Fairy-tale creatures. Mythical creatures. One of the most common mythological plots is the battle with the dragon.

I already told you once in a section about this and even provided comprehensive evidence in the form of photographs in this article. Why did I talk about mermaids, yes because mermaid is a mythical creature found in many stories and fairy tales. And this time I want to talk about mythical creatures that existed at one time according to legends: Grants, Dryads, Kraken, Griffins, Mandrake, Hippogriff, Pegasus, Lernaean Hydra, Sphinx, Chimera, Cerberus, Phoenix, Basilisk, Unicorn, Wyvern. Let's get to know these creatures better.

1. Wyvern

2. Asp

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3. Unicorn

4. Basilisk

6. Valkyries

7. Anka

8. Phoenix

“There is another sacred bird there, its name is Phoenix. I myself have never seen it, except as a drawing, for in Egypt it appears rarely, once every 500 years, as the inhabitants of Heliopolis say. According to them, it flies when it dies father (that is, she herself) If the images correctly show her size and size and appearance, her plumage is partly golden, partly red. Her appearance and size resemble an eagle."

9. Echidna

10. Sinister

11. Cerberus

12. Chimera

13. Sphinx

14. Lernaean Hydra

15. Naiads

16. Rukhh

Not only the fabulous Sinbad the Sailor, but also the very real Florentine traveler Marco Polo, who visited Persia, India and China in the 13th century, heard about this bird. He said that the Mongol Khan Kublai Khan once sent loyal people to catch a bird. The messengers found her homeland: the African island of Madagascar. They did not see the bird itself, but they brought its feather: it was twelve steps long, and the diameter of the feather shaft was equal to two palm trunks. They said that the wind produced by the wings of Rukh knocks a person down, her claws are like bull horns, and her meat restores youth. But try to catch this Rukh if ​​she can carry off a unicorn along with three elephants impaled on her horn! author of the encyclopedia Alexandrova Anastasia They knew this monstrous bird in Rus', they called it Fear, Nog or Noga, and gave it even new fabulous features.
“The leg-bird is so strong that it can lift an ox, flies through the air and walks on the ground with four legs,” says the ancient Russian “Azbukovnik” of the 16th century.
The famous traveler Marco Polo tried to explain the mystery of the winged giant: “They call this bird on the islands Ruk, but they don’t call it in our language, but it’s a vulture!” Only... greatly grown in the human imagination.

17. Khukhlik

18. Pegasus

19 Hippogriff

Not a ghostly horse under the magician - a mare
Born into the world, his father was a vulture;
Like his father, he was a wide-winged bird, -
He was in front of his father: like that one, zealous;
Everything else was like the uterus,
And that horse was called a hippogriff.
The borders of the Riphean mountains are glorious for them,
Far beyond the icy seas

20 Mandrake

21. Griffins

22. Kraken

From time immemorial in the depths of the ocean
The giant Kraken sleeps soundly
He is blind and deaf, over the carcass of a giant
Only from time to time a pale ray glides.
Giant sponges sway above him,
And from deep, dark holes
Polyps innumerable choir
Extends tentacles like hands.
The Kraken will rest there for thousands of years,
So it was and so it will be in the future,
Until the last fire burns through the abyss
And the heat will scorch the living firmament.
Then he will wake up from sleep,
Will appear before angels and people
And, emerging with a howl, he will meet death.

23. Golden dog

“...In Crete, the homeland of the Thunderer, there was a golden dog. She once guarded the newborn Zeus and the wonderful goat Amalthea who fed him. When Zeus grew up and took away the power over the world from Cronus, he left this dog in Crete to guard his sanctuary. The king of Ephesus, Pandareus, seduced by the beauty and strength of this dog, secretly came to Crete and took it away on his ship from Crete. But where to hide this wonderful animal? Pandarey thought about this for a long time during his journey across the sea and finally decided to give the golden dog to Tantalus for safekeeping. King Sipila hid the wonderful animal from the gods. Zeus was angry. He called his son, the messenger of the gods Hermes, and sent him to Tantalus to demand the return of the golden dog. In the blink of an eye, fast Hermes rushed from Olympus to Sipylus, appeared before Tantalus and said to him:
- The king of Ephesus, Pandareus, stole a golden dog from the sanctuary of Zeus in Crete and gave it to you for safekeeping. The gods of Olympus know everything, mortals cannot hide anything from them! Return the dog to Zeus. Beware of incurring the wrath of the Thunderer!
Tantalus answered the messenger of the gods this way:
- It is in vain that you threaten me with the wrath of Zeus. I have not seen a golden dog. The gods are wrong, I don’t have it.
Tantalus swore a terrible oath that he was telling the truth. With this oath he angered Zeus even more. This was the first insult inflicted by tantalum on the gods...

24. Dryads

25. Grants

Ancient Greece is considered the cradle of European civilization, which gave modernity many cultural riches 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, unimaginable 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 terrifying 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 his mouth comes the ordinary voice of the gods, the roar of a terrible bull, the roar of a lion, the howl of a dog, or a sharp whistle echoing in the mountains. Typhon was the father of mythical monsters from Echidna: Orphus, Cerberus, Hydra, Colchis Dragon and others, who on earth and underground threatened the human race until the hero Hercules destroyed them, except for the Sphinx, Cerberus and Chimera. All the empty winds came from Typhon, except Notus, Boreas and Zephyr. Typhon, crossing the Aegean Sea, scattered the islands of the Cyclades, which had previously been closely located. 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 a crescent shape. Giant waves raised by Typhon reached the island of Crete and destroyed the kingdom of Minos. Typhon was so terrifying and powerful that the Olympian gods fled from their monastery, refusing to fight him. Only Zeus, the bravest of the young gods, decided to fight Typhon. The duel lasted a long time; in the heat of battle, the opponents moved from Greece to Syria. Here Typhon plowed the earth with his gigantic body; subsequently, these traces of the battle 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 cast 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 crater of the volcano. Typhon served as the personification of the destructive forces of nature, such as hurricanes, volcanoes, and tornadoes. The word “typhoon” comes from the English version of this Greek name.

2) Dracaines

They are 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 it was the name given to demons who kill infants. Lamia, daughter of Poseidon, was the queen of Libya, beloved of Zeus and gave birth to children from him. The extraordinary beauty of Lamia herself ignited the fire of revenge in Hera’s heart, and Hera, out of jealousy, killed Lamia’s children, turned her beauty into ugliness and deprived her beloved husband 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 to fall asleep, and only then could she become harmless. Having become in a new form half woman, half snake, she gave birth to eerie offspring called lamias. Lamia have polymorphic abilities and can act in various forms, usually as animal-human hybrids. However, more often they are likened to beautiful girls, since it is easier to charm unwary men. They also attack sleeping people and deprive them of their vitality. These night ghosts, disguised as beautiful maidens and youths, suck the blood of young people. Lamia in ancient times was also called ghouls and vampires, who, according to the popular belief of the modern Greeks, hypnotically lured young men and virgins and then killed them by drinking their blood. With some skill, a lamia can be easily exposed; to do this, it is enough to make it give a voice. Since lamias have a forked tongue, they are deprived of the ability to speak, but they can whistle melodiously. In later legends of European peoples, Lamia was depicted in the guise of a snake with the head and chest of a beautiful woman. She 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 evil disposition. From Typhon she gave birth to a whole host of monsters, 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 dark cave underground, far from people and gods. Crawling out to hunt, she lay in wait and lured travelers, then 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 tranquil 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 about Echidna formed the basis of medieval legends about the monstrous reptile as the most vile of all creatures and the absolute enemy of humanity, and also served as an explanation for the origin of dragons. The name of Echidna is given to an egg-laying, spine-covered mammal native to Australia and the Pacific Islands, as well as to the Australian snake, the largest venomous snake in the world. Echidna is also called an evil, sarcastic, treacherous person.

