Flesh-eating horses! Child-devouring witches! And, of course, many-headed devil dogs!
Get your sword and shield ready, and I hope Athena and fortune are on your side today,
because we're coming face to face with some of the most terrifying monsters in
all of Greek mythology! And we can guarantee that number one won’t be what you expect!
Number 20: Argus
Argus, a servant of Hera, was a giant whose body was covered in
one hundred eyes. He made for a heck of a watchman for Hera,
tasked with watching over a cow that her priestess, Io, had been transformed into.
In case you're wondering, yes, the priestess turning into a cow had something to do with
Zeus and his extramarital shenanigans. The less said about that, the better.
In addition to his numerous eyes, Argus was imbued with constant strength and wakefulness,
able to keep his watch forever without stopping to sleep or rest. His duty was
cut short when he was slain by Hermes, who disguised himself as a shepherd and shut
Argus's eyes permanently. According to some versions of the story, all it took to slay
Argus was a simple thrown stone, earning him his spot toward the bottom of this ranking.
Still, he has an impressive legacy. Hera took Argus's eyes and transferred them to the tail
of her favorite bird: the peacock. There, his all-seeing eyes live on.
But what Argus lacked in power, our next contestant made up for in horsepower…
Number 19: Mares of Diomedes
The giant Diomedes, King of Thrace, was in possession of four terrifying,
man-eating horses known as the Mares of Diomedes. The demigod hero Heracles was tasked with stealing
these mares by King Eurystheus, but he didn't know that these were no ordinary horses.
Their diet of human flesh had driven them mad, and in some versions of the story,
they could also breathe fire. Heracles managed to complete his
task by killing Diomedes and feeding him to the bloodthirsty horses. Yikes! By the way,
Heracles is also conflated with a different hero, one whose name you might recognize.
But to understand that, first, you need to know about a really frightening kitty…
Number 18: Nemean Lion
Many of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology wound up facing off against one of
the most iconic heroes: Hercules. Also known as Heracles in the original Greek, but we'll stick
to the more recognizable name from here on out. Hercules wasn't necessarily the greatest guy,
but he was top-notch at monster fighting. When King Eurystheus presented Hercules
with twelve labors to complete, his first assignment was to slay the Nemean Lion.
This was no ordinary lion. The beast, which was terrorizing people all around Nemea, was a vicious
fighter whose skin was impervious to all weapons. But where spears and swords had failed, Hercules
was able to kill the lion with his guns, by which we mean his big strong arms. He grabbed hold of
the lion and squeezed it until he had choked it to death, then he wore its skin as a trophy.
But unlike our next contestant, lions can’t attack from above…
Number 17: Stymphalian Birds
For his sixth labor, Hercules was tasked with taking out the vicious Stymphalian Birds,
who had migrated to a marsh in Arcadia and decimated the crops, trees, and people there.
Pausanias described the deadly birds, "These fly against those who come to hunt them,
wounding and killing them with their beaks. All armor of bronze or iron that men wear is pierced
by the birds; but if they weave a garment of thick cork, the beaks of the Stymphalian
birds are caught in the cork garment... These birds are of the size of a crane,
and are like the ibis, but their beaks are more powerful, and not crooked like that of the ibis."
In addition to their extremely sharp beaks, the birds were equipped with metallic feathers they
could use as weapons, and also poison dung. Gross. There's a legend that if
a bird poops on you, it's good luck, but that definitely doesn't apply to these. If
you crossed the path of the Stymphalian Birds, you were pretty much flocked.
Hercules was unable to enter the birds' territory directly, as the ground in the marsh where they
dwelled wouldn't support his weight. Instead, Athena gifted the hero with a krotala, a bronze
rattle that he shook, frightening the birds into the air. Then, he was able to shoot them one by
one with arrows dipped in the poisonous blood of another monster on this list. No spoilers.
The birds that survived flew away and would never trouble
the people of Arcadia again. Unlike our next horrifying reptilian beast…
Number 16: Hydra
This next monster has a good head on its shoulders. In fact,
it has several. And if it ever happens to lose its head, two more grow out of
the open wound in its place. That's right, we're talking about the Hydra.
