Mythical Hybrids
These were creatures that had both human and animal features or just features of various animals combined.
These were creatures that had both human and animal features or just features of various animals combined.
Centaurs: A Centaur is a mythological creature with the head, arms, and torso of a human and the body and legs of a horse. This half-human and half-horse composition has led many writers to treat them as liminal beings, caught between the two natures, embodied in contrasted myths, both as the embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the Lapiths (their kin), or conversely as teachers, like Chiron. The centaurs were usually said to have been born of Ixion and Nephele (the cloud made in the image of Hera). Another version, however, makes them children of a certain Centaurus, who mated with the Magnesian mares. This Centaurus was either himself the son of Ixion and Nephele (inserting an additional generation) or of Apollo and Stilbe, daughter of the river god Peneus. In the later version of the story his twin brother was Lapithes, ancestor of the Lapiths, thus making the two warring peoples cousins. Centaurs were said to have inhabited the region of Magnesia and Mount Pelion in Thessaly, the Foloi oak forest in Elis, and the Malean peninsula in Southern Laconia. The three most notable Centaurs are presented below. |
Chiron: Chiron was held to be the superlative centaur amongst his brethren. Chiron was notable throughout Greek mythology for his youth-nurturing nature. His personal skills tend to match those of Apollo, his foster father (sometimes along with Artemis); medicine, music, archery, hunting, prophecy. Centaurs were notorious for being wild and lusty, overly indulgent drinkers and carousers, given to violence when intoxicated, and generally uncultured delinquents. Chiron, by contrast, was intelligent, civilized and kind, but he was not related directly to the other centaurs. He was known for his knowledge and skill with medicine. According to an archaic myth he was sired by Cronus when he had taken the form of a horse and impregnated the nymph Phylira. Chiron lived predominantly on Mount Pelion; there he married the nymph Charyclo, who bore him three daughters, Hippe (also known as Melanippe (also the name of her daughter), the "Black Mare" or Euippe, "truly a mare"), Endeis and Ocyrhoe and one son Carystus. A great healer, astrologer, and respected oracle, Chiron was said to be the first among centaurs and highly revered as a teacher and tutor. Among his pupils were many culture heroes: Asclepius Aristaeus, Ajax, Aeneas, Actaeon, Caeneus, Theseus, Achilles, Jason, Peleus, Telamon, Perseus, sometimes Heracles, Oileus, Phoenix, and in one Byzantine tradition, even Dionysus: according to Ptolemaeus Chennus of Alexandria, "Dionysius was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and dances, the bacchic rites and initiations." | His nobility is further reflected in the story of his death, as Prometheus sacrificed his life, allowing mankind to obtain the use of fire. Being the son of Cronus, a Titan, he was immortal and so could not die. So it was left to Heracles to arrange a bargain with Zeus to exchange Chiron's immortality for the life of Prometheus, who had been chained to a rock and left to die for his transgressions. Chiron had been poisoned with an arrow belonging to Heracles that had been treated with the blood of the Hydra, or, in other versions, poison that Chiron had given to the hero when he had been under the honorable centaur’s tutelage. Ironically, Chiron, the master of the healing arts, could not heal himself, so he willingly gave up his immortality. He was honoured with a place in the sky, identified by the Greeks as the constellation Centaurus. |
Pholos (Pholus): Pholus was a wise centaur and friend of Heracles who lived in a cave on or near Mount Pelion. Chiron was the son of Cronus and a minor goddess Philyra, which accounted for his exceptional intelligence and honor. Heracles visited his cave sometime before or after the completion of his fourth Labor, the capture of the Erymanthian Boar. When Heracles drank from a jar of wine in the possession of Pholus, the neighboring centaurs smelled its fragrant odor and, driven characteristically mad, charged into the cave. The majority were slain by Heracles, and the rest were chased to another location where the peaceful centaur Chiron was accidentally wounded by the arrows of Heracles which were soaked in the venomous blood of the Lernaean Hydra. In most accounts, Chiron surrendered his immortality to be free from the agony of the poison. While this pursuit and second combat was occurring, Pholus, back in his cave, accidentally wounded himself with one of the venomous arrows while he was either marveling at how such a small thing could kill a centaur or preparing the corpses for burial (Diodoros). He died quickly as a result of the poison's outrageous virulence and was found by Heracles. |
