Greek Mythical Creatures :: Full List of 30 Legendary Beasts
A host of Legendary Creatures, animals and mythic humanoids occur in ancient Greek Mythology.
Many of the best-known monsters belong to a single family. In Hesiod’s Theogony (lines 295–332) the serpent-woman Echidna is the mother of Orthus, Cerberus and the Hydra of Lerna, and the Chimaera and the Sphinx belong to the same monstrous family. Medusa, the one mortal Gorgon, gave birth to Pegasus and Chrysaor when Perseus cut off her head (Theogony 276–283). Heroes meet most of these beasts in their labours: Heracles faces the Hydra, the Erymanthian Boar and the Cretan Bull, and Bellerophon rides Pegasus against the Chimaera.
Other creatures are people of mixed or unusual nature. The Centaurs, with Chiron as their wise exception, the Satyrs and Silenus, the Maenads, the Sirens and the one-eyed Cyclopes each have their own place in the stories. Some are guardians, such as Argus Panoptes and Talos, and some are wonders of a different kind, like Arion, the swift horse of Adrastus that Homer calls of heavenly stock (Iliad 23.346–347), or the Phoenix. The pages below are listed alphabetically.
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