Myths and legends of the peoples of the world - a list of magical animals. List of mythical creatures of various nations

Are you familiar with Greek mythology? This list will help you test your knowledge or even enrich it. Legendary creatures from ancient Greek folklore not without reason became famous throughout the world, because they possessed simply extraordinary qualities. These mythical monsters are some of the most bizarre, scary and incredible creatures, among which there are not only amazing animals, but also the strangest humanoids imaginable. Are you ready for the educational program?

25. Python or Python

Usually depicted as a snake guarding the entrance to the Delphic oracle. According to legend, the cruel Python was killed by Apollo himself, one of the famous Olympian gods. After the death of the serpent, Apollo founded his own oracle on the site of the Delphic oracle.

24. Orff, Orth, Ortr, Orthros, Orfr


Photo: wikimedia commons

A two-headed dog whose task was to guard a huge herd of magical red bulls. This monster was killed by the Greek hero Hercules, who took the whole herd for himself as proof of his victory over Orff. Orff was rumored to be the father of several other monsters, including the Sphinx and the Chimera, and his brother was the legendary Cerberus.

23. Ichthyocentaurs


Photo: Dr Murali Mohan Gurram

These were the sea gods centaurs-tritons, in which the upper body looked like a human, the lower pair of limbs was a horse, and they were followed by a fish tail. They were often depicted next to Aphrodite during her birth. Perhaps you could also meet these ichthyocentaurs in paintings dedicated to the zodiac constellation Pisces.

22. Skill


Photo: wikimedia commons

The six-headed Skilla was a sea monster that lived on one side of the narrow strait under the rock, while on the other side the no less dangerous Charybdis was waiting for the sailors (point 13). The distance between the shores of this narrow strait and the shelters of evil mythical creatures was equal to the flight of a launched arrow, so travelers very often sailed too close to one of the monsters and died.

21. Typhon


Photo: wikimedia commons

Typhon was the personification of the volcanic forces of the Earth and at the same time was considered the most deadly demon in all of Greece. His upper body was human, and this character was so huge that he propped up the starry sky, and his arms reached the eastern and western corners of the world. Instead of the usual human head, a hundred dragon heads erupted from Typhon's neck and shoulders.

20. Ophiotaurus


Photo: shutterstock

The Ophiotaurus was another Greek hybrid monster that was feared more than death. According to legend, the killing and ritual burning of the insides of this half-bull-half-snake gave the power with which you can defeat any gods. For the same reason, the titans killed the monster to overthrow the Olympian gods, but Zeus managed to send the Eagle to peck the giblets of the defeated creature before they were burned on the altar, and Olympus was saved.

19. Lamia

Photo: wikimedia commons

It is said that once Lamia was a beautiful ruler of the Libyan kingdom, but later became a cruel devourer of children and a dangerous demon. According to the myth, Zeus loved the charming Lamia so much, his wife Hera, out of jealousy, killed all the children of Lamia (except for the damned Skilla) and transformed the Libyan queen into a monster hunting other people's children.

18. Grays or Phorkiads


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The Grays were three sisters with one common eye and tooth. It is not surprising that they were not famous at all for their beauty, but rather for their gray hairs and ugliness, instilling fear in everyone. In addition, their names were very eloquent: Deino (trembling or death), Enyo (horror) and Pemphredo (anxiety).

17. Echidna

Photo: shutterstock

Half woman half snake. Echidna was called the mother of all monsters, since most of the monsters from ancient Greek myths were considered her offspring. According to legend, Echidna and Typhon passionately loved each other, and it was their union that gave rise to many insidious creatures. The Greeks believed that she produced a poison that caused insanity.

16. Nemean lion


Photo: Yelkrokoyade

The Nemean Lion was a vicious monster that lived in the Nemea region. As a result, he was killed by the famous ancient Greek hero Hercules. It was impossible to kill this mythical creature with a simple weapon because of its unusual golden hair, which was unrealistic to pierce with ordinary swords, arrows or stakes, and therefore Hercules had to strangle Nemean lion with bare hands. The strong man managed to tear off the skin of the beast only with the help of the claws and teeth of the most defeated lion.

15. Sphinx


Photo: Tilemahos Efthimiadis / Athens, Greece

The Sphinx was a zoomorphic creature with the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, the tail of a bull, and the head of a woman. According to legend, this character was a ruthless and insidious monster. Those who could not solve the riddles, according to the tradition of all myths, died a painful death in the jaws of a furious Sphinx. The monster itself died only after the brave king Oedipus solved his riddle.

14. Erinyes

Photo: wikimedia commons

Erinia is translated from Greek as "angry". They were avenging goddesses. According to legend, they punished anyone who uttered false oaths, committed any atrocity, or said anything against one of the gods.

13. Charybdis


Photo: shutterstock

The daughter of Poseidon and Gaia, Charybdis was a huge sea monster with a mouth full of face and fins or flippers instead of arms and legs. Three times a day she consumed great amount sea ​​water, and then spit it back, thus creating powerful whirlpools that easily sucked in large ships. It was she who was the neighbor of the deadly Skilla from 22 points.

12. Harpies


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They were creatures with the bodies of birds and women's faces. They stole food from innocent victims and sent sinners straight to the vengeful Erinyes (point 14). Harpy translates as "kidnapper" or "predator". Zeus often turned to them so that these creatures would punish or torture someone.

11. Satyrs


Photo: shutterstock

Satyrs are often depicted as hybrids of humans and goats. They usually have goat horns and hind legs. Satyrs loved to drink, play the flute, and served the god of winemaking, Dionysus. These forest demons were true lazybones and led the most careless and unbridled way of life.

10. Sirens


Photo: shutterstock

Beautiful and very dangerous mythical characters. These fish-tailed goddesses of fate lured sailors with their sweet voices, and because of their charms, ships more than once flew into the rocks and crashed off the coast. Drowning wanderers were torn to pieces and eaten by these creatures.

9. Griffin


Photo: shutterstock

The griffin is a mythical creature with the body, tail and hind legs of a lion, and its head, wings and claws on the front legs were eagle. The lion was traditionally considered the king of all land monsters, and the eagle was the king of all birds, so in ancient Greek mythology the griffin was an incredibly powerful and majestic character.

8. Chimera


Photo: wikimedia commons

The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster whose body consisted of 3 different animals: a lion, a snake, and a goat. The monster was from Lycia (the ancient state of Asia Minor). Most often, a chimera was called any mythical or fictional creature with body parts from different animals. In a figurative sense, the chimera is considered the personification of any unfulfilled desire or fantasy.

7. Cerberus


Photo: wikimedia commons

Cerberus is one of the most famous characters in ancient Greek mythology. According to legend, it was a three-headed dog with a snake tail, guarding the gates to the Underworld. No one who crossed the River Styx could escape from the underworld, and the ferocious Cerberus strictly followed this, until one day Hercules defeated him.

6. Cyclops

Photo: Odilon Redon

The Cyclopes were a separate race of one-eyed giants. But these creatures were cruel and ferocious monsters who were not even afraid of the gods, but at the same time they served the god of fire and blacksmithing, Hephaestus.

5. Hydra


Photo: shutterstock

The Hydra was an ancient sea monster resembling a huge snake with reptilian features, from the body of which sprouted countless heads. Instead of one severed head, she always grew 2 new heads. The hydra had poisonous breath, and even its blood was so dangerous that the slightest contact with it was fatal.

4. Gorgons


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Probably the most famous of all the ancient Greek Gorgons was Medusa. She was also the only mortal gorgon among her evil sisters. Instead of hair, Medusa grew snakes, and one look from her was enough to turn a person to stone. According to legend, Perseus managed to behead her, armed with a mirror instead of a shield.

3. Minotaur


Photo: shutterstock

The Minotaur was a mythical creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man who ate innocent people. He lived in the Knossos labyrinth, built by the ancient Greek engineer and artist Daedalus and his son Icarus. The monster was eventually slain by an Attic hero named Theseus.

