SITE NAVIGATION
Website - About Site | What’s New? | Feedback | Help
Contact - Email | Twitter | Credit & References
View My Writing Portfolio at www.bykairos.com MAIN DIRECTORY TREE
- Beautiful Word Lists Home - view by topic
- Featured Word List Collections
- Download Ultimate Word Guides
- Word and Literary Reference Corner - language and writing reference resources
Beauty of Language & Words - Sitemap | Featured
- Rolling Web Log of Random Beautiful Words
- The Rare, Weird, Unusual, and Obscure - Sitemap
- Bringing Back the Rare, Archaic, & Obsolete
- The Darker Side of the Moon
- From Around The World - Sitemap | Featured
- Translating Your Untranslatable World
- Saucy Song of Slang - Sitemap
VOCABULARY BOOKS TO VIEW OR DOWNLOAD
A Series of Beautiful Words - Books, Blogs and Beautiful Words. Download my vocabulary books or view the content online
DOWNLOAD BOOKS | VIEW BOOKS ONLINE
MY WORD POSTS - Posting under @kairosoflife
SEARCH WORDS BELOW or use ADVANCED SEARCH to search this site and content of my vocabulary books
FULL INDEX SITEMAP | INDEX OF TOPIC SITEMAPS
Directory of Word Lists
PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS
Word List Collection Index - View All Word Lists
Special Features:
ANSWERING THE CALL OF THE WILD - introducing the words of the animal kingdom
THE OBSCURITY OF THE NORM - a collection of beautifully obscure words for normal, everyday things
Related Word Lists From Other Categories
Word List Collection Index - View All Word Lists
Special Features:
ANSWERING THE CALL OF THE WILD - introducing the words of the animal kingdom
THE OBSCURITY OF THE NORM - a collection of beautifully obscure words for normal, everyday things
Related Word Lists From Other Categories
Directory of Word Lists
ANSWERING THE CALL OF THE WILD
- PART 1: Curling Up With a Clowder of Cats - Pets
- PART 2: The Animals Have Gone Wild
- PART 3: Animals On Payroll Working the Farm
- PART 4: An African Safari or the City Zoo?
- PART 5: Creatures That Live Under the Sea
- PART 6: Birds of a Feather Flock Together
- PART 7: The Rapping Reptiles on the Riverbank
- PART 8: Pack Conspiracy of Animals
- PART 9: The Small & Mighty to Creepy Crawlies
- PART 10: Rise of the Mythical Beasts
RISE OF THE MYTHICAL BEASTS
MYTHICAL ANIMALS
A legendary, and mythological creature, also known as a fabulous creature or fabulous beast, is a supernatural animal. It can be a hybrid, sometimes part human. Mythical creatures cannot be proved. Some legendary creatures have their origin in traditional mythology and were believed to be real creatures, for example DRAGONS,, GRIFFINS, and UNICORNS. Others were based on real encounters, originating in tales.
CRYPTOZOOLOGY - the study of creatures whose existence is unproved.
In the classical era, monstrous creatures such as the CYCLOPS and the MINOTAUR appear in heroic tales for the protagonist to destroy.
The UNICORN was claimed in accounts of natural history by various scholars of antiquity.
A variety of mythical animals appear in the art and stories of the Classical era.
In the Homer Odyssey, monstrous creatures include the CYCLOPS, SCYLLA and CHARYBDIS and were illustrated for the hero Odysseus to confront. In other tales MEDUSA was to be defeated by Perseus, the (human/bull) a MINOTAUR to be destroyed by Theseus, the HYDRA to be killed by Heracles, and HARPIES were in battle with Aeneas.
Some classical era creatures, such as the (horse/human) CENTAUR, CHIMARRA, TRITON, and a FLYING HORSE have appeared in Indian art. Similarly, SPHINXES appear as winged lions in this art.
In medieval art, animals, both real and mythical, played important roles. They were incorporated in decorative forms and medieval jewellery, and sometimes were shown with their limbs intricately interlaced. Animal forms were used to add humor or majesty to objects.
In Christian art, animals carried symbolic meanings, like the LAMB symbolizing Christ, a DOVE indicates the Holy Spirit, and the classical GRIFFIN represents a guardian of the dead.
Medieval bestiaries included animals regardless of biological reality; the BASILISK represented the devil, while the MANTICORE symbolized temptation.
BASILISK (Italian) - Multi-limbed, venomous lizard
CENTAUR (Greek) - Human-horse hybrid, In Greek myth, a monster, half man and half horse, descended from Ixion and Nephele, the cloud.
CHARYBDIS (Greek) - Sea monster in the form of a giant mouth
CHIMAERA (Greek) - Lion-goat-snake hybrid
CYCLOPS (Greek) - One-eyed giant
DRAGON (Many cultures worldwide) - Fire-breathing and (normally) winged reptiles
GRIFFIN (Heraldic) - Lion-eagle hybrid
HARPY (Greek) - birdlike human-headed death spirit
HYDRA -In Greek myth, a monstrous serpent or dragon of the lake or marsh of Lerna in Argolis, represented as having nine heads, each of which, being cut off, was immediately succeeded by two new ones unless the wound was cauterized. The destruction of this monster was one of the twelve labors of Hercules.
KRAKEN- A fabulous Scandinavian sea monster, often represented as resembling an island, but sometimes as resembling an immense octopus.
