threw herself onto the rocks below, killing herself.

Sphinx, the "strangler" started her life in Egypt, where the lion-bodied monster had a bearded male head and represented royalty. But in Greece--in a city with the Egyptian name Thebes--the Sphinx became female. She was said to have been a Maenad who grew so wild in her intoxicated worship that she became monstrous: snake, lion, and woman combined

 

Sirens

 

The Sirens were women that sang so beautifully they lured sailors to them. The sailors would jump overboard when they heard the Sirens' songs, only to be killed in the rocky waters below. These beautiful sea monsters were known to be the symbolization of the souls of the dead, taking revenge on the living.