2. Centaur


Photo: shutterstock

The centaur was a fabulous creature with the head, arms and torso of a man, and below the waist he resembled an ordinary horse. Chiron was one of the most famous centaurs in Greek mythology. Most centaurs were violent and hostile creatures who liked to drink and revered only the god of winemaking, Dionysus. However, Chiron was a wise and kind creature and even a mentor to such ancient Greek heroes like Hercules and Achilles.

1 Pegasus


Photo: shutterstock

This is one of the most famous mythical creatures of the ancient world. The Greeks believed that Pegasus was a divine stallion of snow-white color, and that he had huge wings. According to legend, Pegasus was the child of Poseidon and the Gorgon Medusa. According to one of the legends, every time this fabulous horse hit the ground with its hoof, a new source of water was born.

Unicorns and mermaids - fact or fiction? We present a list of mythical creatures, evidence of the existence of which people continue to look for over the centuries.

water creatures

Loch Ness monster

The next mention of the "water beast" is found in 1880 - because of a sailboat that drowned in Loch Ness. The circumstances of the crash were very unusual: according to the descriptions of eyewitnesses, as soon as the ship reached the middle of the reservoir, it was suddenly broken in half by something resembling tentacles or a tail.

Rumors about the existence of the monster began to spread widely after 1933, when the Evening Couriers newspaper published a detailed account of an "eyewitness" who noticed an unknown creature in the lake.

In September 2016, amateur photographer Ian Bremner managed to take a picture of a 2-meter snake-like creature slicing through the expanse of Loch Ness. The photo is quite convincing, but the press accused Bremner of a hoax, and someone decided that the photo depicts three frolicking seals.

Mermaids

In Slavic folklore, the souls of drowned women turned into mermaids. Some ancient Slavic peoples they also believed that the mermaid is the spirit of a deceased child, whom death overtook on the Rusal (preceding the holiday of the Trinity) week. It was believed that during these 7 days, mermaids walk the Earth, emerging from the water after the Ascension of the Lord.

Mermaids are classified as evil spirits that can harm a person, for example, drown him. It was customary to portray these creatures naked and without a headdress, less often in a torn sundress.

Sirens

According to another version, they became winged because they could not fulfill the order of the gods. As punishment, the Thunderer Zeus left them a beautiful girlish body, but turned his hands into wings, because of which they could no longer remain in the world of people.

The meeting of people with sirens is described in Homer's poem "The Odyssey". The mythical maidens enchanted the sailors with their singing, and their ships crashed on the reefs. Captain Odysseus ordered his crew to plug their ears with beeswax to counter the sweet-voiced half-woman half-birds, and his ship escaped destruction.

kraken

200 years later, in 1897, researchers discovered the giant squid Architeutis in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, reaching 16.5 meters in length. It has been suggested that this creature was mistaken for the kraken two centuries earlier.

It is not so easy to see the kraken in the vastness of the ocean: when its body protrudes above the water, it is easy to mistake it for a small island, of which there are thousands in the ocean.

flying creatures

Phoenix

Mentions of the phoenix are found in the myths of Ancient Greece in the mythology of the ancient Egyptian Heliopolis, in which the phoenix is ​​described as the patron of large time cycles.

This fabulous bird with bright red plumage personifies renewal and immortality in modern culture. So, the phoenix rising from the flame, accompanied by the inscription "The only Phoenix of the whole world" is depicted on the medals English queen Elizabeth II.

Pegasus

In honor of this fictional winged horse, the constellation Pegasus is named, which is located southwest near Andromeda and consists of 166 stars.

Dragon

The first mention of the Serpent dates back to the 11th century. On the harp, made by the settlers of the Novgorod lands, you can find images of a three-headed lizard, which was originally considered the king of the underwater world.

In some legends, Gorynych lives in the mountains (therefore, it is believed that his name comes from the word "mountain"). In others, he sleeps on a stone in the sea and combines the ability to control two elements at once - fire and water.

Wyvern

It is known that the first legends about wyverns appeared in the Stone Age: this creature personified ferocity. Subsequently, his image was used by the leaders of the troops to instill fear in the enemy.

A creature similar to a wyvern can be found on Orthodox icons depicting the struggle of St. Michael (or George) with a dragon.

ground creatures

Unicorns

The earliest evidence for the existence of unicorns dates back to the 5th century BC. The ancient Greek historian Ctesias was the first to describe “Indian wild donkeys with one horn on their foreheads, blue eyes and a red head”, and whoever drinks wine or water from the horn of this donkey will be cured of all diseases and will never get sick again.

No one except Ctesias saw this animal, but his story was widely disseminated thanks to Aristotle, who included a description of the unicorn in his History of Animals.

Bigfoot/Yeti

The first mention of Bigfoot was recorded from the words of Chinese peasants: in 1820 they met a tall, shaggy monster with large paws. In the 1880s, expeditions began to be equipped in European countries to search for traces of Bigfoot. The Valkyries Carry the Dead to Valhalla

On rare occasions, the maidens are allowed to decide the outcome of a battle, but more often than not, they carry out the will of their father, Odin, who decides who will be victorious in a bloody battle.

Valkyries are most often depicted in armor and helmets with horns, and shining light emanates from their swords. The story goes that the god Odin endowed his daughters with the capacity for compassion so that they would accompany the dead in battle to the “hall of the slain.”

Sphinx

Legend has it that a sphinx woman guarded the entrance to the city of Thebes. Everyone who met her on their way had to guess the riddle: “Who walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening?” Unguessed people died from clawed paws, and only Oedipus could name the correct answer: man.

The essence of the clue is that when a person is born, he crawls on all fours, in adulthood he walks on two legs, and in old age he is forced to rely on a cane. Then the monster dropped from the top of the mountain into the abyss, and the entrance to Thebes became free.

The editors of the site offer to learn about the most unusual non-fictional creatures.
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Ancient Greece is considered the cradle of European civilization, which has given modern times a lot of cultural wealth and inspired scientists and artists. The myths of Ancient Greece hospitably open the doors to a world inhabited by gods, heroes and monsters. The intricacies of relationships, the insidiousness of nature, divine or human, unthinkable fantasies plunge us into the abyss of passions, making us shudder with horror, empathy and admiration for the harmony of that reality that existed many centuries ago, but so relevant at all times!

1) Typhon

The most powerful and frightening creature of all those generated by Gaia, the personification of the fiery forces of the earth and its vapors, with their destructive actions. The monster has incredible strength and has 100 dragon heads on the back of its head, with black tongues and fiery eyes. From its mouths one hears the ordinary voice of the gods, then the roar of a terrible bull, then the roar of a lion, then the howling of a dog, then a sharp whistle that echoes in the mountains. Typhon was the father of mythical monsters from Echidna: Orff, Cerberus, Hydra, Colchis Dragon and others who threatened the human race on earth and under the earth until the hero Hercules destroyed them, except for the Sphinx, Cerberus and Chimera. From Typhon all the empty winds went, except Notus, Boreas and Zephyr. Typhon, crossing the Aegean, scattered the islands of the Cyclades, which had previously been closely spaced. The fiery breath of the monster reached the island of Fer and destroyed its entire western half, and turned the rest into a scorched desert. The island has since taken on the shape of a crescent. Giant waves raised by Typhon reached the island of Crete and destroyed the kingdom of Minos. Typhon was so intimidating and strong that the Olympian gods fled from their abode, refusing to fight with him. Only Zeus, the bravest of the young gods, decided to fight Typhon. The fight went on for a long time, in the heat of battle, the opponents moved from Greece to Syria. Here Typhon shattered the earth with his giant body, subsequently these traces of the battle were filled with water and became rivers. Zeus pushed Typhon north and threw him into the Ionian Sea, near the Italian coast. The Thunderer incinerated the monster with lightning and threw him into Tartarus under Mount Etna on the island of Sicily. In ancient times, it was believed that the numerous eruptions of Etna occur due to the fact that lightning, previously thrown by Zeus, erupts from the mouth of the volcano. Typhon served as the personification of the destructive forces of nature, such as hurricanes, volcanoes, tornadoes. The word "typhoon" came from the English version of this Greek name.