3) Gorgons

These monsters were the daughters of the sea deity Forkis 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 was terrifying: winged creatures, covered with scales, with snakes instead of hair, fanged mouths, with a gaze that turned all living things to stone. During the duel 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 drops of blood that fell into the sands of Libya, poisonous snakes appeared and destroyed all life in it. Libyan legend says that red corals appeared from a 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 him into stone and saved Andromeda, the royal daughter, who was destined to be sacrificed to the dragon. The island of Sicily is traditionally considered the place where the Gorgons lived and 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 there is sometimes a beautiful dying gorgon girl. Separate iconography includes images of the severed head of Medusa in the hands of Perseus, on the shield or aegis of Athena and Zeus. The decorative motif - the gorgoneion - still adorns clothing, household items, weapons, tools, jewelry, coins and building facades. It is believed that the myths about the Gorgon Medusa have a connection with the cult of the Scythian snake-footed ancestral goddess Tabiti, evidence of whose existence are references in ancient sources and archaeological finds of images. In 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 its resemblance to the moving hair-snake of the legendary Gorgon Medusa. In a figurative sense, a “gorgon” is a grumpy, angry woman.

Three goddesses of old age, granddaughters of Gaia and Pontus, sisters of the Gorgons. Their names were Deino (Trembling), Pefredo (Anxiety) and Enyo (Terror). They were gray-haired from birth, and the three of them had one eye, which they used alternately. Only the Grays knew the location of the island of Medusa the Gorgon. On the advice of Hermes, Perseus headed towards them. While one of the grays had an eye, the other two were blind, and the sighted grayya led the blind sisters. When, having taken out the eye, Graya passed it on to the next in line, 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 anything if only the hero would return the treasure to them. After they had to tell how to find the Gorgon Medusa 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 were invariably defeated. Not a single person dared to come close to her home, surrounded by the decaying carcasses of headless animals. Fulfilling the will of King Iobates, the son of the King of Corinth, Bellerophon, on the winged Pegasus, headed to the cave of the 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. The chimera is the personification of a fire-breathing volcano, at the base of which snakes teem, on the slopes there are many meadows and goat pastures, flames blaze from the top and there, at the top, are the lairs of lions; The Chimera is probably a metaphor for this unusual mountain. The Chimera Cave is considered to be an area near the Turkish village of Cirali, where natural gas comes to the surface 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 unfulfilled desire or action. In sculpture, chimeras are images of fantastic monsters, and it is believed that stone chimeras can come to life to terrify people. The prototype of the chimera served as the basis for creepy 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 as “stormy current”). Swift and graceful, Pegasus immediately became the object of desire for many heroes of Greece. Day and night, the hunters set up ambushes on Mount Helikon, where Pegasus, with one blow of his hoof, caused clear, cool water of a strange dark violet color, but very tasty, to flow. This is how the famous source of Hippocrene’s poetic inspiration appeared - the Horse Spring. The most patient happened to see a ghostly horse; Pegasus allowed the luckiest ones to come so close to him that it seemed that just a little more - and you could touch his beautiful white skin. But no one was able 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 young Bellerophon a magic bridle was he able to saddle the wonderful horse. Riding on Pegasus, Bellerophon was able to get close to the Chimera and struck 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, riding Pegasus, went to Olympus. The angry Zeus struck down the proud man, and Pegasus received the right to visit the shining peaks of Olympus. In later legends, Pegasus was included in the ranks of the horses of Eos and in the society of strashno.com.ua muses, in the circle of the latter, in particular, because he stopped Mount Helicon with the blow of his hoof, which began to waver at the sounds of the songs of the muses. From a symbolic point of view, Pegasus combines the vitality and power of a horse with liberation, like a bird, from earthly heaviness, 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. The favorite of the gods, muses and poets, Pegasus often appears in the visual arts. A constellation in the northern hemisphere, a genus of marine ray-finned fish, and a weapon are named after Pegasus.

7) Colchis dragon (Colchis)

The son of Typhon and Echidna, a vigilant, fire-breathing huge dragon who guarded the Golden Fleece. The name of the monster was given to the area where it was located - Colchis. King Eet of Colchis sacrificed a ram with a golden skin to Zeus, and hung the skin on an oak tree in the sacred grove of Ares, where Colchis guarded it. Jason, a pupil of the centaur Chiron, on behalf of Pelias, king of Iolcus, went to Colchis for the Golden Fleece on the ship "Argo", built specifically for this journey. King Eetus gave Jason impossible tasks so that the Golden Fleece would remain in Colchis forever. But the god of love, Eros, kindled love for Jason in the heart of the sorceress Medea, daughter of Eetus. The princess sprinkled Colchis with a sleeping potion, calling on the god of sleep Hypnos for help. Jason stole the Golden Fleece, hastily sailing with Medea on the Argo back to Greece.

Giant, son of Chrysaor, born from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, and the oceanid Callirhoe. 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 Erithia in the Ocean. Rumors about the beautiful cows of Geryon reached the Mycenaean king Eurystheus, and he sent Hercules, who was in his service, to get them. Hercules walked all of Libya before reaching the extreme West, where, according to the Greeks, the world ended, which was bordered by the Oceanus River. The path to the Ocean was blocked by mountains. Hercules pushed them apart 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 Erithia. Hercules killed the watchdog Orff, who was guarding the herd, with his famous club, killed the shepherd, and then fought with the three-headed owner who arrived in time. Geryon covered himself with three shields, three spears were in his mighty hands, but they turned out to be useless: the spears could not pierce the skin of the Nemean Lion, thrown over the hero’s shoulders. Hercules fired several poisonous arrows at Geryon, and one of them turned out to be fatal. Then he loaded the cows into Helios's boat and swam across the Ocean in the opposite direction. Thus the demon of drought and darkness was defeated, and the heavenly cows - the rain-bearing clouds - were freed.

A huge two-headed dog guarding the cows of the giant Geryon. The offspring of Typhon and Echidna, the elder brother of the dog Cerberus and other monsters. He is the father of the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion (from the 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 say that in addition to two dog heads, Orff also had seven dragon heads, and in place of the tail there was a snake. And in Iberia the dog had a sanctuary. He was killed by Hercules during his tenth labor. The plot of the death of Orff at the hands of Hercules, who was leading 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 very adventurous version, Orff in ancient times could simultaneously personify two constellations - Canis Major and Canis Minor. Now these stars are combined into two asterisms, but in the past their two brightest stars (Sirius and Procyon, respectively) could well have been seen by people as fangs or the heads of a monstrous two-headed dog.