The Hydra was an enormous monster resembling a water snake with many heads, one of which could
not be killed. The serpent's blood and breath were both poisonous and even breathing in the
smell of it could potentially be deadly. For one of his labors, Hercules was tasked with slaying
the Hydra. But he couldn't do it alone! He needed the help of his nephew, Iolaus.
As Hercules cut off each head, Iolaus followed behind, using fire and a sword
to cauterize each wound and prevent new heads from growing there. They continued
this process until the only head left was the immortal one, which Hercules severed
from its neck and buried beneath a heavy rock where it could do no more damage.
For a little bit of extra firepower he could use during his future tasks,
he dipped the tips of his arrows into the Hydra's poison blood. That's right,
he took down the Stymphalian Birds using the blood of the Hydra. That's working smarter, not harder.
But there’s more than one way to be a mythological horror with multiple heads…
Number 15: Chimera
Up next, we have the Chimera, a hybrid monster made up of the parts of a lion,
a goat, and a snake. Oh, and it also could breathe fire, in case it wasn't terrifying enough already.
The Chimera was referred to in the Iliad as "a bane to many men," and it was known
for terrorizing the residents of its homeland in Lycia. It spent its time there, devouring people
and presumably blasting them with fire first to get them nice and crispy, before it was slain
by the hero Bellerophon, who attacked it while riding on the back of the winged horse Pegasus.
But at least you need to be close to the Chimera for it to hurt you.
For some creatures, it’s enough to just hear them…
Number 14: Sirens
Hey, what's that sound? It sounds like...beautiful
music? Maybe we should get closer and see for ourselves...wait, no!
No! Stop! Don't go any further; that's the enchanting voice of our next monster: the Sirens.
Let's get one thing out of the way: you might have been picturing the Sirens wrong your entire
life. These seductive creatures, whose song lures sailors to crash their ships on treacherous rocks,
may live near the sea, but if you picture them as mermaids, you've got it wrong. They were
actually bird women, with the lower bodies of birds and the heads or upper bodies of women.
It makes sense when you think about it - Fish aren’t exactly famous for their singing skills.
The exact ratio of bird to woman varies depending on the depiction,
but one aspect of the Sirens is always the same: They perched on the rocks and sang, tricking
sailors into crashing their ships, ensuring they would drown and never again reach home.
Most famously, the Sirens were encountered by Odysseus on his long journey, where he
managed to avoid succumbing to their song by having his men stuff their ears with wax
and then tie him to the mast of his ship so he might hear their song and live. In
some retellings of the story, the Sirens were so furious that a mortal man was able
to hear their song and survive that they threw themselves into the sea and drowned.
Speaking of bird women, the Sirens were not the only part-bird part-woman monsters in Greek Myth…
Number 13: Harpies
The Harpies, the personifications of dangerous storm winds and the servants of Zeus,
would swoop down from the sky to punish anyone who had angered the Gods, most often Zeus, Hera,
or Athena. When someone disappeared suddenly and without explanation in Ancient Greece,
their disappearance might have been attributed to the Harpies snatching
them up and carrying them away to their doom.
But you’d rather be carried away than eaten, right?
Number 12: Polyphemus
The Cyclops, or one-eyed giants, are famous throughout Greek mythology,
but one of them is more famous than any of the others: Polyphemus.
Polyphemus is another one of the monsters encountered by Odysseus
on his epic journey. The Cyclops trapped Odysseus and his twelve men in his cave,
where he blocked the entrance with a giant rock. He devoured six of the men, eating
them alive. But what Polyphemus had in brute strength, he lacked in critical thinking skills.
Odysseus was able to trick the Cyclops by getting him drunk on wine, and when he had fallen asleep,
the hero stabbed him in the eye with a burning stake, blinding him. Then,
Odysseus and his surviving men escaped by hiding beneath Polyphemus's sheep as they went out to
pasture. Though blinded, the Cyclops survived the encounter with Odysseus and attempted to sink the
hero's ship by hurling giant boulders at it as he and his men sailed away.
But a stupid maneater is one thing - a smarter one is far scarier.
Number 11: Sphinx
The Sphinx was a female monster with a lion's body,
the head and chest of a woman, the wings of an eagle, and the tail of a
snake. She was known for an appetite for human flesh and an affinity for riddles.
According to myth, the gods sent her to Thebes to punish the people there for
something - whatever they were mad about that day, probably - where she would eat
anyone who failed to solve her riddle, which was taught to her by the Muses.