2) Dracains

Represent a female snake or dragon, often with human features. Dracains include, in particular, Lamia and Echidna.

The name "lamia" etymologically comes from Assyria and Babylon, where the demons who killed infants were called so. Lamia, the daughter of Poseidon, was the queen of Libya, the beloved of Zeus and gave birth to children from him. The extraordinary beauty of Lamia herself kindled a fire of revenge in the heart of Hera, and out of jealousy, Hera killed Lamia's children, turned her beauty into ugliness and deprived her husband's beloved of sleep. Lamia was forced to take refuge in a cave and, at the behest of Hera, turned into a bloody monster, in desperation and madness, kidnapping and devouring other people's children. Since Hera deprived her of sleep, Lamia wandered tirelessly at night. Zeus, who took pity on her, gave her the opportunity to take out her eyes in order to fall asleep, and only then could she become harmless. Becoming in a new form half woman, half snake, she gave birth to a terrible offspring called lamias. Lamia have polymorphic abilities, can act in various guises, usually as animal-human hybrids. However, more often they are likened to beautiful girls, because it is easier to charm careless men. They also attack the sleeping and deprive them of their vitality. These nocturnal ghosts, under the guise of beautiful maidens and young men, suck the blood of young people. In ancient times, ghouls and vampires were also called lamia, which, according to popular imagination Greeks, young men and virgins were hypnotized and then killed by drinking their blood. Lamia, with some skill, is easy to expose, for this it is enough to make her give a voice. Since the tongue of lamias is forked, they are deprived of the ability to speak, but they can whistle melodiously. In later legends of European peoples, Lamia was depicted in the form of a snake with a head and chest. beautiful woman. It was also associated with a nightmare - Mara.

The daughter of Forkis and Keto, the granddaughter of Gaia-Earth and the god of the sea Pontus, she was depicted as a gigantic woman with a beautiful face and a spotted snake body, less often a lizard, combining beauty with an insidious and malicious disposition. She gave birth to a whole host of monsters from Typhon, different in appearance, but disgusting in their essence. When she attacked the Olympians, Zeus drove her and Typhon away. After the victory, the Thunderer imprisoned Typhon under Mount Etna, but allowed Echidna and her children to live as a challenge to future heroes. She was immortal and ageless and lived in a gloomy cave underground far from people and gods. Crawling out to hunt, she lay in wait and lured travelers, further mercilessly devouring them. The mistress of snakes, Echidna, had an unusually hypnotic gaze, which not only people, but also animals were unable to resist. In various versions of the myths, Echidna was killed by Hercules, Bellerophon or Oedipus during her undisturbed sleep. Echidna is by nature a chthonic deity, whose power, embodied in his descendants, was destroyed by the heroes, marking the victory of ancient Greek heroic mythology over primitive teratomorphism. The ancient Greek legend of Echidna formed the basis of medieval legends about the monstrous reptile as the most vile of all creatures and the unconditional enemy of mankind, and also served as an explanation for the origin of dragons. Echidna is the name given to an oviparous mammal covered with needles, living in Australia and the Pacific Islands, as well as the Australian snake, the largest of the poisonous snakes in the world. Echidna is also called an evil, caustic, insidious person.

3) Gorgons

These monsters were the daughters of the sea god Phorkis and his sister Keto. There is also a version that they were the daughters of Typhon and Echidna. There were three sisters: Euryale, Stheno and Medusa Gorgon - the most famous of them and the only mortal of the three monstrous sisters. Their appearance inspired horror: winged creatures covered with scales, with snakes instead of hair, fanged mouths, with a look that turns all living things into stone. During the fight between the hero Perseus and Medusa, she was pregnant by the god of the seas, Poseidon. From the headless body of Medusa with a stream of blood came her children from Poseidon - the giant Chrysaor (father of Geryon) and the winged horse Pegasus. From the drops of blood that fell into the sands of Libya, poisonous snakes appeared and destroyed all living things in it. Libyan legend says that red corals appeared from the stream of blood that spilled into the ocean. Perseus used the head of Medusa in a battle with a sea dragon sent by Poseidon to devastate Ethiopia. Showing the face of Medusa to the monster, Perseus turned it into stone and saved Andromeda, the royal daughter, who was intended to be sacrificed to the dragon. The island of Sicily is traditionally considered the place where the Gorgons lived and where Medusa, depicted on the flag of the region, was killed. In art, Medusa was depicted as a woman with snakes instead of hair and often boar tusks instead of teeth. In Hellenic images, a beautiful dying gorgon girl is sometimes found. Separate iconography - images of the severed head of Medusa in the hands of Perseus, on the shield or aegis of Athena and Zeus. The decorative motif - gorgoneion - still adorns clothes, household items, weapons, tools, jewelry, coins and building facades. It is believed that the myths about the Gorgon Medusa are connected with the cult of the Scythian snake-footed goddess-progenitor Tabiti, whose existence is evidenced by references in ancient sources and archaeological finds of images. In the Slavic medieval book legends, Medusa Gorgon turned into a maiden with hair in the form of snakes - the maiden Gorgonia. The animal jellyfish got its name precisely because of the resemblance to the moving hair-snakes of the legendary Gorgon Medusa. In a figurative sense, a "gorgon" is a grouchy, vicious woman.

Three goddesses of old age, granddaughters of Gaia and Pontus, Gorgon sisters. Their names were Deino (Trembling), Pefredo (Alarm) and Enyo (Horror). They were gray from birth, for three of them they had one eye, which they used in turn. Only the Grays knew the location of the island of Medusa Gorgon. On the advice of Hermes, Perseus went to them. While one of the grays had an eye, the other two were blind, and the sighted gray led the blind sisters. When, having taken out the eye, the graya passed it to the next in turn, all three sisters were blind. It was this moment that Perseus chose to take the eye. The helpless grays were horrified and were ready to do everything if only the hero would return the treasure to them. After they had to tell them how to find Medusa Gorgon and where to get winged sandals, a magic bag and an invisibility helmet, Perseus gave the eye to the Grays.

This monster, born of Echidna and Typhon, had three heads: one was a lion's, the second was a goat's, growing on its back, and the third, a snake's, ended with a tail. It breathed fire and burned everything in its path, devastating the houses and crops of the inhabitants of Lycia. Repeated attempts to kill the Chimera, made by the king of Lycia, suffered invariable defeat. Not a single person dared to come close to her dwelling, surrounded by the decaying carcasses of decapitated animals. Fulfilling the will of King Jobat, the son of King Corinth, Bellerophon, on a winged Pegasus, went to the cave of Chimera. The hero killed her, as predicted by the gods, hitting the Chimera with an arrow from a bow. As proof of his feat, Bellerophon delivered one of the severed heads of the monster to the Lycian king. Chimera is the personification of a fire-breathing volcano, at the base of which snakes are teeming, there are many meadows and goat pastures on the slopes, flames blaze from the top and there, above, lions' dens; probably the Chimera is a metaphor for this unusual mountain. The Chimera Cave is considered to be the area near the Turkish village of Cirali, where there are exits to the surface of natural gas in concentrations sufficient for its open combustion. A detachment of deep-sea cartilaginous fish is named after the Chimera. In a figurative sense, a chimera is a fantasy, an unrealizable desire or action. In sculpture, images of fantastic monsters are called chimeras, while it is believed that stone chimeras can come to life to terrify people. The prototype of the chimera served as the basis for the terrible gargoyles, considered a symbol of horror and extremely popular in the architecture of Gothic buildings.