10) Cerberus (Kerberus)

The son of Typhon and Echidna, a terrible three-headed dog with a terrible dragon tail, covered with menacing hissing snakes. Cerberus guarded the entrance to the dark, horror-filled underground kingdom of Hades, making sure that no one came out. According to the most ancient texts, Cerberus greets those entering hell with his tail and tears into pieces those who try to escape. In a later legend, he bites new arrivals. To appease him, 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 peninsula, they showed a cave, claiming that here Hercules, on the instructions of King Eurystheus, descended to the kingdom of Hades in order to bring Cerberus out from there. Presenting himself before the throne of Hades, Hercules respectfully asked the underground god to allow him to take the dog to Mycenae. No matter how harsh 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 powerful hands and began to strangle him. The dog howled menacingly, trying to escape, the snakes wriggled 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 to quickly send him back to Hades. 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 hecatina, since the goddess Hecate was the first to use it. Medea mixed this herb into her witchcraft potion. The image of Cerberus reveals teratomorphism, which heroic mythology fights against. The name of the evil dog has become a common noun to denote 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, born of Typhon and Echidna, with the face and breasts of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. Sent by Hero to Thebes as punishment, the Sphinx settled on a mountain near Thebes and asked everyone who passed by a riddle: “Which living creature walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening?” The Sphinx killed the one who was unable to give a solution and thus killed many noble Thebans, including the son of King Creon. Creon, overcome with grief, announced that he would give the kingdom and the hand of his sister Jocasta to the one who would rid Thebes of the Sphinx. Oedipus solved the riddle by answering the Sphinx: “Man.” The monster, in despair, threw itself into the abyss and fell to its death. This version of the myth superseded the more ancient version, in which the original name of the predator who lived in Boeotia on Mount Fikion was Fix, and then Orphus and Echidna were named as his parents. The name Sphinx arose from a connection with the verb “to squeeze”, “to strangle”, and the image itself was influenced by the Asia Minor image of a winged half-maiden-half-lioness. Ancient Fix was a ferocious monster, capable of swallowing prey; he was defeated by Oedipus with a weapon in his hands during a fierce battle. Images of the Sphinx abound in classical art, from 18th-century British interiors to Empire furniture of the Romantic era. Masons considered sphinxes a symbol of the mysteries and used them in their architecture, considering them as guardians of the temple gates. In Masonic architecture, the sphinx is a frequent decorative detail, for example, even in the version of the image of its head on the form of documents. The Sphinx personifies mystery, wisdom, the idea of ​​man's struggle with fate.

12) Siren

Demonic creatures born from the god of fresh waters Achelous 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 wild spontaneity from their father, and a divine voice from their mother. Their number ranges from a few to a whole lot. Dangerous maidens lived on the island's rocks, strewn 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, steered the ship straight towards the rocks and eventually died in the depths of the sea. After which the merciless virgins tore the bodies of the victims into pieces and ate them. According to one of the myths, Orpheus on the ship of the Argonauts sang sweeter than the sirens, and for this reason the sirens, in despair and furious anger, threw themselves 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 are similar to mermaids. However, sirens, unlike mermaids, are of divine origin. Attractive appearance is also not a mandatory 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 whom sits on one of the eight celestial spheres of the world spindle of the goddess Ananke, creating with their singing the majestic harmony of the cosmos. To appease 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 order of large marine mammals was called sirens, which included dugongs, manatees, and 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 oceanid 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 "to seize", "to kidnap". In ancient myths, harpies were deities 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 take the souls of the dead to the underworld. But then the harpies began to kidnap children and harass people, swooping in suddenly like the wind and disappearing just as suddenly. In various sources, harpies are described as winged deities with long flowing hair, flying faster than birds and winds, or as vultures with female faces and sharp hooked claws. They are invulnerable and smelly. Always tormented by a hunger that they cannot satisfy, the harpies descend from the mountains and, with piercing screams, devour and dirty everything. Harpies were sent by the gods as punishment for people who had offended them. The monsters took food from a person every time he started eating, and this continued until the person died of hunger. Thus, there is a well-known story about how the harpies tortured King Phineus, who was cursed for an involuntary crime, and, stealing his food, doomed him to starvation. However, the monsters were driven out by the sons of Boreas - the Argonauts Zetus and Kalaid. The heroes were prevented from killing the harpies by the messenger of Zeus, their sister, the rainbow goddess Iris. The Strophada Islands in the Aegean Sea were usually called the habitat of harpies; later, along with other monsters, they were placed in the kingdom of gloomy Hades, where they were considered one of the most dangerous local creatures. Medieval moralists used harpies as symbols of greed, gluttony and uncleanliness, often combining them with the furies. Harpies are also called evil women. The harpy is the name given to a large bird of prey from the hawk family that lives 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 its severed head. Coming out of the gloomy Tartarus, Hydra lived in a swamp near the city of Lerna, where murderers came to atone for their sins. This place became her home. Hence the name - Lernaean Hydra. The hydra was always hungry and devastated the surrounding area, 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 with the task of killing the Lernaean Hydra. Iolaus, Hercules' nephew, during the hero's battle with the Hydra, burned her necks with fire, from which Hercules knocked off the heads with his club. Hydra stopped growing new heads, and soon she had only one immortal head left. In the end, she too was demolished with a club and buried by Hercules under a huge rock. Then the hero cut the Hydra’s body and plunged his arrows into its poisonous blood. Since then, the wounds from his arrows have become incurable. However, this heroic feat was not recognized by Eurystheus, since Hercules was helped by his nephew. The name Hydra is borne by the satellite of Pluto and the constellation of 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. Hydra is a person with an aggressive character and predatory behavior.

15) Stymphalian birds

Birds of prey with sharp bronze feathers, copper claws and beaks. Named after Lake Stymphala 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 grazing on the rich shores of the lake, and killed many shepherds and farmers. As they took off, the Stymphalian birds dropped their feathers like arrows and struck with them everyone who was in the open area, or tore them apart with their copper claws and beaks. Having learned about 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 kettledrums forged by Hephaestus. Having alarmed the birds with the noise, Hercules began to shoot his arrows poisoned with the poison of the Lernaean Hydra at them. The 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 away the birds with noise, hitting their shields with swords.

Forest deities who formed the retinue of the god Dionysus. Satyrs are shaggy and bearded, their legs end in goat (sometimes horse) hooves. Other characteristic features of the appearance of satyrs are horns on the head, a goat or ox tail and a human torso. Satyrs were endowed with the qualities of wild creatures, possessing animal qualities, thinking little about human prohibitions and moral norms. In addition, they were distinguished by fantastic endurance, both in battle and at the festive table. A great passion was dancing and music; the flute is one of the main attributes of satyrs. Also considered attributes of satyrs were a thyrsus, a pipe, leather wineskins or vessels with wine. Satyrs were often depicted in the paintings of great artists. Often the satyrs were accompanied by girls, for whom the satyrs had a certain weakness. According to a rationalist interpretation, the image of a satyr could reflect a tribe of shepherds who lived in forests and mountains. A satyr is sometimes called a lover of alcohol, humor and female company. The image of a satyr resembles a European devil.

