Roman Mythology Monsters and Creatures

Centaurs The race of half-men, half-horses creatures. They were the product of Ixion's weird lust for Hera. Zeus created a psuedo-Hera, Nemele ["cloud"], who gave birth to Ixion's son Centaurus. This very sick son mated with the horses of Mount Pelion to produce the Centaurs. Centaurs were wild, lusty, and brutal; however, their king was the wise and gentle Chiron who advised, among others, Achilles and Jason. Centaurs may have first have been a misinterpretation of the warriors which came from the East who rode on horseback, at the time foreign to the Hellenes. Chiron was the symbol of man eventually taming the horse, which became a great asset.

Cerberus The hound of Hades that guarded the entrance to the underworld. He is described with anywhere from two to fifty heads and was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. Heracles stole Cerberus as one of his labors, and both Aeneas and Odysseus managed to bypass the gigantic dog. Orpheus, the grand musician, soothed the savage beast in order to retrieve his wife Eurydice.

Cyclops According to Hesiod, the one-eyed sons of Gaia and iron-workers of Hephaestus who also made Zeus's thunderbolts. There are generally three, Brontes [Thunderer], Steropes [Lightener] and Arges [Bright]. The work of Cyclopes is commonly regarded as the explanation for volcanos, and Hephaestus's Roman counterpart, Vulcan [origin of the term "volcano"], certainly backs this notion up. The most famous Cyclop is Polyphemus, who was actually a son of Poseidon but often referred to as "Cyclops". Odysseus encounters him and eventually blinds the one eye.

Hydra Hydra was a snake-like monster born of Echidna and Typhon, with nine grotesque heads. Heracles was sent to kill it for his Second Labor. The problem was, when he cut off one head, two grew back. Heracles's nephew Iolaus managed to counteract this by using firebrands to kill the stumps. However, the nineth head was immortal, but Heracles managed to disable this by burying it deep in the earth. He dipped his arrows in Hydra's blood, which was venomously poisoned.

Minotaur The product of Queen Pasiphae's strange lust for the Cretan Bull. The Minotaur was half-man, half bull and is often depicted with a man's body and bull's head, though there are representations of it with a bull's trunk and man's head and torso. King Minos was so appalled at the offspring that he had the master craftsman Daedalus build an enormous labyrinth for it to hide in. The creature fed upon seven youths and seven maidens sent annually from Athens. The hero Theseus, aided by Minos's daughter Ariadne, slew the monster with its own horn. The Minotaur is perhaps an allegory created by the Athenians for Knossos [Crete] who always harvested a strange fascination for bulls.

Phoenix The beautiful, legendary bird that lived in Arabia and, according to myth, consumed itself by fire every 500 years. A new, young phoenix, just as breathtaking, sprang from its ashes. In ancient Egypt, the phoenix represented the sun, which dies at night and is reborn in the morning. Greek mythology presents the stunning creature in the early morning, at dawn it bathes in water and sings an enchanting song. So beautiful is this song that the sun god Helios would stop his chariot to listen. There only exists one phoenix at a time. Upon its impending death, it builds a nest, sets itself on fire, and is consumed by the flames. A new phoenix springs forth from the pyre. Early Christian tradition adopted the phoenix as a symbol of both immortality and resurrection. Modern folklore utilizes the magnificent creature as a symbol of renewal, rebirth, and starting anew.