The winged horse that emerged from the dying Gorgon Medusa at the moment when Perseus cut off her head. Since the horse appeared at the source of the Ocean (in the ideas of the ancient Greeks, the Ocean was a river encircling the Earth), it was called Pegasus (translated from Greek - “stormy current”). Swift and graceful, Pegasus immediately became the object of desire for many heroes of Greece. Day and night, hunters ambushed Mount Helikon, where Pegasus, with one blow of his hoof, made clean, cool water of a strange dark violet color, but very tasty, spring up. This is how the famous source of Hippocrene's poetic inspiration appeared - the Horse Spring. The most patient have happened to see a ghostly steed; Pegasus let the most lucky ones get so close to him that it seemed a little more - and you can touch his beautiful white skin. But no one managed to catch Pegasus: at the last moment, this indomitable creature flapped its wings and, with the speed of lightning, was carried away beyond the clouds. Only after Athena gave the young Bellerophon a magical bridle, he was able to saddle the wonderful horse. Riding Pegasus, Bellerophon was able to get close to the Chimera and struck down the fire-breathing monster from the air. Intoxicated by his victories with the constant help of the devoted Pegasus, Bellerophon imagined himself equal to the gods and, saddling Pegasus, went to Olympus. The angry Zeus struck the proud, and Pegasus received the right to visit the shining peaks of Olympus. In later legends, Pegasus fell into the number of horses of Eos and into the strashno.com.ua society of muses, into the circle of the latter, in particular, because he stopped Mount Helikon with the blow of his hoof, which began to oscillate at the sound of the songs of the muses. From the point of view of symbolism, Pegasus combines the vitality and power of a horse with liberation, like a bird, from earthly gravity, so the idea is close to the unfettered spirit of the poet, overcoming earthly obstacles. Pegasus personified not only a wonderful friend and faithful comrade, but also boundless intelligence and talent. Favorite of the gods, muses and poets, Pegasus often appears in fine arts. In honor of Pegasus, the constellation of the northern hemisphere, a genus of marine ray-finned fish and weapons are named.

7) Colchis dragon (Colchis)

Son of Typhon and Echidna, vigilantly awake fire-breathing huge dragon guarding the Golden Fleece. The name of the monster is given by the area of ​​​​its location - Colchis. The king of Colchis, Eet, offered a ram with a golden skin as a sacrifice to Zeus, and hung the skin on an oak tree in sacred grove Ares, where Colchis guarded her. Jason, a pupil of the centaur Chiron, on behalf of Pelius, king of Iolk, went to Colchis for the Golden Fleece on the Argo ship, built specifically for this trip. King Eet gave Jason impossible assignments so that the Golden Fleece would remain forever in Colchis. But the god of love Eros ignited love for Jason in the heart of the sorceress Medea, daughter of Eet. The princess sprinkled Colchis with a sleeping potion, calling for help from the god of sleep, Hypnos. Jason stole the Golden Fleece, hastily sailing with Medea on the Argo back to Greece.

The giant, the son of Chrysaor, born from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, and the oceanid Kalliroi. He was known as the strongest on earth and was a terrible monster with three bodies fused at the waist, had three heads and six arms. Geryon owned wonderful cows of unusually beautiful red color, which he kept on the island of Erifia in the Ocean. Rumors about the beautiful cows of Geryon reached the Mycenaean king Eurystheus, and he sent Hercules after them, who was in his service. Hercules went through all of Libya before reaching the extreme West, where, according to the Greeks, the world ended, which was bordered by the Ocean River. The path to the ocean was blocked by mountains. Hercules parted them with his mighty hands, forming the Strait of Gibraltar, and installed stone steles on the southern and northern shores - the Pillars of Hercules. On the golden boat of Helios, the son of Zeus sailed to the island of Erifia. Hercules slew with his famous club the watchdog Orff, who was guarding the flock, killed the shepherd, and then took the fight with the three-headed master who came to the rescue. Geryon covered himself with three shields, three spears were in his powerful hands, but they turned out to be useless: the spears could not penetrate the skin of the Nemean lion thrown over the hero's shoulders. Hercules also fired several poisonous arrows at Geryon, and one of them turned out to be fatal. Then he loaded the cows into the boat of Helios and swam across the Ocean in the opposite direction. So the demon of drought and darkness was defeated, and the heavenly cows - rain-bearing clouds - were released.

A huge two-headed dog guarding the cows of the giant Gerion. The offspring of Typhon and Echidna, the older brother of the dog Cerberus and other monsters. He is the father of the Sphinx and the Nemean lion (from Chimera), according to one version. Orff is not as famous as Cerberus, therefore much less is known about him and information about him is contradictory. Some myths report that in addition to two dog heads, Orff has seven more dragon heads, and there was a snake in place of the tail. And in Iberia, the dog had a sanctuary. He was killed by Hercules during the execution of his tenth feat. The plot of the death of Orff at the hands of Hercules, who led away the cows of Geryon, was often used by ancient Greek sculptors and potters; presented on numerous antique vases, amphoras, stamnos and skyphos. According to one of the very adventurous versions, Orff in ancient times could simultaneously personify two constellations - Canis Major and Minor. Now these stars are combined into two asterisms, and in the past their two most bright stars(Sirius and Procyon, respectively) could well be seen by people as fangs or heads of a monstrous two-headed dog.

10) Cerberus (Cerberus)

The son of Typhon and Echidna, a terrible three-headed dog with a terrible dragon tail, covered with menacingly hissing snakes. Cerberus guarded the entrance to the gloomy, full of horrors underworld Aida, making sure no one gets out of there. According to ancient texts, Cerberus welcomes those who enter hell with his tail and tears to pieces those who try to escape. In a later legend, he bites the new arrivals. To appease him, a honey gingerbread was placed in the coffin of the deceased. In Dante, Cerberus torments the souls of the dead. For a long time, at Cape Tenar, in the south of the Peloponnese, they showed a cave, claiming that here Hercules, on the instructions of King Eurystheus, descended into the kingdom of Hades in order to bring Cerberus out of there. Appearing before the throne of Hades, Hercules respectfully asked the underground god to allow him to take the dog to Mycenae. No matter how severe and gloomy Hades was, he could not refuse the son of the great Zeus. He set only one condition: Hercules must tame Cerberus without weapons. Hercules saw Cerberus on the banks of the Acheron River - the border between the world of the living and the dead. The hero grabbed the dog with his mighty hands and began to strangle him. The dog howled menacingly, trying to escape, the snakes writhed and stung Hercules, but he only squeezed his hands tighter. Finally, Cerberus gave in and agreed to follow Hercules, who took him to the walls of Mycenae. King Eurystheus was horrified at one glance at the terrible dog and ordered him to be sent back to Hades as soon as possible. Cerberus was returned to his place in Hades, and it was after this feat that Eurystheus gave Hercules freedom. During his stay on earth, Cerberus dropped drops of bloody foam from his mouth, from which the poisonous herb aconite later grew, otherwise called hecatine, since the goddess Hecate was the first to use it. Medea mixed this herb into her witch's potion. In the image of Cerberus, teratomorphism is traced, against which heroic mythology is fighting. The name of the vicious dog has become a household name to refer to an overly harsh, incorruptible watchman.