17) Phoenix

Magic bird with golden and red feathers. In it you can see a collective image of many birds - an eagle, a crane, a peacock and many others. The most amazing qualities of the Phoenix were its extraordinary lifespan and the ability to be reborn from the ashes after self-immolation. There are several versions of the Phoenix myth. In the classical 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 chief priest lights a fire from the sacred vine, and Phoenix throws himself into the fire. His incense-soaked wings flare and he quickly burns. With this feat, Phoenix, with her life and beauty, returns happiness and harmony to the world of people. Having experienced torment and pain, three days later a new Phoenix rises from the ashes, which, thanking 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. The Phoenix was the personification of the 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 favorite symbol of light, rebirth and truth in poetry and prose. A constellation in the southern hemisphere and a date palm were named after Phoenix.

18) Scylla and Charybdis

Scylla, the daughter of Echidna or Hecate, a once beautiful nymph, rejected everyone, including the sea god Glaucus, who asked for help from the sorceress Circe. But Circe, who was in love with Glaucus, out of revenge on him, turned Scylla into a monster, which began to lie in wait for sailors in a cave, on a steep cliff 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. Translated, her name means “barking.” Charybdis was the daughter of the gods Poseidon and Gaia. Zeus himself turned her into a terrible monster, throwing her into the sea. Charybdis has a gigantic mouth into which water pours without stopping. She personifies a terrible whirlpool, the gaping depths of the sea, which appears three times in one day and absorbs and then spews out water. No one saw her, since she was hidden by the thickness of the water. This is exactly how she ruined many sailors. Only Odysseus and the Argonauts managed to sail past Scylla and Charybdis. In the Adriatic Sea you can find the Skyllei Rock. As local legends say, this is where Scylla lived. There is also a shrimp of the same name. The expression “being between Scylla and Charybdis” means being exposed to danger from different sides at the same time.

19) Hippocampus

A sea animal that has the appearance of a horse and ends in a fish tail, also called hydrippus - a water horse. According to other versions of myths, the hippocampus is a sea creature in the form of a seahorse with the legs of a horse and a body ending with a snake or fish tail and webbed paws 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, the hippocampus uses lungs for breathing, while others use modified gills. Sea deities - Nereids and Tritons - were often depicted on chariots drawn by hippocampuses, or seated on hippocampuses cutting through 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 along the surface of the sea. In mosaic art, hippocampi were often depicted as hybrid animals with a green, scaly mane and appendages. The ancients believed that these animals were the adult form of the seahorse. Other land animals with fish tails that appear in Greek myth include leocampus - a lion with a fish tail), taurocampus - a bull with a fish tail, pardalocampus - a leopard with a fish tail, and aegicampus - a goat with a fish tail. The latter became a symbol of the constellation Capricorn.

20) Cyclops (Cyclopes)

Cyclops in the 8th-7th centuries BC. e. were considered the creation of Uranus and Gaia, the titans. The Cyclopes included three immortal one-eyed giants with ball-shaped eyes: Arg (“flash”), Bront (“thunder”) and Steropus (“lightning”). Immediately after their birth, the Cyclopes were thrown by Uranus into Tartarus (the deepest abyss) together with their violent brothers with one hundred arms (Hecatoncheires), who were born shortly before them. The Cyclopes were freed by the remaining Titans after the overthrow of Uranus, and then thrown back into Tartarus by their leader Kronos. When the leader of the Olympians, Zeus, began to 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 and thunder arrows made by the Cyclopes, which he threw at the Titans. In addition, the Cyclops, being skilled blacksmiths, forged a trident and a manger for Poseidon's horses, an invisibility helmet for Hades, a silver bow and arrows for Artemis, and also taught Athena and Hephaestus various crafts. After the end of the Gigantomachy, the Cyclops continued to serve Zeus and forge weapons for him. Like the henchmen of Hephaestus, forging iron in the depths of Etna, the Cyclops forged the chariot of Ares, the aegis of Pallas and the armor of Aeneas. Cyclopes were also the name given to the mythical people of one-eyed cannibal giants who inhabited the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. Among them, the most famous is the ferocious son of Poseidon, Polyphemus, whom Odysseus deprived of his only eye. Paleontologist Othenio Abel in 1914 suggested that the discovery of dwarf elephant skulls in ancient times gave rise to the myth of the Cyclops, since the central nasal opening in the elephant's skull could be mistaken for a giant eye socket. The remains of these elephants were found on the islands of Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades and the Dodecanese.

21) Minotaur

Half-bull, half-man, born as the fruit of the passion of Queen Pasiphae of Crete for the white bull, the love of which Aphrodite instilled in her as punishment. The real name of the Minotaur was Asterius (that is, “starry”), and the nickname Minotaur means “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 were to be sent to Crete every nine years to be devoured by the Minotaur. When Theseus, the son of the Athenian king Aegeus, had 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 ancient pre-Hellenic bull cults with their characteristic sacred bull fights. Judging by the wall paintings, human figures with bull heads 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

The hundred-armed, fifty-headed giants named Briareus (Egeon), Kott and Gies (Gius) personify the underground forces, the sons of the supreme god Uranus, the symbol of Heaven, and Gaia-Earth. Immediately after birth, the brothers were imprisoned in the bowels of the earth by their father, who feared for his dominion. In the midst of the struggle with the Titans, the gods of Olympus called on the Hecatoncheires, and their help ensured victory for the Olympians. After their defeat, the Titans were cast into Tartarus, and the Hecatoncheires volunteered to guard them. The ruler of the seas, Poseidon, gave Briareus his daughter Kimopoleia as his wife. Hecatoncheires are present in the book by the Strugatsky brothers “Monday Begins on Saturday” as loaders at the Research Institute FAQ.

23) Giants

The sons of Gaia, who were born from the blood of castrated Uranus, absorbed into the Mother Earth. According to another version, Gaia gave birth to them from Uranus after the Titans were thrown into Tartarus by Zeus. 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 snake-like or octopus-like. They were born on the Phlegrean Fields in Chalkidiki, in northern Greece. It was there that the battle of the Olympian gods with the Giants took place - Gigantomachy. Giants, unlike titans, are mortal. As fate would have it, 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 magic herb that would keep the Giants alive. But Zeus got ahead of Gaia and, sending darkness to the earth, cut off this grass himself. On the advice of Athena, Zeus called Hercules to participate in the battle. In the Gigantomachy, the Olympians destroyed the Giants. Apollodorus mentions the names of 13 Giants, who generally number up to 150. The Gigantomachy (as well as the Titanomachy) is based on the idea of ​​ordering the world, embodied in the victory of the Olympian generation of gods over the chthonic forces and the strengthening of the supreme power of Zeus.