Nessos (Nessus) : Nessus was a famous centaur who was killed by Heracles, and whose tainted blood in turn killed Heracles. He was the son of Centaurus. He fought in the battle with the Lapiths. He became a ferryman on the river Euenos. Nessus is known for his role in the story of the Tunic of Nessus. After carrying Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, across the river, he attempted to force himself upon her. Heracles saw this from across the river and shot a Hydra-poisoned arrow into Nessus's breast. As a final act of malice, Nessus told Deianeira, as he lay dying, that his blood would ensure that Heracles would be true to her forever. Deianeira foolishly believed him. Later, when her trust began to wane because of Iole, she spread the centaur's blood on a shirt and gave it to her husband. Heracles went to a gathering of heroes, where his passion got the better of him. Meanwhile, Deianeira accidentally spilled a portion of the centaur's blood onto the floor. To her horror, it began to fume by the light of the rising sun. She instantly recognized it as poison and sent her messenger to warn Heracles but it was too late. Heracles lay dying slowly and painfully as the shirt burned his skin—either in actual flames or by the heat of poison. He died a noble death on a funeral pyre of oak branches, and was taken to Mount Olympus by Zeus and welcomed amongst the gods for his heroic exploits. |
Chimera: a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of three animals – a Lion, a snake and a goat. Usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that ended in a snake's head, the Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra . The Chimera finally was defeated by Bellerophon, with the help of Pegasus at the command of King Iobates of Lycia. Since Pegasus could fly, Bellerophon shot the Chimera from the air, safe from her heads and breath. |
Hippalectryon: The term comes directly from the Ancient Greek compound word that comprises "'Ιππος" (hippos 'horse') and "Αλεκτρύων" (alektryon 'rooster'). The name is thus a plain description of the hybrid creature: a half-horse, half-rooster with yellow (usually) feathers creature. The front half is that of a horse, the rear half a rooster's wings, tail and legs. According to a study of Aristophanes' The Frogs, hippalectryons were often painted on shields. A red-figure vase featuring Athena waving a shield sporting a hippalectryon has been found; the theme probably was credited with apotropaic and prophylactic virtues. Roosters are prophylactic as they are a symbol of solar power that routs demons with its singing at sunrise. Horses, especially winged ones, are a funerary symbol as they guide the souls of the dead. The grotesque and ugly hybrid supposedly induced laughter, thereby driving evil away. |
Ichthyocentaur: The name comes from two different words, "Ίχθυο-" (ichthyo 'fish') and "Κένταυρος" (centaur). Their upper bodies took the form of a human torso down to the hips and the lower that of a fish with two horse legs protruding from this intersection. Some ichthyocentaurs wore crowns while depicted with horns often resembling crustacean claws. The two best-known ichthyocentaurs were Bythos (Sea-Depths) and Aphros (Sea-Foam). Their parents were the Titan Kronos and the Nymph Phylira. These sea-creatures were thought to be peaceful water-dwelling creatures; they tended to hold great value for their family and friends. Most of the time, they were able to get along with other water-dwelling races. They had the ability both to breathe underwater and swim with great speed. They also had more physical stamina than any of the other aquatic races. |
Hippotes leos "Ιππότης λεώς" (Ipotanes): the horse-people, a race of half-horse, half-human creatures. They are considered the original version of the Centaur. They looked overall human, but had the legs, hindquarters, tail and ears of a horse. However, some had human-like rather than horse-like legs. |
Mantichoras (Manticore) : The name means "man-eater". It has the body of a red lion, a human head with three rows of sharp teeth, sometimes bat wings and a trumpet-like voice. The tail is that of either a dragon or a scorpion, and it may shoot poisonous spines to either paralyze or kill its victims. It devours its prey whole and leaves no clothes, bones or possessions of the prey behind. |
Minotaur: The Minotaur was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man. The term Minotaur derives from the Ancient Greek Μῑνώταυρος, a compound of the name Μίνως (Minos) and the noun ταύρος "bull", translated as "(the) Bull of Minos". After he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos competed with his brothers to rule. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of support (the Cretan Bull). He was to kill the bull to show honor to Poseidon, but decided to keep it instead because of its beauty. He thought Poseidon would not care if he kept the white bull and sacrificed one of his own. To punish Minos, Aphrodite made Pasiphae, Minos' wife, fall deeply in love with the bull. Pasiphae had the archetypal craftsman Daedalus make a hollow wooden cow, and climbed inside it in order to mate with the white bull. The offspring was the monstrous Minotaur. Pasiphae nursed him in his infancy, but he grew and became ferocious, being the unnatural offspring of man and beast, he had no natural source of nourishment and thus devoured man for sustenance. Minos, after getting advice from the oracle at Delphi, had Daedalus construct a gigantic labyrinth to hold the Minotaur. Its location was near Minos' palace in Knossos. Androgeus, son of Minos, had been killed by the Athenians, who were jealous of the victories he had won at the Panathenaic festival. Others say he was killed at Marathon by Cretan Bull, his mother's former taurine lover, which Aegeus, King of Athens, had commanded him to slay. The common tradition is that Minos waged war to avenge the death of his son and won. Catullus, in his account of the Minotaur's birth, refers to another version in which Athens was "compelled by the cruel plague to pay penalties for the killing of Androgeos." Aegeus must avert the plague caused by his crime by sending "young men at the same time as the best of unwed girls as a feast" to the Minotaur. Minos required that seven Athenian youths