11) Sphinx

The most famous Sphinx in Greek mythology was from Ethiopia and lived in Thebes in Boeotia, as mentioned by the Greek poet Hesiod. It was a monster spawned by Typhon and Echidna, with the face and chest of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. Sent by the Hero to Thebes as a punishment, the Sphinx settled on a mountain near Thebes and asked each passerby a riddle: “Which of the living creatures walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?” Unable to give a clue, the Sphinx killed and thus killed many noble Thebans, including the son of King Creon. Dejected with grief, Creon announced that he would give the kingdom and the hand of his sister Jocasta to the one who would save Thebes from the Sphinx. Oedipus solved the riddle by answering the Sphinx: "Man." The monster in despair threw himself into the abyss and crashed to death. This version of the myth supplanted the older version, in which the original name of the predator that lived in Boeotia on Mount Fikion was Fix, and then Orf and Echidna were named as his parents. The name Sphinx arose from the rapprochement with the verb “compress”, “strangle”, and the image itself - under the influence of the Asia Minor image of a winged half-maiden-half-lion. Ancient Fix was a ferocious monster capable of swallowing prey; he was defeated by Oedipus with weapons in his hands during a fierce battle. Depictions of the Sphinx abound in Classical art, from 18th-century British interiors to Romantic Empire furniture. Freemasons considered sphinxes as a symbol of the mysteries and used them in their architecture, considering them as guardians of the gates of the temple. In Masonic architecture, the sphinx is a frequent decorative detail, for example, even in the version of the image of his head on the form of documents. The Sphinx personifies mystery, wisdom, the idea of ​​a person's struggle with fate.

12) Siren

Demonic creatures born from the god of fresh waters Aheloy and one of the muses: Melpomene or Terpsichore. Sirens, like many mythical creatures, are mixanthropic in nature, they are half-birds-half-women or half-fish-half-women who inherited a wild spontaneity from their father, and a divine voice from their mother. Their number ranges from a few to many. Dangerous maidens lived on the rocks of the island, littered with the bones and dried skin of their victims, whom the sirens lured with their singing. Hearing their sweet singing, the sailors, losing their minds, sent the ship straight to the rocks and eventually died in the depths of the sea. After that, the merciless virgins tore the bodies of the victims to pieces and ate them. According to one of the myths, Orpheus sang sweeter than the sirens on the ship of the Argonauts, and for this reason the sirens, in despair and violent anger, rushed into the sea and were turned into rocks, for they were destined to die when their spells were powerless. The appearance of sirens with wings makes them similar in appearance to harpies, and sirens with fish tails to mermaids. However, sirens, unlike mermaids, are of divine origin. Attractive appearance is also not their obligatory attribute. Sirens were also perceived as muses of another world - they were depicted on tombstones. In classical antiquity, wild chthonic sirens turn into sweet-voiced wise sirens, each of which sits on one of the eight celestial spheres of the world spindle of the goddess Ananke, creating the majestic harmony of the cosmos with their singing. To appease the sea deities and avoid shipwreck, sirens were often depicted as figures on ships. Over time, the image of sirens became so popular that a whole detachment of large marine mammals was called sirens, which includes dugongs, manatees, as well as sea (or Steller's) cows, which, unfortunately, were completely exterminated by the end of the 18th century.

13) Harpy

Daughters of the sea deity Thaumant and the oceanides Electra, archaic pre-Olympic deities. Their names - Aella ("Whirlwind"), Aellope ("Whirlwind"), Podarga ("Swift-footed"), Okipeta ("Fast"), Kelaino ("Gloomy") - indicate a connection with the elements and darkness. The word "harpy" comes from the Greek "grab", "abduct". IN ancient myths Harpies were gods of the wind. The proximity of the strashno.com.ua harpies to the winds is reflected in the fact that the divine horses of Achilles were born from Podarga and Zephyr. They interfered little in the affairs of people, their duty was only to carry the souls of the dead to the underworld. But then the harpies began to kidnap children and annoy people, swooping in suddenly, like the wind, and just as suddenly disappearing. IN different sources harpies are described as winged deities with long flowing hair, flying faster than birds and winds, or like vultures with female faces and sharp, hooked claws. They are invulnerable and stinking. Eternally tormented by a hunger that they cannot satisfy, the harpies descend from the mountains and, with piercing cries, devour and soil everything. The harpies were sent by the gods as punishment for the people who had been guilty of them. Monsters took away food from a person every time he took food, and this lasted until the person died of hunger. So, the story is known about how the harpies tortured King Phineus, damned for an involuntary crime, and, stealing his food, doomed him to starvation. However, the monsters were expelled by the sons of Boreas - the Argonauts Zet and Kalaid. The heroes of Zeus, their sister, the goddess of the rainbow Irida, prevented the heroes from killing the harpies. The habitat of the harpies was usually called the Strofada Islands in the Aegean Sea, later, along with other monsters, they were placed in the kingdom of gloomy Hades, where they were ranked among the most dangerous local creatures. Medieval moralists used harpies as symbols of greed, gluttony, and uncleanliness, often confusing them with furies. Evil women are also called harpies. Harpy named large predatory bird from the hawk family, living in South America.

The brainchild of Typhon and Echidna, the hideous Hydra had a long serpentine body and nine dragon heads. One of the heads was immortal. Hydra was considered invincible, since two new ones grew from a severed head. Coming out of the gloomy Tartarus, the Hydra lived in a swamp near the city of Lerna, where the killers came to atone for their sins. This place became her home. Hence the name - Lernaean Hydra. The hydra was eternally hungry and devastated the surroundings, eating herds and burning crops with its fiery breath. Her body was thicker than the thickest tree and covered with shiny scales. When she rose on her tail, she could be seen far above the forests. King Eurystheus sent Hercules on a mission to kill the Lernean Hydra. Iolaus, the nephew of Hercules, during the battle of the hero with the Hydra, burned her neck with fire, from which Hercules knocked down his heads with his club. Hydra stopped growing new heads, and soon she had only one immortal head. In the end, she was demolished with a club and buried by Hercules under a huge rock. Then the hero cut Hydra's body and plunged his arrows into her poisonous blood. Since then, the wounds from his arrows have become incurable. However, this feat of the hero was not recognized by Eurystheus, since Hercules was helped by his nephew. The name Hydra is given to Pluto's satellite and the constellation in the southern hemisphere of the sky, the longest of all. The unusual properties of Hydra also gave their name to the genus of freshwater sessile coelenterates. A hydra is a person with an aggressive character and a predatory demeanor.

15) Stymphalian birds

Birds of prey with sharp bronze feathers, copper claws and beaks. Named after Lake Stimfal near the city of the same name in the mountains of Arcadia. Having multiplied with extraordinary speed, they turned into a huge flock and soon turned all the surroundings of the city almost into a desert: they destroyed the entire crop of the fields, exterminated the animals that grazed on the fat shores of the lake, and killed many shepherds and farmers. Taking off, the Stymphalian birds dropped their feathers like arrows, and struck with them all who were in the open area, or tore them apart with copper claws and beaks. Upon learning of this misfortune of the Arcadians, Eurystheus sent Hercules to them, hoping that this time he would not be able to escape. Athena helped the hero by giving him copper rattles or timpani forged by Hephaestus. Alarming the birds with noise, Hercules began to shoot at them with his arrows poisoned by the poison of the Lernaean Hydra. Frightened birds left the shores of the lake, flying to the islands of the Black Sea. There the Stymphalidae were met by the Argonauts. They probably heard about the feat of Hercules and followed his example - they drove the birds away with a noise, hitting the shields with swords.

Forest deities who made up the retinue of the god Dionysus. Satyrs are shaggy and bearded, their legs end in goat (sometimes horse) hooves. Other character traits the appearance of satyrs - horns on the head, a goat or bull's tail and a human torso. Satyrs were endowed with the qualities of wild creatures with animal qualities, who thought little about human prohibitions and moral standards. In addition, they were distinguished by fantastic endurance, both in battle and for festive table. A great passion was dancing and music, the flute is one of the main attributes of satyrs. Also, thyrsus, flute, leather bellows or vessels with wine were considered attributes of satyrs. Satyrs were often depicted on the canvases of great artists. Often the satyrs were accompanied by girls, for whom the satyrs had a certain weakness. According to a rationalistic interpretation, a tribe of shepherds who lived in forests and mountains could be reflected in the image of a satyr. A satyr is sometimes called a lover of alcohol, humor and sorority. The image of a satyr resembles a European devil.