The King of Thebes offered his throne to anyone who could defeat her,
and Oedipus decided to accept the challenge. When he successfully answered her riddle,
she responded reasonably by throwing herself off a mountain.
By the way, in case you ever encounter a Sphinx, here's the answer to her most famous riddle.
"What goes on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?"
Why, it's man - who begins life crawling on all fours,
walks on two legs in adulthood, and uses a walking stick in old age. There,
now you can be just like Oedipus. But only in that one aspect. We hope.
Speaking of messed-up parent-child relationships…
Number 10: Lamia
Lamia might be the closest thing that Greek Mythology has to the Boogeyman,
a terrible monster used to frighten children into good behavior. She began as a beautiful
daughter of King Belus of Libya, but after she caught the eye of Zeus and bore several
of his children, Hera caught wind of the affair and was less than pleased.
She killed all of Lamia's children except for one, who is featured later on this very list. At least,
that's one version of the story. In another, even more upsetting version,
Hera forced Lamia to kill her own children. The grief and rage caused
by this act transformed Lamia into a half-snake, half-woman monster who
dwelled in a cave and emerged to steal babies and children from their homes, devouring them.
Better be good, kids! Or Lamia will slither into your room and eat you alive.
But hey, at least you’re not being eaten alive in a dark, scary maze…
Number 9: Minotaur
Animal-human hybrids are pretty common throughout Greek Mythology,
and one of the most famous of all time is the part-bull, part-man Minotaur.
Born of the unholy union between Queen Pasiphae and a white bull,
the Minotaur was kept in a labyrinth, where King Minos would send seven
Athenian men and seven Athenian women to be sacrificed to the beast on a regular basis.
The Minotaur's reign of terror continued until Theseus defeated it with help from
Princess Ariadne. The Minotaur is dead. Phew. Our next monster isn’t…
Number 8: Empusa
Like Lamia, Empusa was another female monster that preyed on humans while they
slept. This shapeshifting creature would take different forms depending on what she
wanted to do. If she was trying to frighten travelers, one of her favorite activities,
she would appear as a grotesque monster with legs made from bronze and cow dung.
If she wanted to feed on the blood of young men, she would take on the
shape of a beautiful woman. She would also sometimes take on the shape of a cow, a mule,
or a dog. No matter what shape she took, she wasn't the sort of being you'd want to
cross paths with, at least if you wanted to keep all of your blood inside of your body.
Some monsters attack while you sleep. Others are
so strong they can only be attacked while they sleep…
Number 7: Colchian Dragon
During Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, he encountered the monster that was tasked
with guarding it in the sacred grove of Ares: The Colchian Dragon. This massive
beast was so powerful it was thought to mean certain death for Jason when he faced it.
But with the help of the sorceress Medea, he put it to sleep and managed
to slay the dragon. Even in death, it still posed a threat though. Its
teeth were taken out of its mouth by the King and sown in a sacred field. There,
they caused a group of stone soldiers to spring up from the Earth and attack Jason.
Sure, he managed to defeat those too,
but how many monsters can still hurt you even after they've been killed?
Number 6: Scylla
Oh, would you look at that, Odysseus is here again. The next two monsters
on our list come as a set and were among the horrors faced in the hero's Odyssey.
First, there was Scylla, a beast with 12 feet and six heads on long,
serpentine necks. Each head had three rows of sharp teeth, which she used to snap up
her prey from within her cave whenever they got too close. She devoured six of Odysseus's men as
his ship passed by her. But she shared those treacherous waters with another monster...
Number 5: Charybdis
Charybdis dwelled on the shore across from Scylla,
where she would drink up and spit out the waters three times a day, creating a vicious whirlpool.
Together, they made it nearly impossible to make it through
their waters alive. Odysseus managed to, after being shipwrecked, only by holding
onto a tree for dear life for hours until Charybdis spat up a raft she had swallowed.
But what do you find more frightening - water or snakes?
Number 4: Echidna
Echidna was another half-woman, half-snake, but she was far more than just that.
Hesiod described her as a flesh-eating monster who was not like "mortal men,"
nor was she like "the undying gods," but was something else entirely. She was ageless,
with a taste for raw human flesh, and spent her time lurking in a cave and
preying on humans that were unfortunate enough to wander into her domain.