and seven maidens, drawn by lots, be sent every seventh or ninth year (some accounts say every year) to be devoured by the Minotaur. | When the third sacrifice approached, Theseus volunteered to slay the monster. He promised to his father, Aegeus, that he would put up a white sail on his journey back home if he was successful and would have the crew put up black sails if he was killed. In Crete, Minos' daughter Ariadne fell madly in love with Theseus and helped him navigate the labyrinth. In most accounts she gave him a ball of thread, allowing him to retrace his path. Theseus killed the Minotaur with the sword of Aegeus and led the other Athenians back out of the labyrinth. On the way home, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos and continued. He neglected, however, to put up the white sail. King Aegeus, from his lookout on Cape Sounion, saw the black-sailed ship approach and, presuming his son dead, committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea that is since named after him. This act secured the throne for Theseus. |
Ophiotaurus: The name is a compound word that comprises "Όφιο-" (Ophio 'snake') and "Ταύρος" (Taurus 'bull'). As the name suggests, it was a creature that was part bull and part serpent. Its sole reference is found in Ovid's Fasti where the creature's entrails were said to grant the power to defeat the gods to whomever burned them. The hybrid was slain by an ally of the Titans during Titanomachy but the entrails were retrieved by an eagle sent by Zeus before they were burnt. The creature emerged from Chaos with Gaia and Ouranos. |
Orthros (Orthrus) : Orthrus is a two-headed dog who is a doublet ("brother") of Cerberus , both whelped by the chthonic monsters Echidna and Typhon. He was owned by the three-bodied giant Geryon. Orthrus and his master, Eurytion, were charged with guarding Geryon's herd of red cattle in the "sunset" land of Erytheia, one of the islands of the Hesperides in the far west of the Mediterranean. Hercules eventually slew Orthrus, Eurytion, and Geryon, before taking the red cattle to complete his tenth labour. |
Pan: According to a Homer's hymn, Pan was the son of Hermes and the Nymph Dryope. Other authors say that he was the son of Zeus and Callisto, and some others of Hermes and Penelope. Pan was the God of the shepherds and the herds. Interested in bee-keeping, he was pleased to accept offerings of honey. He was also a God of Music and liked to dance passionately. It is not surprising, therefore, that he was among the followers of Dionysus. A lot of legends show the God being overwhelmed by lust and trying to satisfy his want with some of his beautiful companions. According to a legend, one of them, the Nymph Syrinx, runs away to avoid his advances, but he pursues her. She reaches the bank of the river Ladona and seeing that she can't escape Pan, she begs the river to save her. He grants her wish and the moment Pan reaches out to grab her, the Nymph turns into a reed. Pan starts to wail for having lost her, but he suddenly stops and listens to the whishing sound of the wind through the reeds. Pan cuts down a few reeds, glues them together using wax, and, thusly, makes up the instrument "Σουραύλι" ( souravli); a small, thin flute which he uses thereafter to charm the shepherds of Arkadia. |
Satyrs: Spirits that lived in the forests or the tops of the mountains in Arkadia, Peloponnese. They are a troop of ithyphallic male companions of Dionysus with horse-like (equine) features, including a horse-tail, horse-like ears, and sometimes a horse-like phallus. Early artistic representations sometimes include horse-like legs, but in 6th-century BC black-figure pottery human legs are the most common. In Roman Mythology there is a concept similar to satyrs with goat-like features, the faun being half-man, half-goat. As Dionysiac creatures, they are lovers of wine and women, and they are ready for every physical pleasure. They roam to the music of pipes, cymbals, castanets, and bagpipes, and they love to chase maenads or bacchants (with whom they are obsessed, and whom they often pursue), or in later art, dance with the nymphs, and have a special form of dance called sikinnis. Because of their love of wine, they are often represented holding wine cups, and they appear often in the decorations on wine cups. |
Sileni: these creatures looked like Centaurs, having the ears, tail, hooves and legs of a horse, a mane and a hairy body. They lived in Phrygia and Thrace. The original Silenus resembled a folkloric man of the forest with the ears of a horse and sometimes also the tail and legs of a horse. The later sileni were drunken followers of Dionysus, usually bald and fat with thick lips and squat noses, and having the legs of a human. Later still, the plural "sileni" went out of use and the only references were to one individual named Silenus, the teacher and faithful companion of the wine-god Dionysus. A notorious consumer of wine, he was usually drunk and had to be supported by satyrs or carried by a donkey. Silenus was described as the oldest, wisest and most drunken of the followers of Dionysus, and was said in Orphic hymns to be the young god's tutor. When intoxicated, Silenus was said to possess special knowledge and the power of prophecy. The Phrygian King Midas was eager to learn from Silenus and caught the old man by lacing a fountain from which Silenus often drank. As Silenus fell asleep, the King's servants seized and took him to their master. Silenus shared with the king a pessimistic philosophy: That the best thing for a man is not to be born, and if already born, to die as soon as possible. | An alternative story was that when lost and wandering in Phrygia, Silenus was rescued by peasants and taken to King Midas, who treated him kindly. In return for Midas' hospitality Silenus told him some tales and Midas, enchanted by Silenus’s fictions, entertained him for five days and nights. Dionysus offered Midas a reward for his kindness towards Silenus, and Midas chose the power of turning everything he touched into gold. Another story was that Silenus had been captured by two shepherds, and regaled them with wondrous tales. |