17) Phoenix

Magic bird with golden and red feathers. In it you can see the collective image of many birds - an eagle, a crane, a peacock and many others. The most striking qualities of the Phoenix were the extraordinary life expectancy and the ability to be reborn from the ashes after self-immolation. There are several versions of the Phoenix myth. IN classic version once every five hundred years, the Phoenix, bearing the sorrows of people, flies from India to the temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, in Libya. The head priest kindles a fire from the sacred vine, and the Phoenix throws itself into the fire. Its incense-soaked wings flare and it quickly burns. With this feat, Phoenix returns happiness and harmony to the world of people with its life and beauty. Having experienced torment and pain, three days later a new Phoenix grows from the ashes, which, having thanked the priest for the work done, returns to India, even more beautiful and shining with new colors. Experiencing cycles of birth, progress, death and renewal, Phoenix strives to become more and more perfect over and over again. Phoenix was the personification of the most ancient human desire for immortality. Even in the ancient world, the Phoenix began to be depicted on coins and seals, in heraldry and sculpture. The Phoenix has become a beloved symbol of light, rebirth and truth in poetry and prose. In honor of the Phoenix, the constellation of the southern hemisphere and the date palm were named.

18) Scylla and Charybdis

Scylla, the daughter of Echidna or Hecate, once a beautiful nymph, rejected everyone, including the sea god Glaucus, who asked for help from the sorceress Circe. But out of revenge, Circe, who was in love with Glaucus, turned Scylla into a monster, which began to lie in wait for sailors in a cave, on a steep rock of the narrow Strait of Sicily, on the other side of which lived another monster - Charybdis. Scylla has six dog heads on six necks, three rows of teeth and twelve legs. In translation, her name means "barking". Charybdis was the daughter of the gods Poseidon and Gaia. Turned her into scary monster Zeus himself, throwing him into the sea. Charybdis has a gigantic mouth into which water flows non-stop. She personifies a terrible whirlpool, the opening of the deep sea, which arises three times in one day and absorbs and then spews water. No one has seen her, as she is hidden by the water column. That is how she ruined many sailors. Only Odysseus and the Argonauts managed to swim past Scylla and Charybdis. In the Adriatic Sea you can find the Scylleian rock. According to local legends, it was on it that Scylla lived. There is also a shrimp with the same name. The expression "to be between Scylla and Charybdis" means to be in danger from different sides at the same time.

19) Hippocampus

A marine animal that looks like a horse and ends in a fish tail, also called hydrippus - a water horse. According to other versions of the myths, the hippocampus is a sea creature in the form of a seahorse strashno.com.ua with the legs of a horse and a body ending in a snake or fish tail and webbed feet instead of hooves on the front legs. The front of the body is covered with thin scales in contrast to the large scales on the back of the body. According to some sources, lungs are used for breathing by the hippocampus, according to others, modified gills. Sea deities - nereids and tritons - were often depicted on chariots harnessed by hippocampuses, or seated on hippocampuses dissecting the abyss of water. This amazing horse appears in the poems of Homer as a symbol of Poseidon, whose chariot was drawn by fast horses and glided over the surface of the sea. In mosaic art, the hippocampus was often depicted as a hybrid animal with a green, scaly mane and appendages. The ancients believed that these animals were already the adult form of the seahorse. Other fish-tailed land animals that appear in Greek myth include the leocampus, a lion with a fish tail), the taurocampus, a bull with a fish tail, the pardalocampus, a fish-tailed leopard, and the aegikampus, a goat with a fish tail. The latter became a symbol of the constellation Capricorn.

20) Cyclops (Cyclops)

Cyclopes in the 8th-7th centuries BC. e. were considered a product of Uranus and Gaia, the titans. Three immortal one-eyed giants with eyes in the form of a ball belonged to the Cyclopes: Arg (“flash”), Bront (“thunder”) and Sterop (“lightning”). Immediately after the birth, the Cyclopes were thrown by Uranus into Tartarus (the deepest abyss) along with their violent hundred-handed brothers (hekatoncheirs), who were born shortly before them. The Cyclopes were freed by the rest of the Titans after the overthrow of Uranus, and then again thrown into Tartarus by their leader Kronos. When Zeus, the leader of the Olympians, began a struggle with Kronos for power, he, on the advice of their mother Gaia, freed the Cyclopes from Tartarus to help the Olympian gods in the war against the titans, known as gigantomachy. Zeus used lightning bolts made by the Cyclopes and thunder arrows, which he threw at the titans. In addition, the Cyclopes, being skilled blacksmiths, forged a trident and a manger for Poseidon for his horses, Hades - an invisibility helmet, Artemis - a silver bow and arrows, and also taught Athena and Hephaestus various crafts. After the end of the Gigantomachy, the Cyclopes continued to serve Zeus and forge weapons for him. As henchmen of Hephaestus, forging iron in the bowels of Etna, the Cyclopes forged the chariot of Ares, the aegis of Pallas and the armor of Aeneas. The mythical people of one-eyed cannibal giants who inhabited the islands of the Mediterranean Sea were also called Cyclopes. Among them, the most famous is the ferocious son of Poseidon, Polyphemus, whom Odysseus deprived of his only eye. Paleontologist Otenio Abel suggested in 1914 that ancient finds of pygmy elephant skulls gave rise to the myth of the Cyclopes, since the central nasal opening in the elephant's skull could be mistaken for a giant eye socket. The remains of these elephants have been found on the islands of Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades and the Dodecanese.

21) Minotaur

Half-bull-half-human, born as the fruit of the passion of the queen of Crete Pasiphae for a white bull, love for which Aphrodite inspired her as a punishment. The real name of the Minotaur was Asterius (that is, "star"), and the nickname Minotaur means "the bull of Minos." Subsequently, the inventor Daedalus, the creator of many devices, built a labyrinth in order to imprison her monster son in it. According to ancient Greek myths The Minotaur ate human flesh, and in order to feed him, the king of Crete imposed a terrible tribute on the city of Athens - seven young men and seven girls had to be sent to Crete every nine years to be devoured by the Minotaur. When Theseus, the son of the Athenian king Aegeus, fell to the lot to become a victim of an insatiable monster, he decided to rid his homeland of such a duty. Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae, in love with the young man, gave him a magic thread so that he could find his way back from the labyrinth, and the hero managed not only to kill the monster, but also to free the rest of the captives and put an end to the terrible tribute. The myth of the Minotaur was probably an echo of the ancient pre-Hellenic bull cults with their characteristic sacred bullfights. Judging by the wall paintings, bull-headed human figures were common in Cretan demonology. In addition, the image of a bull appears on Minoan coins and seals. The minotaur is considered a symbol of anger and bestial savagery. The phrase "Ariadne's thread" means a way to get out of a difficult situation, to find the key to solving a difficult problem, to understand a difficult situation.

22) Hecatoncheires

Hundred-armed fifty-headed giants named Briares (Egeon), Kott and Gyes (Gius) personify the underground forces, the sons of the supreme god Uranus, the symbol of Heaven, and Gaia-Earth. Immediately after their birth, the brothers were imprisoned in the bowels of the earth by their father, who feared for his dominion. In the midst of the fight against the Titans, the gods of Olympus called on the Hecatoncheirs, and their help ensured the victory of the Olympians. After their defeat, the titans were thrown into Tartarus, and the hekatoncheirs volunteered to guard them. Poseidon, the lord of the seas, gave Briareus his daughter Kimopolis as his wife. Hecatoncheirs are present in the book by the Strugatsky brothers "Monday begins on Saturday" as loaders at the Research Institute of FAQ.

