The Athenians were saved by the hero Theseus, who killed the Minotaur and escaped with the help of Minos's daughter Ariadne. He demanded a tithe of young men from Athens, who were fed to the minotaur. The maze was designed by the mythical Daedalus. King Minos kept it hidden in a labyrinth (a maze) in Knossos, on the island of Crete, where he used it to frighten his enemies. The Minotaur was a man-eating monster with the head of a bull. In pop culture, the lamia is typically depicted as half-woman and half-snake, although this wasn't a common image in Ancient Greece. Lamia was a Libyan queen who lost her children and went mad with grief. The lamia is a child-eating monster, sometimes considered a wicked spirit or daemon. Hercules sought out the monster in its dark marsh and succeeded in destroying it. Every time one head was injured, another two grew in its place. The Hydra was a massive and poisonous serpent with nine heads. Show off your mythology knowledge with our quiz on the gods of Olympus. The Olympian Gods Quiz Think you have what it takes? They famously appear in the story of Jason and the Argonauts, where they torment the Greek heroes on their voyage. Harpies are female monsters either depicted as half-woman half-birds creatures, or as birds with the heads of women. From her severed neck sprang the winged horse Pegasus. Athena aided the hero Perseus in killing the Gorgon Medusa by beheading her while looking only at her reflection. Their hair was made of serpents, and one look from a Gorgon's eyes would turn a man to stone. The Gorgons were horrifyingly ugly monsters who lived at the edge of the world. The brutal Polyphemus, a Cyclops and a son of the sea god Poseidon, lived on an island, where he was blinded by Odysseus in the Odyssey. The Cyclopes made lightning and thunderbolts for Zeus to use. CyclopesĮach of the Cyclopes was gigantic and had a single eye in the middle of its forehead. It was slain by the hero Bellerophon, aided by the Pegasus. It has the (fire-breathing) head and body of a lion, a snake for a tail, and the head of a goat protruding from its back. The Chimera is one of the most famous monsters of Greek mythology, appearing in art for thousands of years. In his final labor, Hercules went to the underworld and kidnapped Cerberus.
He was owned by Hades, god of the dead, who used the fearsome hound to guard the entrance to the underworld. CerberusĬerberus was a huge and powerful three-headed dog. Unlike Chiron, most centaurs are depicted as bestial raiders and brutes (perhaps inspired by Greek opinions of the horse-riding Scythians). Perhaps the most famous is Chiron, the wise counselor who trained the young hero Achilles. CentaursĬentaurs are half-man half-horse creatures who appear in many Greek myths. Afterward, Hera put Argus's eyes in the tail of the peacock, her favorite bird. Argus was also the slayer of the monster Echidna. Hera employed him as a guard to watch over the nymph Io, to keep Zeus from bedding her. He was given the name "Panoptes", or "All-Seeing". ArgusĪrgus was a giant who had as many a hundred eyes which were located all over his body. To learn more about the Greek monsters that fought with the mighty Heracles-the Lernaean Hydra,the Nemean Lion, and more-read our article on the Labors of Heracles. Here are just some of the many Greek mythological creatures that haunted the imaginations of the Classical world. According to most accounts, these mythical creatures were the descendants of the horrid Typhon and Echidna, spawned beneath Mount Etna in Sicily.
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Updated Novem| Infoplease Staff Mythical MonstersĪncient Greek mythology is full of fearsome and terrible monsters, which have inspired writers from Homer down to the modern day.
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