Centaur
Pg.30,31, artwork by John Howe
Origin: Greece
Myth: In Greek myth, Centaurs came to be when Ixion, a king of Thessaly attempted to seduce Hera. When Zeus, Hera’s consort, found out, he created an illusion of Hera by molding a cloud. This phantasm gave birth to Centaurs. The moral King Ixion exiled Centaurs to Mount Pelion where it is said that there Centaurs mated with wild mares and thus producing the Centaur Tribe.
- Eat raw meat, fierce fighters, wine drove them crazy—made them monsters=claw hands, slashing hoofs.
- Chiron(son of a god and a sea spirit) named Divine Beast-skills in music, healing and art of war
- Tutored gods and mortals-Jason, Achilles, Hercules
One day Hercules goes to see Chiron to rely allHercules triumphs. Chiron listened placidly to Hercules tales of glory. After a while Chiron goes over to Hercules pack of weapons and began looking through them. Among Hercules weapons, Chiron found a bag full of arrows. Seeing this, Hercules told Chiron to be careful as those arrows are envenomed by magic. As Chiron heard Hercules’s words, Chiron’s brow drew together but he merely said, ”An unnatural trick for a warrior.” Just as he finished saying this, Chiron drops the arrow in his hand to the ground but before falling to the ground, the magical arrow grazes Chiron’s foreleg causing him to bleed. Soon the Centaur collapses to the ground. His long legs began jerking convulsively and foam sip to his mouth. Chiron lay on the ground for hours in this helpless state while Hercules wept knowing he could do nothing. The magical arrows had no cure and although Chiron would not die since Chiron was immortal, he will suffer like this for eternity. As time passed, Chiron could no longer take the pain and finally begged the gods to give him death. The gods granted Chiron’s wish and Hercules watched as his mentor slowly disappeared before his eyes. It is said that when Chiron died, Zeus translated the centaur’s great frame into stars, to fly forever as the constellation Sagittarius.
Medusa
Origin: Greece
Myth:The daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, the child of Gaia (Earth) and Okeanos (Ocean). In the beginning, Medusa was very beautiful unlike her other two sisters were Sthenno and Euryale and was born as gorgons. And unlike her sister's, Medusa was also mortal. One day, Medusa went to ask the Goddess Athena for permission to visit the south to see the sun because the sun didn't visit the far north where Medusa lived. However, Athena refused to allow her the visit. Medusa became angry and told Athena that Athena was jealous of Medusa's beauty and that is why Athena would not give her permission. Athena was enraged, punished Medusa by turning her hair into snakes and making her so ugly that who ever lookes at her eyes would turn into stone.
The Greek version of Vampires and Succubi
Mormo
A spirit that bit misbehaving children. Mormo is considered to be one of the demigoddesses of Greek mythology who was the companion of the goddess Hecate (witchcraft and crossroads).
Empusa
A female monster with flaming hair and mismatched legs of brass and donkey. Empusa was the beautiful daughter of the goddess Hecate and the spirit Mormo. She feasted on blood by seducing men as they slept before drinking their blood. One of the three demigoddesses of Greek mythology.
Lamia
A female monster with serpent tails in place of legs that ate children. Originally Lamia was the beautiful daughter of King Belus of Egypt, and the granddaughter of Poseidon and Lybie. The legends says that Lamia had an affair with Zeus and when Hera found out. In order to get revenge, Hera turned Lamia into a monster that never slept and then killed Lamia's children. To Hera, this was not enough so she made it so that Lamia could not close her eyes and be hunted by the image of her dead children. When Zeus saw what had happened to Lamia, he felt pity and gave Lamia the gift to remove her eyes. This offered Lamia the chance to rest from seeing the image of her dead kids. Lamia, driven insane by grief and envy, began luring children and devouring them. Sometimes Lamia is referred to as a male or a hermaphrodite but usually female. She is one of the three demigoddesses of Greek mythology.
Echidna
A monster with a woman's head and a snake's body. She was considered the mother of all the major Greek monsters. Echidna is ageless but not immortal.