23) Giants

The sons of Gaia, who were born from the blood of castrated Uranus, absorbed into the Earth-mother. According to another version, Gaia gave birth to them from Uranus after the titans were cast down by Zeus into Tartarus. The pre-Greek origin of the Giants is obvious. The story of the birth of the Giants and their death is told in detail by Apollodorus. The giants inspired horror with their appearance - thick hair and beards; their lower body was serpentine or octopus-like. They were born on the Phlegrean Fields in Halkidiki, in northern Greece. In the same place, then the battle of the Olympic gods with the Giants took place - gigantomachy. Giants, unlike titans, are mortal. By the will of fate, their death depended on the participation in the battle of mortal heroes who would come to the aid of the gods. Gaia was looking for a magical herb that would keep the Giants alive. But Zeus was ahead of Gaia and, having sent darkness to the earth, cut this grass himself. On the advice of Athena, Zeus called for Hercules to participate in the battle. In the Gigantomachy, the Olympians destroyed the Giants. Apollodorus mentions the names of 13 Giants, of which there are generally up to 150. Gigantomachy (like titanomachy) is based on the idea of ​​ordering the world, embodied in the victory of the Olympic generation of gods over chthonic forces, strengthening the supreme power of Zeus.

This monstrous serpent, born of Gaia and Tartarus, guarded the sanctuary of the goddesses Gaia and Themis in Delphi, at the same time devastating their surroundings. Therefore, it was also called Dolphin. By order of the goddess Hera, Python raised an even more terrible monster - Typhon, and then began to pursue Laton, the mother of Apollo and Artemis. The grown-up Apollo, having received a bow and arrows forged by Hephaestus, went in search of a monster and overtook him in deep cave. Apollo killed Python with his arrows and had to remain in exile for eight years in order to appease the angry Gaia. The huge dragon was periodically mentioned in Delphi during various sacred rites and processions. Apollo founded a temple on the site of an ancient soothsayer and established the Pythian games; this myth reflected the replacement of chthonic archaism by a new, Olympian deity. The plot, where a luminous deity kills a snake, a symbol of evil and an enemy of mankind, has become a classic for religious teachings and folk tales. The Temple of Apollo at Delphi became famous throughout Hellas and even beyond its borders. From a crevice in the rock, located in the middle of the temple, vapors rose, which had a strong effect on the consciousness and behavior of a person. The priestesses of the temple of the Pythia gave often confusing and vague predictions. From Python came the name of a whole family of non-poisonous snakes - pythons, sometimes reaching up to 10 meters in length.

25) Centaur

These legendary creatures with a human torso and a horse's torso and legs are the embodiment of natural strength, endurance, cruelty and unbridled disposition. Centaurs (translated from Greek as “killing bulls”) drove the chariot of Dionysus, the god of wine and winemaking; they were also ridden by the god of love, Eros, which implied their propensity for libations and unbridled passions. There are several legends about the origin of centaurs. A descendant of Apollo named Centaur entered into a relationship with the Magnesian mares, which gave the appearance of a half-man, half-horse to all subsequent generations. According to another myth, in the pre-Olympic era, the smartest of the centaurs, Chiron, appeared. His parents were the oceanid Felira and the god Kron. Kron took the form of a horse, so the child from this marriage combined the features of a horse and a man. Chiron received an excellent education (medicine, hunting, gymnastics, music, divination) directly from Apollo and Artemis and was a mentor to many heroes of the Greek epics, as well as a personal friend of Hercules. His descendants, the centaurs, lived in the mountains of Thessaly, next to the Lapiths. These wild tribes coexisted peacefully with each other until, at the wedding of the king of the Lapiths, Pirithous, the centaurs tried to kidnap the bride and several beautiful Lapithians. In a violent battle, called centauromachia, the Lapiths won, and the centaurs were scattered across mainland Greece, driven into mountainous regions and deaf caves. The appearance of the image of a centaur more than three thousand years ago suggests that even then the horse played an important role in human life. Perhaps the ancient farmers perceived horse riders as an integral being, but, most likely, the inhabitants of the Mediterranean, prone to inventing “composite” creatures, having invented the centaur, thus simply reflected the spread of the horse. The Greeks, who bred and loved horses, were well acquainted with their temper. It is no coincidence that it was the nature of the horse that they associated with the unpredictable manifestations of violence in this generally positive animal. One of the constellations and signs of the zodiac is dedicated to the centaur. To refer to creatures that do not look like a horse, but retain the features of a centaur, the term "centauroids" is used in the scientific literature. There are variations in the appearance of centaurs. Onocentaur - half man, half donkey - was associated with a demon, Satan or a hypocritical person. The image is close to satyrs and European devils, as well as to the Egyptian god Seth.

The son of Gaia, nicknamed Panoptes, that is, the all-seeing, who became the personification of the starry sky. The goddess Hera forced him to guard Io, the beloved of her husband Zeus, who was turned into a cow by him in order to protect him from the wrath of his jealous wife. Hera begged a cow from Zeus and assigned to her an ideal caretaker, the hundred-eyed Argus, who vigilantly guarded her: only two of his eyes closed at the same time, the others were open and vigilantly watched Io. Only Hermes, the crafty and enterprising herald of the gods, managed to kill him, freeing Io. Hermes put Argus to sleep with a poppy and cut off his head with one blow. The name of Argus has become a household name for the vigilant, vigilant, all-seeing guardian, from whom no one and nothing can hide. Sometimes this is called, following an ancient legend, a pattern on peacock feathers, the so-called "peacock eye". According to legend, when Argus died at the hands of Hermes, Hera, regretting his death, collected all his eyes and attached them to the tails of her favorite birds, peacocks, which were supposed to always remind her of her devoted servant. The myth of Argus was often depicted on vases and on Pompeian wall paintings.

27) Griffin

Monstrous birds with a lion's body and an eagle's head and front paws. From their cry, flowers wither and grass withers, and all living beings fall dead. The eyes of a griffin with a golden tint. The head was the size of a wolf's head with a huge, intimidating beak, wings with a strange second joint to make it easier to fold them. The griffin in Greek mythology personified insightful and vigilant power. Closely associated with the god Apollo, appears as an animal that the god harnesses to his chariot. Some of the myths say that these creatures were harnessed to the cart of the goddess Nemesis, which symbolizes the speed of retribution for sins. In addition, the griffins rotated the wheel of fate, and were genetically related to Nemesis. The image of the griffin personified dominance over the elements of earth (lion) and air (eagle). The symbolism of this mythical animal is associated with the image of the Sun, since both the lion and the eagle in myths are always inextricably linked with it. In addition, the lion and eagle are associated with mythological motifs of speed and courage. The functional purpose of the griffin is protection, in this it is similar to the image of a dragon. As a rule, guards treasures or some secret knowledge. The bird served as an intermediary between the heavenly and earthly worlds, gods and people. Even then, ambivalence was embedded in the image of the griffin. Their role in various myths is ambiguous. They can act both as defenders, patrons, and as vicious, unrestrained animals. The Greeks believed that griffins guard the gold of the Scythians in northern Asia. Modern attempts to localize griffins vary greatly and place them from the northern Urals to the Altai Mountains. These mythological animals are widely represented in antiquity: Herodotus wrote about them, their images were found on the monuments of the period of prehistoric Crete and in Sparta - on weapons, household items, on coins and buildings.

28) Empusa

Demon woman underworld from the retinue of Hecate. Empusa was a nocturnal vampire with donkey legs, one of which was copper. She took the form of cows, dogs or beautiful maidens, changing her appearance in a thousand ways. According to popular beliefs, the empusa often carried away small children, sucked blood from beautiful young men, appearing to them in the form of a lovely woman, and, having had enough of blood, often ate their meat. At night, on deserted roads, the empusa lay in wait for lone travelers, either frightening them in the form of an animal or a ghost, then captivating them with the appearance of a beauty, then attacking them in their true terrible appearance. According to popular beliefs, it was possible to drive away the empusa with abuse or a special amulet. In some sources, the empusa is described as close to the lamia, onocentaur, or female satyr.