Sirens: Sirens were believed to combine women and birds in various ways. In early Greek art, Sirens were represented as birds with large women's heads, bird feathers and scaly feet. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings, playing a variety of musical instruments, especially harps. Later Sirens were sometimes depicted as beautiful women, whose bodies, not only their voices, are seductive. They lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. When the Sirens were given a name of their own, they were considered the daughters of the river god Achelous fathered upon one of the Muses: Terpsichore, Melpomene, Sterope, or Gaia (the Earth). Roman writers linked the Sirens more closely to the sea, as daughters of Phorcys. Homer gives the number of the Sirens as two. Later writers state that there were three. As daughters of Melpomene, they are named: Peisinoe, Aglaope and Thelxiepeia. As daughters of Terpsichore, they are called: Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leucosia. | Odysseus was curious as to what the Sirens sang to him, and so, on the advice of Circe, he had all of his sailors plug their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast. He ordered his men to leave him tied tightly to the mast, no matter how much he would beg. When he heard their beautiful song, he ordered the sailors to untie him but they bound him tighter. When they had passed out of earshot, Odysseus demonstrated with his frowns to be released. Some post-Homeric authors state that the Sirens were fated to die if someone heard their singing and escaped them, and that after Odysseus passed by they therefore flung themselves into the water and perished. |
Sphinx: In Greek tradition, it has the haunches of a lion, sometimes with the wings of a great bird, and the face of a human. It is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such mythological stories, as they are killed and eaten by this ravenous monster. This deadly version of a sphinx appears in the myth and drama of Oedipus. Unlike the Greek sphinx which was a woman, the Egyptian sphinx is typically shown as a man (an androsphinx). In addition, the Egyptian sphinx was viewed as benevolent, but having a ferocious strength similar to the malevolent Greek version and were both thought of as a guardian often flanking the entrances to temples. There was a single sphinx in Greek mythology, a unique demon of destruction and bad luck. According to Hesiod, she was a daughter of Orthrus and either Echidna or Chimera, or perhaps even Ceto; according to others, she was a daughter of Echidna and Typhon. The Riddle of the Sphinx The Sphinx is said to have guarded the entrance to the Greek city of Thebes, and to have asked a riddle of travellers to allow them passage. The exact riddle asked by the Sphinx was not specified by early tellers of the stories, and was not standardised as the one given below until late in Greek history. | It was said in late lore that Hera or Ares sent the Sphinx from her Ethiopian homeland (the Greeks always remembered the foreign origin of the Sphinx) to Thebes in Greece where she asks all passersby the most famous riddle in history: "Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?" She strangled and devoured anyone unable to answer. Oedipus solved the riddle by answering: Man—who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then uses a walking stick in old age. By some accounts (but much more rarely), there was a second riddle: "There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?" The answer is "day and night" (both words are feminine in Greek). This riddle is also found in a Gascon version of the myth and could be very ancient. Bested at last, the tale continues, the Sphinx then threw herself from her high rock and died. An alternative version tells that she devoured herself. Thus Oedipus can be recognized as a "liminal" or threshold figure, helping effect the transition between the old religious practices, represented by the death of the Sphinx, and the rise of the new, Olympian gods. |
Telchines: Their parents were either Pontus and Gaia, or Tartarus and Nemesis, or else they were born from the blood of castrated Ouranos along with the Erinyes. In another story there were nine Telchines, children of Thalassa and Pontus; they had flippers instead of hands and dogs' heads and were known as fish children. They were regarded as excellent metallurgists: various accounts state that they were skilled metal workers in brass and iron, and made a trident for Poseidon and a sickle for Cronus, both ceremonial weapons. The Telchines were entrusted by Rhea with the upbringing of Poseidon, which they accomplished with the aid of Capheira (Καφείρα), a daughter of Oceanus. The gods (Zeus, Poseidon or Apollo) eventually killed them because they began to use magic for malignant purposes; particularly, they produced a mixture of Stygian water and sulfur, which killed animals and plants. In legends, they are given various names, the three most-known being Argyron (Silver), Chalcon (Brass), Chryson (Gold) after the metals they have discovered themselves.