MANTICORE (Persian mythology) - Lion-human-scorpion hybrid. It has the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion.
MEDUSA (Greek mythology) - Serpent-female hybrid (Gorgon) with numerous snake heads
SCYLLA (Greek) - Human-snake hybrid with a snake's tail, twelve legs, and six long-necked snake heads
SPHINX (Greek) - Winged woman-headed lion
TRITONS (Greek) - Male human-fish hybrid
UNICORN (Medieval Bestiaries) - Horse-like creature with the legs of an antelope, the tail of a lion and a single magical healing horn.
CRYPTOZOOLOGY - the study of creatures whose existence is unproved.
In the classical era, monstrous creatures such as the CYCLOPS and the MINOTAUR appear in heroic tales for the protagonist to destroy.
The UNICORN was claimed in accounts of natural history by various scholars of antiquity.
A variety of mythical animals appear in the art and stories of the Classical era.
In the Homer Odyssey, monstrous creatures include the CYCLOPS, SCYLLA and CHARYBDIS and were illustrated for the hero Odysseus to confront. In other tales MEDUSA was to be defeated by Perseus, the (human/bull) a MINOTAUR to be destroyed by Theseus, the HYDRA to be killed by Heracles, and HARPIES were in battle with Aeneas.
Some classical era creatures, such as the (horse/human) CENTAUR, CHIMARRA, TRITON, and a FLYING HORSE have appeared in Indian art. Similarly, SPHINXES appear as winged lions in this art.
In medieval art, animals, both real and mythical, played important roles. They were incorporated in decorative forms and medieval jewellery, and sometimes were shown with their limbs intricately interlaced. Animal forms were used to add humor or majesty to objects.
In Christian art, animals carried symbolic meanings, like the LAMB symbolizing Christ, a DOVE indicates the Holy Spirit, and the classical GRIFFIN represents a guardian of the dead.
Medieval bestiaries included animals regardless of biological reality; the BASILISK represented the devil, while the MANTICORE symbolized temptation.
BASILISK (Italian) - Multi-limbed, venomous lizard
CENTAUR (Greek) - Human-horse hybrid, In Greek myth, a monster, half man and half horse, descended from Ixion and Nephele, the cloud.
CHARYBDIS (Greek) - Sea monster in the form of a giant mouth
CHIMAERA (Greek) - Lion-goat-snake hybrid
CYCLOPS (Greek) - One-eyed giant
DRAGON (Many cultures worldwide) - Fire-breathing and (normally) winged reptiles
GRIFFIN (Heraldic) - Lion-eagle hybrid
HARPY (Greek) - birdlike human-headed death spirit
HYDRA -In Greek myth, a monstrous serpent or dragon of the lake or marsh of Lerna in Argolis, represented as having nine heads, each of which, being cut off, was immediately succeeded by two new ones unless the wound was cauterized. The destruction of this monster was one of the twelve labors of Hercules.
KRAKEN- A fabulous Scandinavian sea monster, often represented as resembling an island, but sometimes as resembling an immense octopus.
MANTICORE (Persian mythology) - Lion-human-scorpion hybrid. It has the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion.
MEDUSA (Greek mythology) - Serpent-female hybrid (Gorgon) with numerous snake heads
SCYLLA (Greek) - Human-snake hybrid with a snake's tail, twelve legs, and six long-necked snake heads
SPHINX (Greek) - Winged woman-headed lion
TRITONS (Greek) - Male human-fish hybrid
UNICORN (Medieval Bestiaries) - Horse-like creature with the legs of an antelope, the tail of a lion and a single magical healing horn.
OTHER CREATURES
- CRYPTID - a creature who’s existence has been suggested but has not been discovered or documented by the scientific community.
- ANGUIS - Latin for a serpent or dragon.
- BARGHEST - a mythical doglike goblin believed to portend death
- BESTIARY - a group of moralistic fables about mythical animals
- LAMIA - a mythological monster creature with the body of a woman
- LICORNE - the mystical unicorn.
- IKKAKUJU – Japanese for unicorn
- MANTICORE -
- TANIWHA - a mythical creature that lives in the deepest part of the ocean.
Up Next:
Return to Feature Index
This site is a part of
A SERIES OF BEAUTIFUL WORDS BY KAI
The Collection Includes:
Defining the Brain: Website | Downloads (science)
A Beautiful Word: Website | Downloads (rare/obscure)
The Logophile Lexicon: Website | Book (literary)
Defining New Ideas: Website | Book (creativity)
Author Homepage: Bookshelf by Kairos (all my work)
Words posted by @kairosoflife on Twitter under the hashtag #beautifulwords and on my vocabulary bulletin boards on Pinterest.
Original content © 2020 Copyright, Kairos
A SERIES OF BEAUTIFUL WORDS BY KAI
The Collection Includes:
Defining the Brain: Website | Downloads (science)
A Beautiful Word: Website | Downloads (rare/obscure)
The Logophile Lexicon: Website | Book (literary)
Defining New Ideas: Website | Book (creativity)
Author Homepage: Bookshelf by Kairos (all my work)
Words posted by @kairosoflife on Twitter under the hashtag #beautifulwords and on my vocabulary bulletin boards on Pinterest.
Original content © 2020 Copyright, Kairos