This monstrous serpent, generated by Gaia and Tartarus, guarded the sanctuary of the goddesses Gaia and Themis in Delphi, at the same time devastating their surroundings. That's why he was also called Dolphinius. By order of the goddess Hera, Python raised an even more terrible monster - Typhon, and then began to pursue Latona, the mother of Apollo and Artemis. The grown-up Apollo, having received a bow and arrows forged by Hephaestus, went in search of the monster and overtook him in a deep cave. Apollo killed Python with his arrows and had to remain in exile for eight years 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 the ancient oracle and established the Pythian Games; this myth reflected the replacement of chthonic archaism with a new, Olympian deity. The plot, where a luminous deity kills a snake, a symbol of evil and the enemy of humanity, 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, fumes rose, which had a strong effect on human consciousness and behavior. The priestesses of the Pythian temple often gave confusing and vague predictions. From Python comes the name of a whole family of non-venomous snakes - pythons, sometimes reaching up to 10 meters in length.

25) Centaur

These legendary creatures with a human torso and equine torso and legs are the embodiment of natural strength, endurance, and are distinguished by cruelty and unbridled temper. Centaurs (translated from Greek as “killers of 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 penchant 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 a Magnesian mare, 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 the mentor of 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 lived peacefully with each other until, at the wedding of the Lapithian king Pirithous, centaurs tried to kidnap the bride and several beautiful Lapithian women. In a violent battle called the centauromachy, the Lapiths won, and the centaurs were scattered across mainland Greece, driven into mountainous regions and remote 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. It is possible that the ancient farmers perceived horse riders as a whole being, but most likely the Mediterranean inhabitants, who were prone to inventing “composite” creatures, simply reflected the spread of the horse when they invented the centaur. The Greeks, who bred and loved horses, were well acquainted with their temperament. It is no coincidence that it was the nature of the horse that they associated with unpredictable manifestations of violence in this generally positive animal. One of the constellations and zodiac signs is dedicated to the centaur. To designate creatures that are not similar in appearance to 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 the Egyptian god Set.

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, whom he turned into a cow in order to protect her from the wrath of her jealous wife. Hera begged Zeus for a cow and assigned her an ideal caretaker, the hundred-eyed Argus, who vigilantly guarded her: only two of his eyes were closed at the same time, the others were open and vigilantly watched Io. Only Hermes, the crafty and enterprising messenger of the gods, managed to kill him, freeing Io. Hermes put Argus to sleep with poppy seeds and cut off his head with one blow. The name Argus has become a household name for a vigilant, vigilant, all-seeing guard, from whom no one and nothing can hide. Sometimes this is what is called, following an ancient legend, the pattern on the feathers of a peacock, 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 always supposed to remind her of her devoted servant. The myth of Argus was often depicted on vases and in Pompeian wall paintings.

27) Griffin

Monstrous birds with the body of a lion and an eagle's head and front legs. From their cry, flowers wither and grass withers, and all living creatures fall dead. The griffin's eyes have a golden tint. The head was the size of a wolf's head with a huge, terrifying-looking beak, and the wings had a strange second joint to make them easier to fold. The griffin in Greek mythology personified insightful and vigilant power. Closely associated with the god Apollo, he appears as the animal that the god harnesses to his chariot. Some of the myths say that these creatures were harnessed to the carriage of the goddess Nemesis, which symbolizes the speed of retribution for sins. In addition, griffins turned the wheel of fate, and were genetically linked to Nemesis. The image of a 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 security, in this it is similar to the image of a dragon. As a rule, it protects treasures or some secret knowledge. The bird served as an intermediary between the heavenly and earthly worlds, gods and people. Even then, ambivalence was inherent in the image of the griffin. Their role in various myths is ambiguous. They can act both as defenders, patrons, and as evil, unrestrained animals. The Greeks believed that griffins guarded the gold of the Scythians in northern Asia. Modern attempts to localize griffins vary widely 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 monuments from the period of prehistoric Crete and in Sparta - on weapons, household items, coins and buildings.

28) Empusa

A female demon of the underworld from Hecate's retinue. Empusa was a vampire night ghost 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 existing beliefs, the empousa often carried away small children, sucked the blood from beautiful young men, appearing to them in the form of a lovely woman, and, having had enough of the blood, often devoured their meat. At night, on deserted roads, the empousa would lie in wait for lonely travelers, either frightening them in the form of an animal or a ghost, or captivating them with the appearance of a beauty, or attacking them in her true terrible form. According to legend, an empusa could be driven away with abuse or a special amulet. In some sources, the empusa is described as being close to a lamia, onocentaur or female satyr.

29) Triton

The son of Poseidon and the mistress of the seas, Amphitrite, depicted as an old man or youth with a fish tail instead of legs. Triton became the ancestor of all newts - marine mixanthropic creatures frolicking in the waters, accompanying the chariot of Poseidon. This retinue of lower sea deities was depicted as 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. The following are named in honor of tritons: in astronomy - the satellite of the planet Neptune; in biology - the genus of tailed amphibians of the salamander family and the genus of prosobranch mollusks; in technology - a series of ultra-small submarines of the USSR Navy; in music, an interval formed by three tones.

It was bad with evil spirits in Rus'. There have been so many bogatyrs recently that the number of Gorynychs has dropped sharply. Only once did a ray of hope flash for Ivan: an elderly man who called himself Susanin promised to lead him to the very lair of Likh One-Eyed... But he only came across a rickety ancient hut with broken windows and a broken door. On the wall was scratched: “Checked. Likh no. Bogatyr Popovich."

Sergey Lukyanenko, Yuliy Burkin, “Rus Island”

“Slavic monsters” - you must agree, it sounds a bit wild. Mermaids, goblins, water creatures - they are all familiar to us from childhood and make us remember fairy tales. That is why the fauna of “Slavic fantasy” is still undeservedly considered something naive, frivolous and even slightly stupid. Nowadays, when it comes to magical monsters, we more often think of zombies or dragons, although in our mythology there are such ancient creatures, in comparison with which Lovecraft’s monsters may seem like petty dirty tricks.

The inhabitants of Slavic pagan legends are not the joyful brownie Kuzya or the sentimental monster with a scarlet flower. Our ancestors seriously believed in those evil spirits that we now consider worthy only of children's horror stories.

Almost no original source describing fictional creatures from Slavic mythology has survived to our time. Something was covered in the darkness of history, something was destroyed during the baptism of Rus'. What do we have except vague, contradictory and often dissimilar legends of different Slavic peoples? A few mentions in the works of the Danish historian Saxo Grammarian (1150-1220) - once. “Chronica Slavorum” by the German historian Helmold (1125-1177) - two. And finally, we should recall the collection “Veda Slovena” - a compilation of ancient Bulgarian ritual songs, from which one can also draw conclusions about the pagan beliefs of the ancient Slavs. The objectivity of church sources and chronicles, for obvious reasons, is in great doubt.

Book of Veles

The “Book of Veles” (“Veles Book”, Isenbek tablets) has long been passed off as a unique monument of ancient Slavic mythology and history, dating from the 7th century BC - 9th century AD.

