Ancient myth is full of larger-than-life
monsters — but those myths had to originate somewhere, right?
In Greek mythology, the Lernaean Hydra was a multi-headed snake-beast confronted by Heracles,
known to the Romans as Hercules. Heracles found that its heads quickly
grew back each time he cut one off. It wasn't until Iolaus, Heracles' nephew,
got the idea to burn the stumps that Heracles was finally able to slay the monster.
The concept of a hydra might have been based on something much less fantastical, but still quite
remarkable. Ordinary snakes can occasionally suffer from a condition known as polycephaly,
in which it can have two or even three heads, but otherwise be completely healthy.
Snakes with that condition are very rare, but it would only take one or two sightings of one
for it to turn into a telephone game of legends and myths. Regeneration among reptiles is also
not unheard of, which might have inspired the detail that their heads grew back.
"Will you forget the head-slicing thing?"
Greek myths feature several appearances of a kind of creature known as a cyclops, such as the one
Odysseus Encounters in The Odyssey. Odysseus is able to trick the giant, one-eyed monster
by getting him drunk, telling him his name is "Nobody," and saying "Nobody" attacked him.
Many legends of the cyclops are set on or around the isle of Crete, which was once home to a
species of dwarf mammoths, according to Nature. Historians suspect the myths originated from Greek
explorers finding the skulls of these creatures. A mammoth skull has a large, central socket for
their trunks, not their eyes. To someone who had never seen one before, it might look to be
an oversized humanoid head with a central eye socket, thus creating the cyclops myth.
From King Kong to Donkey Kong, giant apes are a big part of our culture. Giant ape
myths were actually fairly common in the past, too, though the beasts were smaller in scale.
"I wish we were goin' to Candy Apple Island."
"Candy Apple Island? What do they got there?"
"Apes. But they're not so big."
These myths were especially common in places that actually have apes, such as the jungles of Africa.
Throughout centuries of exploration, stories emerged of travelers encountering remarkably
strong apes the size of a human or larger. African tribes had stories spanning back centuries.
It wasn't until 1847 that the stories were actually verified.
Giant apes were actually real, and they were soon given the official name of gorillas. Before that,
science had no idea gorillas existed. Some of the legends about them were exaggerated,
but there really was a species of large apes science just didn't know about.
History and mythology are full of people with fish-like qualities,
like mermaids. Sirens are part of that bunch, too...but different. Sirens are more birdlike,
often being depicted with wings or even beaks. They're said to sing a
deadly but enchanting song that draws sailors into the depths.
What might have inspired these legends is something we're pretty familiar with now, though:
manatees or dugongs, both of which have large arm-like flippers and can turn their heads like
humans. From a distance, these creatures might look more human-like than they do close-up.
And when you consider the sailors who reported seeing them may have
been malnourished or delirious from seafaring, it's not that much of a stretch.
Modern vampires with their trendy looks and high-society trappings are a far cry
from classical vampire stories. Typically, these involved lots of people dying at once
and someone blaming the deaths on a recently deceased person. That person was then exhumed,
and inside the coffin people found the deceased's hair and nails had grown,
blood on their mouth or chin, and scratches inside the coffin lid.
Modern historians think they know what was going on. Disease and death were very
poorly understood until pretty recently. Premature burial wasn't terribly uncommon,
and the natural effects of decay was a mystery. Many "vampires" were actually just
people mistakenly buried alive or dead bodies undergoing the ordinary decomposition process,
which can include fluid coming out of the mouth and the appearance of hair growth.
It's extremely gross — but it's also extremely normal, if you're dead.
Every seafaring culture has stories of massive sea serpents. Norse mythology
had one so large that it encircled the whole world. In Judaism and Christianity, a massive
beast named Leviathan stalks the seas. Plenty of pirate tales also tell of massive sea serpents.
One might think sailors have just embellished stories about eels,
but there's a more reasonable explanation: One of the oldest living shark species,
the frilled shark, calls the deep sea its home, and it looks super weird. The rarely
seen frilled shark wriggles through the sea and has multiple sets of barbed teeth,
perfect for tearing things to shreds. The frilled shark is so old National Geographic refers to it
as a "living fossil," because the species has barely changed over the last 80 million years.
Another possible culprit is the terrifying goblin shark, which is like something out
of the Aliens universe. Either way...you should probably stay out of the water.
In Japanese folklore, there are humanoid, amphibious, often turtle-like creatures
about the size of a child known as the kappa. Basically, they're mischievous gremlins that
live in rivers and streams. They love cucumbers and, oddly, sumo wrestling.
"Kappa!"
"Kappa? Cappuccino? Eh, it makes me hyper."
They usually pull mean-spirited but harmless pranks, but they can also
sometimes attack or even drown unsuspecting humans. They're also usually shown to have a
flat or bowl-shaped head which collects water, and, really, it's a great look.
Many of these legends were based on sightings of a real animal, the Japanese giant
salamander. It's an amphibious creature, quite large, and it does have a flat head.
The salamanders are incredibly rare nowadays, and they are protected by the Japanese government.
The Algonquian people, native to the United States and Canada, have a legend of a beast
called the wendigo. The legends vary. Sometimes the wendigo is a monster that eats human flesh.
In other stories, the wendigo isn't a physical being, but an evil spirit which possesses humans,
causing them to become cannibals and perform other monstrous deeds.
In a case of the story actually creating the monster, some psychiatrists have
identified "Wendigo psychosis," a cultural disorder specific to First Nations people,
according to American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales. It manifests as a belief one
has been inhabited by the wendigo and causes the afflicted to suddenly crave human flesh.
While the myth of the wendigo started out as just a story,
those stories were so effective that wendigos seemingly became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The ancient Mayans have a creation myth where Cipactli,
a giant sea monster often depicted with a single, huge tooth, was killed,
and then the Earth was made from the monster's body. Many other cultures have created myths
and legends about enormous, oversized sharks, far bigger than any seen today.
What may have inspired these stories was encountering the fossils of the megalodon,
an ancient ancestor of modern sharks. It was around 50 feet long,
according to the Natural History Museum. Their fossils aren't exceptionally rare,
and it seems the ancient Mayans found some, as they've been found in their caches. So
while megalodons went extinct 2.5 million years ago, well before humans came to be,
these giant fossilized teeth still freaked out people from numerous cultures.
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