She and her lover bore some truly nightmarish children together, including the Gorgons,
the Chimera, and the Colchian Dragon. That's not even close to all of them,
either. According to Apollodorus, she hunted humans for many,
many years until her reign of terror was cut short by Argus, who killed her while she slept.
Who could’ve expected Argus to come back!? Talk about a plot twist!
Number 3: Cerberus
The twelfth and final Labour of Hercules, the most dangerous one of all, was to travel into the
Underworld and kidnap Cerberus, the beast that guarded the gates to the land of the dead. The
many-headed dog was a horrible sight to behold, with a serpent for a tail and the heads of snakes
all over his back. Some accounts said that he had more than three heads, going as high as fifty!
Hesiod described the hellish hound in Theogony like this:
"a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described,
Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless,
and strong." He also described Cerberus's role as the ultimate guard dog: "As people go in,
he fawns on all, with actions of his tail and both ears, but he will not let them go back out
but lies in wait for them and eats them up when he catches any going back through the gates."
Once he arrived in the Underworld, Hercules met with Hades. The God of the Underworld agreed
that Hercules could take the beast with him if he managed to overpower Cerberus with nothing but his
own two hands and no other weapons. Hercules did indeed wrestle Cerberus into submission,
though he sustained a bite from the serpent tail in the process.
Unlike the Nemean Lion, Cerberus was not killed in the fight. He was taken to Eurystheus alive,
and later was returned safely to his home in the Underworld. Unlike the
other monsters that Hercules faced off against, Cerberus survived the encounter
without so much as a scratch. Soon after, he resumed his post and presumably got some
nice scritches behind the many pairs of ears from Persephone for being such a good boy.
But let’s go from a bad boy to a really, really scary girl…
Number 2: Medusa
No list of monsters would be complete without the
woman whose mere gaze can turn a man into solid stone: Medusa.
Crowned with hair made of writhing, hissing snakes, she struck terror into the hearts
of men all through Ancient Greece. In one of the most famous versions of her myth,
Medusa was assaulted by Poseidon in the Temple of Athena and then punished by
the goddess for the violation. She was then transformed into the monster we all know today.
Eventually, she was defeated by the hero Perseus, with the help of the Gods, but her
powers persisted even after death. Her severed head, according to one version of the legend,
was placed in Athena's shield and used to paralyze opponents on the battlefield with
fear. If there is one monster from Greek Myth that everyone knows, it's Medusa.
So why isn't she number one on this list? Who would possibly have edged the
iconic Gorgon out of the number one spot? Well...
It’s Number 1: Typhon
How about the Father of All Monsters? The entity that created the Gorgons, Cerberus,
Scylla, the Nemean Lion, the Sphinx, and several other entries on this very list?
Typhon, the son of Gaia and Tartarus, is the largest and most powerful monster in
Greek Mythology. The giant monster had wings, snakeheads in place of his hands,
and a lower body made from even more coiled snakes. His eyes were made of fire,
and he spat fiery stones from his horrible mouth. Some descriptions of
him state that he spat poison instead, which he also emitted from his hair.
Apollodorus described him like this: "Down to his thighs he was human in form,
but of such Immense size that he rose higher than all the mountains and often even scraped
the stars with his head. With arms outstretched, he could reach the west on one side and the east
on the other; and from his arms there sprang a hundred dragons' heads. Below his thighs,
he had massive coils of vipers, which, when they were fully extended, reached right up
to his head and emitted violent hisses. He had wings all over his body, and filthy hair
springing from his head and cheeks floated around him in the wind, and fire flashed from his eyes."
So yeah, pretty intimidating. It takes two to tango, of course, and Typhon didn't father
all of those children by himself. He had a wife, Echidna, who was also featured on this list.
But while Echidna was slain by Argus, Typhon was not killed (well, he was in one version
of the story, but most takes on the myth agree that he survived). He battled Zeus himself and
lived to tell the tale. He was imprisoned in Tartarus, or beneath the land of the Arimoi.
There, beneath the ground, his rage shook the earth and caused volcanoes to erupt,
terrorizing humanity even from within his eternal prison. Without Typhon, humanity would have had
far fewer monsters to fight, so that earns him a place as the Big Daddy of them all.
Now check out “Soldiers Encounter Mysterious Monsters in Vietnam War.” Or watch this instead!