Its text was allegedly carved (or burned) onto small wooden strips, some of the “pages” were partially rotten. According to legend, the “Book of Veles” was discovered in 1919 near Kharkov by white colonel Fyodor Isenbek, who took it to Brussels and handed it over to the Slavist Mirolyubov for study. He made several copies, and in August 1941, during the German offensive, the tablets were lost. Versions have been put forward that they were hidden by the Nazis in the “archive of the Aryan past” under Annenerbe, or taken after the war to the USA).

Alas, the authenticity of the book initially raised great doubts, and recently it was finally proven that the entire text of the book was a falsification, carried out in the mid-20th century. The language of this fake is a mixture of different Slavic dialects. Despite the exposure, some writers still use the “Book of Veles” as a source of knowledge.

The only available image of one of the boards of the “Book of Veles”, beginning with the words “We dedicate this book to Veles.”

The history of Slavic fairy-tale creatures may be the envy of other European monsters. The age of pagan legends is impressive: according to some estimates, it reaches 3000 years, and its roots go back to the Neolithic or even Mesolithic - that is, about 9000 BC.

The common Slavic fairy-tale “menagerie” was absent - in different areas they spoke of completely different creatures. The Slavs did not have sea or mountain monsters, but forest and river evil spirits were abundant. There was no gigantomania either: our ancestors very rarely thought about evil giants like the Greek Cyclops or the Scandinavian Jotuns. Some wonderful creatures appeared among the Slavs relatively late, during the period of their Christianization - most often they were borrowed from Greek legends and introduced into national mythology, thus creating a bizarre mixture of beliefs.

Alkonost

According to ancient Greek myth, Alkyone, the wife of the Thessalian king Keik, upon learning of the death of her husband, threw herself into the sea and was turned into a bird, named after her, alkyon (kingfisher). The word “Alkonost” entered the Russian language as a result of a distortion of the ancient saying “alkion is a bird.”

Slavic Alkonost is a bird of paradise with a surprisingly sweet, euphonious voice. She lays her eggs on the seashore, then plunges them into the sea - and the waves calm down for a week. When the eggs hatch, a storm begins. In the Orthodox tradition, Alkonost is considered a divine messenger - she lives in heaven and comes down to convey the highest will to people.

Aspid

A winged snake with two trunks and a bird's beak. Lives high in the mountains and periodically makes devastating raids on villages. He gravitates towards rocks so much that he cannot even sit on damp ground - only on a stone. The asp is invulnerable to conventional weapons; it cannot be killed with a sword or arrow, but can only be burned. The name comes from the Greek aspis - poisonous snake.

Auca

A type of mischievous forest spirit, small, pot-bellied, with round cheeks. Doesn't sleep in winter or summer. He likes to fool people in the forest, responding to their cry of “Aw!” from all sides. Leads travelers into a remote thicket and abandons them there.

Baba Yaga

Slavic witch, popular folklore character. Usually depicted as a nasty old woman with disheveled hair, a hooked nose, a "bone leg", long claws and several teeth in her mouth. Baba Yaga is an ambiguous character. Most often, she acts as a pest, with pronounced tendencies towards cannibalism, but on occasion, this witch can voluntarily help a brave hero by questioning him, steaming him in a bathhouse and giving him magical gifts (or providing valuable information).

It is known that Baba Yaga lives in a deep forest. There stands her hut on chicken legs, surrounded by a palisade of human bones and skulls. Sometimes it was said that on the gate to Yaga’s house there are hands instead of locks, and the keyhole is a small toothy mouth. Baba Yaga's house is enchanted - you can enter it only by saying: “Hut, hut, turn your front to me, and your back to the forest.”
Like Western European witches, Baba Yaga can fly. To do this, she needs a large wooden mortar and a magic broom. With Baba Yaga you can often meet animals (familiars): a black cat or a crow, helping her in her witchcraft.

The origin of the Baba Yaga estate is unclear. Perhaps it came from Turkic languages, or perhaps derived from the Old Serbian “ega” - disease.

Baba Yaga, bone leg. A witch, an ogress and the first female pilot. Paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov and Ivan Bilibin.

Hut on kurnogi

A forest hut on chicken legs, where there are no windows or doors, is not fiction. This is exactly how hunters from the Urals, Siberia and Finno-Ugric tribes built temporary dwellings. Houses with blank walls and an entrance through a hatch in the floor, raised 2-3 meters above the ground, protected both from rodents hungry for supplies and from large predators. Siberian pagans kept stone idols in similar structures. It can be assumed that a figurine of some female deity, placed in a small house “on chicken legs,” gave rise to the myth of Baba Yaga, who can hardly fit in her house: her legs are in one corner, her head is in the other, and her nose rests into the ceiling.

Bannik

The spirit living in the baths was usually represented as a small old man with a long beard. Like all Slavic spirits, he is mischievous. If people in the bathhouse slip, get burned, faint from the heat, get scalded by boiling water, hear the cracking of stones in the stove or knocking on the wall - all these are the tricks of the bathhouse.

The bannik rarely causes any serious harm, only when people behave incorrectly (wash on holidays or late at night). Much more often he helps them. The Slavs associated the bathhouse with mystical, life-giving powers - they often gave birth here or told fortunes (it was believed that the bannik could predict the future).

Like other spirits, they fed the bannik - they left him black bread with salt or buried a strangled black chicken under the threshold of the bathhouse. There was also a female version of the bannik - bannitsa, or obderiha. A shishiga also lived in the baths - an evil spirit that appears only to those who go to the baths without praying. Shishiga takes the form of a friend or relative, invites a person to steam with her and can steam to death.

Bas Celik (Man of Steel)

A popular character in Serbian folklore, a demon or evil sorcerer. According to legend, the king bequeathed to his three sons to marry their sisters to the first one to ask for their hand in marriage. One night, someone with a thunderous voice came to the palace and demanded the youngest princess as his wife. The sons fulfilled the will of their father, and soon lost their middle and older sister in a similar way.

Soon the brothers came to their senses and went in search of them. The younger brother met a beautiful princess and took her as his wife. Looking out of curiosity into the forbidden room, the prince saw a man chained. He introduced himself as Bash Celik and asked for three glasses of water. The naive young man gave the stranger a drink, he regained his strength, broke the chains, released his wings, grabbed the princess and flew away. Saddened, the prince went in search. He found out that the thunderous voices that demanded his sisters as wives belonged to the lords of dragons, falcons and eagles. They agreed to help him, and together they defeated the evil Bash Celik.

This is what Bash Celik looks like as imagined by W. Tauber.

Ghouls

The living dead rising from their graves. Like any other vampires, ghouls drink blood and can devastate entire villages. First of all, they kill relatives and friends.

Gamayun

Like Alkonost, a divine female bird whose main function is to carry out predictions. The saying “Gamayun is a prophetic bird” is well known. She also knew how to control the weather. It was believed that when Gamayun flies from the direction of sunrise, a storm comes after her.

Gamayun-Gamayun, how long do I have left to live? - Ku. - Why so ma...?

Divya people

Demi-humans with one eye, one leg and one arm. To move, they had to fold in half. They live somewhere on the edge of the world, reproduce artificially, forging their own kind from iron. The smoke of their forges brings with it pestilence, smallpox and fevers.

