![]() 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. Ancient Greek mythology is full of fearsome and terrible monsters, which have inspired writers from Homer down to the modern day.
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