29) Triton

The son of Poseidon and the mistress of the seas Amphitrite, depicted as an old man or a young man with a fish tail instead of legs. Triton became the ancestor of all newts - marine mixanthropic creatures frolicking in the waters, accompanying Poseidon's chariot. This retinue of lower sea deities was depicted as a half-fish and half-man blowing a snail-shaped shell to excite or tame the sea. In their appearance, they resembled classic mermaids. Tritons in the sea became, like satyrs and centaurs on land, minor deities serving the main gods. In honor of the tritons are named: in astronomy - a satellite of the planet Neptune; in biology - the genus of tailed amphibians of the salamander family and the genus of prone gill mollusks; in technology - a series of ultra-small submarines of the USSR Navy; in music, an interval formed by three tones.

The world knows a huge number of myths in which different creatures play an important role. They do not have scientific confirmation, but new reports appear regularly that in different corners of the world, entities were seen that do not look like ordinary animals and people.

Mythical creatures of the peoples of the world

There are a huge number of legends that tell about mythical monsters, animals and mysterious entities. Some of them have common features with real animals and even people, while others personify the fears of people living in different times. Every continent has legends that involve unique mythical animals and creatures associated with local folklore.

Slavic mythical creatures

The legends that arose during the time of the ancient Slavs are familiar to many, since they formed the basis of various fairy tales. creatures Slavic mythology hide in themselves important signs that time. Many of them were held in high esteem by our ancestors.

Mythical Creatures of Ancient Greece

The most famous and interesting are the myths of Ancient Greece, which are filled with gods, different heroes and entities, both good and bad. Many Greek mythical creatures have become characters in various modern stories.

Mythical animals in Norse mythology

The mythology of the ancient Scandinavians is part of the ancient Germanic history. Many entities stand out for their sheer size and bloodthirstiness. The most famous mythical animals:

English mythical creatures

Various entities that, according to legends, lived in England in ancient times, are among the most famous in the modern world. They became the heroes of various cartoons and films.

Mythical creatures of Japan

Asian countries are unique, even when considering their mythology. It is connected with geographic location, unpredictable elements and national flavor. The ancient mythical creatures of Japan are unique.

Mythical Creatures of South America

Ancient Indian traditions, Spanish and Portuguese culture are mixed in this territory. Over the years, various people have lived here, praying to their gods and telling stories. The most famous creatures from myths and legends in South America:

Mythical Creatures of Africa

Considering the presence of a large number of peoples living on the territory of this continent, it is quite understandable that the legends that tell about entities can be listed for a long time. Good mythical creatures in Africa are little known.

Mythical Creatures from the Bible

While reading the main holy book, one may come across various entities that are unknown. Some of them are similar to dinosaurs and mammoths.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the story behind Newt Scamander's book of the same name.

The film is set in 1920s New York.

Newt arrives on business related to his beloved animals. But, like Harry, Scamander has one peculiarity. They love to be in the wrong places at the wrong time. Times are tough in the city right now. A war is brewing between Muggles and wizards. So what is the fault?

As you can guess, I was looking forward to this movie! And it turned out even better than I imagined! Still, the previous team did not let us down. Director of four last parts about Harry David Yates, our favorite producer, who brought our favorite story to the screen, David Heyman, and JK Rowling, who tried herself as a screenwriter. For me it was a dream team!

Well, let's get to the excitement, shall we?

I can't help but notice the picture. How beautiful she is! The Harry films were dark, except maybe the first ones. But here you are! Everything is so bright and colorful! I was crazy about the American Ministry of Magic. It can be seen that it is more solid, richer and more!

Animals is another story! It is clear that the film had a lot of computer graphics, but it is so real. I fell in love with every creature. I liked it so much that we looked at them through the eyes of Newt, and they were so loving.

Music is beyond praise! Do you know why? Because the first time I saw it, I only noticed it on the splash screen at the beginning. For me, this is what makes it unique. It does not distract me, but only immerses me more in the story. Bravo!

Actors. Do I need to say that I am in love with Eddie Redmayne, and that he is the perfect Newt Scamander for me? As soon as I met him on Les Misérables, it was love at first sight. His talent is undeniable. Eddie played Newt so well, I believed it unconditionally. He was bright, shy, embarrassed, madly passionate about his work. With what eyes did he look at his pets! How did he communicate with them? Above all praise. Eddie big fellow!

I was delighted not only from him. Not the magician Kowalski, played by Dan Foggler. How wonderful he is! Thanks to him, the film became so emotional. Insanely cute and charismatic fat man. He opens the world of magic, which will never leave his head. He is so sincere! This is a must see! You can't help but break into a smile in almost every scene he's in.

Ezra Miller. That's who struck me. I met him in the movie "It's good to be quiet." But there his role is simpler, and in this film he hooked me. It's so good to show the hero's problem. His pain, suffering. He found a fine line between disgust and pity. Bravo!

Sisters Tina and Queenie, played by Katherine Waterston and Alison Sudol. I really liked that they were created so complementary. It is insanely interesting to see how Tina has changed throughout the film. Their love for the main characters is at their fingertips. I really liked everything.

In general, all the actors in this film are well chosen. I didn't see anyone out of place. And Colin Farrell as the Auror, and Carmen Ejogo as the president, and Samantha Morton as the Terrible Woman. I even thought that she could compete with Umbridge in her cruelty.

Well, I saved the best for last. Story. These are the kind of scenarios I love. When every detail is thought out. Perhaps now I will tell those who have not watched to correct the situation. Because SPOILERS will follow. I really want to discuss what is happening on the screen!

Obscurus and Grindelwald. That's what I want to talk about!

Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp, Grindelwald for me it was the perfect trio! On the second viewing, I already saw EVERYTHING! And here I want to give a big bow to Joan. It was wonderful! I noticed how they left us these many Easter eggs.

In the beginning, an excellent game of the camera and hair. Battle of the Aurors, where the blond, and then a place with anomalous phenomena and a brunette. Already at this moment it was possible to understand who was behind all this. Monologues of the Auror Graves. Yes, they had everything! And at first I could not understand what he was talking about.

It was then that the character of Grindelwald opened up for me. How superficial he is, insanely confident in himself, his strengths and his idea. How many mistakes he made, thanks to which Newt and Tina brought him to clean water. Or maybe he just didn't want to hide. Everyone around him is far from it.

And I especially liked the moment when he made the same mistake as Volan de Mort did in his time. When the heroes broke into his office for a suitcase. (I'm talking here, and delight overwhelms me from the thoughtfulness of the moment.) The girl tried to open the door with spells, but nothing came of it. And our beloved Kowalski took it and knocked it out. Brilliant! Voldemort also made many mistakes when he put protective spells on his Horcrux in the cave. Simply because he did not take into account that an underage wizard and an elf would come to his vault. And Grindelwald could not even imagine that a Muggle would burst at his door. After all, the magician does not even think about physical strength. It's like Hermione was looking for matches, trying to get rid of the Devil's Snare. Oh, how wonderful this is!

I liked Johnny Depp as Grindelwald. A little unusual, but just the way it should be! Wild, ingenious and unbalanced. I want to see their duet with Dumbledore already.

Obscurium. I liked it so much that until the very last moment it is impossible to guess who exactly is sick. I really believed it was the girl.

Well, I'll tell you about my legend. I decided that it was not without reason that Joan told this particular story. Showed the disease. I decided that Ariadne, Dumbledore's sister, was also an Obscuria. And now it dawned on me!

That's why Grindelwald chased after Credence, because he saw how powerful these children were. Ariadne died before his eyes, and then he fled. Maybe he thought then? After all, he wanted to use this guy as a weapon. Everything fits in my head.

I even brought up the conversation yesterday with Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother, from the latest book. It describes exactly the same symptoms. True, she died at the age of fourteen. And in the film, we were told that none of them had lived more than ten years before. But perhaps Newt did not know about her, since Dumbledore's family kept the girl very secret.

I don't know how other Harry Potter fans have reacted to this movie, but I'm ecstatic. My beloved universe is expanding. And it's so wonderful!