Brownie

In the most generalized representation - a house spirit, the patron of the hearth, a little old man with a beard (or completely covered with hair). It was believed that every house had its own brownie. In their homes they were rarely called “brownies,” preferring the affectionate “grandfather.”

If people established normal relations with him, fed him (they left a saucer of milk, bread and salt on the floor) and considered him a member of their family, then the brownie helped them do minor housework, looked after the livestock, guarded the household, and warned them of danger.

On the other hand, an angry brownie could be very dangerous - at night he pinched people until they were bruised, strangled them, killed horses and cows, made noise, broke dishes and even set fire to a house. It was believed that the brownie lived behind the stove or in the stable.

Drekavac (drekavac)

A half-forgotten creature from the folklore of the southern Slavs. There is no exact description of it - some consider it an animal, others a bird, and in central Serbia there is a belief that drekavak is the soul of a dead, unbaptized baby. They agree on only one thing - the drekavak can scream terribly.

Usually the drekavak is the hero of children's horror stories, but in remote areas (for example, the mountainous Zlatibor in Serbia) even adults believe in this creature. Residents of the village of Tometino Polie from time to time report strange attacks on their livestock - it is difficult to determine from the nature of the wounds what kind of predator it was. The peasants claim to have heard eerie screams, so a Drekavak is probably involved.

Firebird

An image familiar to us from childhood, a beautiful bird with bright, dazzling fiery feathers (“they burn like heat”). A traditional test for fairy-tale heroes is to get a feather from the tail of this bird. For the Slavs, the firebird was more of a metaphor than a real creature. She personified fire, light, sun, and possibly knowledge. Its closest relative is the medieval bird Phoenix, known both in the West and in Rus'.

One cannot help but recall such an inhabitant of Slavic mythology as the bird Rarog (probably distorted from Svarog - the blacksmith god). A fiery falcon that can also look like a whirlwind of flame, Rarog is depicted on the coat of arms of the Rurikovichs ("Rarogs" in German) - the first dynasty of Russian rulers. The highly stylized diving Rarog eventually began to resemble a trident - this is how the modern coat of arms of Ukraine appeared.

Kikimora (shishimora, mara)

An evil spirit (sometimes the brownie's wife), appearing in the form of a small, ugly old woman. If a kikimora lives in a house behind the stove or in the attic, then it constantly harms people: it makes noise, knocks on walls, interferes with sleep, tears yarn, breaks dishes, poisons livestock. Sometimes it was believed that infants who died without baptism became kikimoras, or kikimoras could be unleashed on a house under construction by evil carpenters or stove makers. A kikimora that lives in a swamp or forest does much less harm - it mainly just scares lost travelers.

Koschey the Immortal (Kashchei)

One of the well-known Old Slavonic negative characters, usually represented as a thin, skeletal old man with a repulsive appearance. Aggressive, vengeful, greedy and stingy. It is difficult to say whether he was a personification of the external enemies of the Slavs, an evil spirit, a powerful wizard, or a unique variety of undead.

It is indisputable that Koschey possessed very strong magic, avoided people and often engaged in the favorite activity of all villains in the world - kidnapping girls. In Russian science fiction, the image of Koshchei is quite popular, and he is presented in different ways: in a comic light (“Island of Rus'” by Lukyanenko and Burkin), or, for example, as a cyborg (“The Fate of Koshchei in the Cyberozoic Era” by Alexander Tyurin).

Koshchei’s “signature” feature was immortality, and far from absolute. As we all probably remember, on the magical island of Buyan (capable of suddenly disappearing and appearing before travelers) there is a large old oak tree on which a chest hangs. There is a hare in the chest, in the hare there is a duck, in the duck there is an egg, and in the egg there is a magic needle where Koshchei’s death is hidden. He can be killed by breaking this needle (according to some versions, by breaking an egg on Koshchei’s head).

Koschey as imagined by Vasnetsov and Bilibin.

Georgy Millyar is the best performer of the roles of Koshchei and Baba Yaga in Soviet fairy tales.

Goblin

Forest spirit, protector of animals. He looks like a tall man with a long beard and hair all over his body. Essentially not evil - he walks through the forest, protects it from people, occasionally shows himself, for which he can take on any form - a plant, a mushroom (a giant talking fly agaric), an animal or even a person. The goblin can be distinguished from other people by two signs - his eyes glow with magical fire, and his shoes are put on backwards.

Sometimes a meeting with a goblin can end in failure - he will lead a person into the forest and throw him to be devoured by animals. However, those who respect nature can even become friends with this creature and receive help from it.

Dashingly one-eyed

Spirit of evil, failure, symbol of grief. There is no certainty regarding Likh’s appearance - he is either a one-eyed giant or a tall, thin woman with one eye in the middle of his forehead. Dashing is often compared to the Cyclopes, although apart from one eye and tall stature, they have nothing in common.

The saying has reached our time: “Don’t wake up Dashing while it’s quiet.” In a literal and allegorical sense, Likho meant trouble - it became attached to a person, sat on his neck (in some legends, the unfortunate person tried to drown Likho by throwing himself into the water, and drowned himself) and prevented him from living.
Likh, however, could be gotten rid of - deceived, driven away by force of will, or, as is occasionally mentioned, given to another person along with some gift. According to very dark superstitions, Likho could come and devour you.

Mermaid

In Slavic mythology, mermaids are a type of mischievous evil spirits. They were drowned women, girls who died near a pond, or people swimming at inopportune times. Mermaids were sometimes identified with “mavkas” (from the Old Slavonic “nav” - dead man) - children who died without baptism or were strangled by their mothers.

The eyes of such mermaids glow with green fire. By their nature, they are nasty and evil creatures, they grab bathing people by the legs, pull them under the water, or lure them from the shore, wrap their arms around them and drown them. There was a belief that a mermaid's laughter could cause death (this makes them look like Irish banshees).

Some beliefs called mermaids the lower spirits of nature (for example, good “beregins”), who have nothing in common with drowned people and willingly save drowning people.

There were also “tree mermaids” living in tree branches. Some researchers classify mermaids as mermaids (in Poland - lakanits) - lower spirits who take the form of girls in transparent white clothes, living in the fields and helping the field. The latter is also a natural spirit - it is believed that he looks like a little old man with a white beard. The field dwells in cultivated fields and usually patronizes peasants - except when they work at noon. For this, he sends midday warriors to the peasants so that they will deprive them of their minds with their magic.

It is also worth mentioning the crowfish - a type of mermaid, a baptized drowned woman, who does not belong to the category of evil spirits, and therefore is relatively kind. Waterworts love deep pools, but most often they settle under mill wheels, ride on them, spoil millstones, muddy the water, wash out holes, and tear nets.

It was believed that waterwomen were the wives of mermen - spirits who appeared in the guise of old men with a long green beard made of algae and (rarely) fish scales instead of skin. Bug-eyed, fat, creepy, the merman lives at great depths in whirlpools, commands mermaids and other underwater inhabitants. It was believed that he rode around his underwater kingdom riding a catfish, for which this fish was sometimes called “devil’s horse” among the people.

