Roman+Creatures+&+Monsters

Brittany Mangrum

The Pantheon:
 * Temple in Rome dedicated to and named after the entire collection of Roman gods.

Popular Mortals and Demigods:
 * **Hercules** - another of Jupiter's sons, although his mother was a mortal. Hercules was half man, half god, and very strong.
 * **Achilles** – his mother dipped him the River Stix when he was born to try to make him immortal, but she held him by his heel, making it his only weakness. He died because of a small wound on his heel and the term //Achilles' heel// has come to mean a person's principal weakness.
 * **Pandora**- first woman formed out of clay by the gods. Jupiter ordered Vulcan to create her.

Monsters and Creatures:
 * **Cerberus**- The watchdog of the realm of Hades, generally described as being a three-headed dog with a serpent tail, and on his back innumerable snakes' heads. Chained in front of the gates of the Underworld, he terrorized souls upon their entering.
 * **Medusa**- Once a beautiful woman, Medusa was the child of Phorcys and Ceto. Of the three "gorgons", Medusa was the only mortal. Their hair was a mass of serpents; they had huge tusks, hands of bronze, and golden wings enabling them to fly. Anyone who encountered their gaze was turned to stone immediately from a horrible fear and loathing.
 * **Echidna**- Is the mixture of a serpent and a woman, a beautiful fair-faced nymph from the waist up, but a horrible serpent below. She grew up in her cave and used her beautiful head and torso to lure men but once they were trapped, her serpent nature took over and she ate them raw.
 * **Lernaean Hydra**- A snake with numerous heads that were sometimes said to be human as well. It was brought up near the source of the river Amymone in order to provide a test for Heracles. The breath of the Hydra was so venomous that anyone who approached it would die, even if the monster was sleeping.
 * **Pegasus**- Winged horse of Bellerophon. He was the offspring of Poseidon and the Gorgon Medusa. The winged steed was born when the blood fell into sea from Medusa's neck. Bellerophon used Pegasus in all his adventures: killing the monster Chimaera, defeating the Solymi and Amazons.
 * **Harpies**- Birds with the heads of women, long claws, faces pale with hunger, which leave behind filth and stench. They were originally sent by Zeus/Jove to torment a blinded soothsayer, Phineas. Driven away by the heroes of the Argonaut expedition, they took refuge on an island on which that Aeneas lands in Virgil's Aeneid, Book III.
 * **Cyclop**- These beings are giants with one enormous eye in the middle of their forehead. In Hesiod, the three sons--Arges, Brontes, and Steropes--of Uranus and Gaea, the personifications of heaven and earth, were Cyclopes. They were thrown into the underworld by their brother Cronus, one of the Titans, after he dethroned Uranus. Zeus released the Cyclopes from the underworld and they gave him the gifts of thunder and lightning.
 * **Griffin**- Griffin or Gryphon was a giant creature with the head and wings of an eagle, but the body and hindquarters of a lion. There are only a few references of the griffins in the Greek mythology. The Greek historian, Herodotus, who claimed they come from the land of the Hyperboreans. The griffins were most likely of Asiatic origin.
 * **Hecatoncheires**- The Hecatoncheires or the Hundred-Handed were offspring of Uranus and Gaea; they were brothers named Briareus, Cottus and Gyges. They had a hundred hands and fifty heads.
 * **Lamia**- Somewhat vampirical, this was a female monster who was thought to steal children and drink their blood. She was thought to have a woman's head and breasts, but a serpent's body. Female spirits which attached themselves to children in order to suck their blood were also called Lamiae.
 * **Minotaur**- The Minotaur was a beast that had the body of a man and the head of a bull.
 * **Scylla**- The six-headed monster that resided at the Strait of Messina. Scylla was originally a beautiful maiden who was loved by a minor sea god named Glaucus. The sorceress Circe was in love with Glaucus, but the sea god did not return her love. In a jealous rage, Circe poured one of her potion into area where Scylla normally bathed. Scylla was transformed into a monster with six long necks, with the head of ugly hounds.
 * **Satyr**- The satyrs were woodland spirits, often depicted in arts with head and upper body of man, horns and pointy ears, and goat legs. They were often seen accompanying Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy.
 * **Sphinx**- The Sphinx was a creature with a head and chest of a woman, body and legs of lion and wings of an eagle.
 * **Triton**- Triton was a fish-tailed sea god, the son and herald of Poseidon, king of the seas. He stilled the waves with the blow of a conch-shell trumpet. Triton was also described as the god of the giant, Libyan, salt-lake Tritonis.
 * **Typhon**- Typhon was a giant winged monster with a hundred heads. Typhon was a gigantic winged monster that was part man and part beast. Typhon was also taller than the tallest mountain. Under Typhon's arms there was a hundred dragon-heads. Below his thighs were the massive coils of vipers. Typhon was a terribly horrifying sight and was deadly since flame would gush from his mouth.
 * **Argus**- Argus Panoptes was a watchman with a hundred eyes.
 * **Centaur**- The Centaurs were a tribe of half-man and half-horse, living in Magnesia, a coastal region in Thessaly. The Centaur was depicted in arts to have a head, chest and arms of a man, while the rest of his body was that of a horse.
 * **Chimera **- Himera (or Chimaera) was a fire-breathing monster that lived in the mountains around Lycia. Chimaera had the head and body of a lion, legs of a goat, and had a snake instead of a tail. Some images of the Chimaera showed it has a head of goat as well as that of the lion.

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