Ancient Greco-Roman, Celtic, Semitic, Norse, Chinese and Sumerian folklore all had a wealth of legendary beasts.
Classical mythology is a catalogue of indescribable horrors, with all sorts of monsters populating a world of cruelty and evil. Folklore created a fantastic dimension dominated by strange forces and terrifying creatures, foul because the latter were hybrids that violated the laws of natural forms.
The Harpies. Saved from the sea, the Strophades we gain, / So called in Greece, where dwells, with Harpies, / Heavenly ire / Ne'er sent a pest more loathsome; ne'er were seen / Worse plagues to issue from the Stygian mire / Birds maiden-faced, but trailing filth obscene, / With taloned hands and looks for ever pale and lean.
- Virgil, The Aeneid, III, 354ff.
Polyphemus. This was the abode of a huge monster who was then away from home shepherding his flocks. He would have nothing to do with other people [...] With a sudden clutch he gripped up two of my men at once and dashed them down upon the ground as though they had been puppies. Their brains were shed upon the ground, and the earth was wet with their blood. Then he tore them limb from limb and supped upon them.
- Homer, The Odyssey, IX, 235ff.
The Chimaera. The Chimaera, who was not a human being, but a goddess, for she had the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent, while her body was that of a goat, and she breathed forth flames of fire; but Bellerophon slew her, for he was guided by signs from heaven.
- Homer, The Iliad, VI, 222ff.
Pagan Divinities. These are the teachings of your gods that prostitute themselves together with you!... And what of your other images?! Certain statuettes of Pan, certain naked female figures, drunken satyrs and swollen phalluses, painted without any clothing and put to shame by their own immoderation.
- Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus, 61
Monsters? There is also talk of other fabulous human portents, which are not real, but invented: they are symbols of a set reality. This is the case of Geryon, king of Spain, of whom it is said he was born with three bodies: in reality, there were three brothers who got on so well that it was almost as if the three bodies shared one soul. This is also the case with the Gorgons, prostitutes with snakes for hair, who with one look turned men into stone. They were said to have only one eye, which they took turns in using. In reality, they were three sisters all equally beautiful, almost as one to the eye, the sight of whom stunned men so much they fancied that the sisters had turned them into stone.
- Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, XI, 3
YOU ARE READING
Myths and Mortals (Greek Mythology)
FantasyDo you know your Artemis from your Aphrodite? Can you name the god of the Underworld, the sea, the sun? Which god rules them all, holding a thunderbolt in his hand, or claw, when he transforms into an eagle? Or what monsters lurk in the depths of Ta...