The merman is not malicious by nature and even acts as a patron of sailors, fishermen or millers, but from time to time he likes to play pranks, dragging a gaping (or offended) bather under the water. Sometimes the merman was endowed with the ability to shapeshift - transform into fish, animals or even logs.

Over time, the image of the merman as the patron of rivers and lakes changed - he began to be seen as a powerful “sea king” living under water in a luxurious palace. From the spirit of nature, the merman turned into a kind of magical tyrant, with whom the heroes of the folk epic (for example, Sadko) could communicate, enter into agreements and even defeat him with cunning.

Mermen as presented by Bilibin and V. Vladimirov.

Sirin

Another creature with the head of a woman and the body of an owl (owl), with a charming voice. Unlike Alkonost and Gamayun, Sirin is not a messenger from above, but a direct threat to life. It is believed that these birds live in the “Indian lands near paradise”, or on the Euphrates River, and sing such songs for the saints in heaven, upon hearing which people completely lose their memory and will, and their ships are wrecked.

It's not hard to guess that Sirin is a mythological adaptation of the Greek Sirens. However, unlike them, the bird Sirin is not a negative character, but rather a metaphor for the temptation of a person with various kinds of temptations.

Nightingale the Robber (Nightingale Odikhmantievich)

A character in late Slavic legends, a complex image combining the features of a bird, an evil wizard and a hero. The Nightingale the Robber lived in the forests near Chernigov near the Smorodina River and for 30 years guarded the road to Kyiv, not letting anyone through, deafening travelers with a monstrous whistle and roar.

The Robber Nightingale had a nest on seven oak trees, but the legend also says that he had a mansion and three daughters. The epic hero Ilya Muromets was not afraid of the adversary and knocked out his eye with an arrow from a bow, and during their battle, the whistle of the Nightingale the Robber knocked down the entire forest in the area. The hero brought the captive villain to Kyiv, where Prince Vladimir, out of curiosity, asked the Nightingale the Robber to whistle - to check whether the rumor about the super-abilities of this villain was true. The nightingale, of course, whistled so loudly that he almost destroyed half the city. After this, Ilya Muromets took him to the forest and cut off his head so that such an outrage would not happen again (according to another version, Nightingale the Robber later acted as Ilya Muromets’ assistant in battle).

For his first novels and poems, Vladimir Nabokov used the pseudonym "Sirin".

In 2004, the village of Kukoboi (Pervomaisky district of the Yaroslavl region) was declared the “homeland” of Baba Yaga. Her “birthday” is celebrated on July 26th. The Orthodox Church sharply condemned the “worship of Baba Yaga.”

Ilya Muromets is the only epic hero canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Baba Yaga is found even in Western comics, for example, “Hellboy” by Mike Mignola. In the first episode of the computer game "Quest for Glory" Baba Yaga is the main plot villain. In the role-playing game “Vampire: The Masquerade,” Baba Yaga is a vampire of the Nosferatu clan (distinguished by ugliness and secrecy). After Gorbachev left the political arena, she came out of hiding and killed all the vampires of the Brujah clan who controlled the Soviet Union.

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It is very difficult to list all the fabulous creatures of the Slavs: most of them have been studied very poorly and represent local varieties of spirits - forest, water or domestic, and some of them were very similar to each other. In general, the abundance of intangible creatures greatly distinguishes the Slavic bestiary from more “mundane” collections of monsters from other cultures
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Among the Slavic “monsters” there are very few monsters as such. Our ancestors led a calm, measured life, and therefore the creatures they invented for themselves were associated with the elementary elements, neutral in their essence. If they opposed people, then, for the most part, they were only protecting Mother Nature and ancestral traditions. Stories of Russian folklore teach us to be kinder, more tolerant, to love nature and respect the ancient heritage of our ancestors.

The latter is especially important, because ancient legends are quickly forgotten, and instead of mysterious and mischievous Russian mermaids, Disney fish-maidens with shells on their breasts come to us. Do not be ashamed to study Slavic legends - especially in their original versions, not adapted for children's books. Our bestiary is archaic and in some sense even naive, but we can be proud of it, because it is one of the most ancient in Europe.

Vampires

Witches

Dragons

Demons

Almost all the mythical creatures about which we know anything are collected here.

It's no secret that in ancient times, to explain this or that natural phenomenon, people referred to the will of the Gods. Thus, thunder and lightning were an indicator of Odin's rage. While the storm and the death of the sailors was an expression of Poseidon's wrath. The Egyptians believed that the sun was controlled by God Ra. In addition to explaining certain phenomena associated with the favor of the pantheon of Gods of a certain nationality, people often described their assistants as mythical creatures.

Myths and legends

Many epics, tales, legends and myths have survived to this day, which describe amazing creatures. They can be good and evil, help and harm people. The only common feature of each of the mythical characters is magical abilities.

Regardless of their size or habitat of mythical creatures, in various legends a person could turn to them for help. On the other hand, there are many stories about how people fight “creatures” that intimidate residents of villages, cities and even countries. Interestingly, the presence of mythical creatures is described in the treatises of almost all nationalities inhabiting planet Earth.

Fact or fiction?

Each of us in childhood heard fairy tales about Baba Yaga, the Serpent Gorynych or Koshchei the Immortal. These characters are typical of the legends that arose in Rus'. At the same time, stories about gnomes, trolls, elves and mermaids will be closer to Europeans. However, almost anywhere in the world, legends about vampires, werewolves and witches have been heard at least once.

Is it possible to say that all these fables are a figment of human imagination or reliable confirmation that mythical creatures previously lived on our planet? It is impossible to reliably answer this question. However, many legends or events described in them are confirmed by the facts that scientists discover.

What is this section about?

The mysteries of the existence of fairies, unicorns, griffins, and harpies have been attracting people for many centuries. In this section of the site you can familiarize yourself with information that will lift the curtain on the mystery of the origin of magic and answer the most popular questions about mythical creatures.

Historical facts are presented here and various versions of legends are described. After reading the articles, for yourself, everyone will be able to answer the question of whether these races actually existed or whether they are a figment of the imagination of people who were afraid of every rustle.

There are a huge number of myths in the world in which various creatures play an important role. They do not have scientific confirmation, but new reports regularly appear that entities that do not look like ordinary animals and people have been spotted in different parts of the world.

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 embody 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

Legends that arose during the times of the ancient Slavs are familiar to many, since they formed the basis of various fairy tales. The creatures of Slavic mythology hide important signs of 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, various heroes and entities, both good and bad. Many Greek mythical creatures have become characters in various modern stories.

Mythical animals in Scandinavian mythology

The mythology of the ancient Scandinavians is part of ancient Germanic history. Many entities stand out for their enormous 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 heroes of various cartoons and films.

Mythical creatures of Japan

Asian countries are unique, even if we consider their mythology. This is due to the geographical location, unpredictable elements and national color. The ancient mythical creatures of Japan are unique.

Mythical creatures of South America

This territory is a mixture of ancient Indian traditions, Spanish and Portuguese culture. 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 nationalities living on the territory of this continent, it is understandable that the legends telling about the entities can be listed for a long time. Good mythical creatures are little known in Africa.

Mythical creatures from the Bible

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