Creatures

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Argus Panoptes

The all seeing. A man with many eyes. Early accounts say he had four eyes, later a hundred. There are many accounts of his parentage. He was in a number of adventures: He killed a bull ravaging Arcadia. He killed a satyr for stealing cattle. He killed Echidna. He avenged the death of Apis.

Argus was killed by Hermes while he guarded Io for Hera

Chimaera

Spawned by Typhoeus and Echidna , the Chimaera had three heads - lion, goat, and snake .Its body was also mixed having the front part of a lion, middle of a goat, and snake for a tail. It breathed fire. It ravaged Lycia, killing cattle and setting fires until it was killed by Bellerophon.

Cyclopes

The Cyclopes were gigantic one eyed monsters. There were three of them representing thunder, lighting, and the lighting bolt. They are named Brontes, Steropes, and Arges. They were born to Gaea and Uranus. They were also the first smiths. When Cronus came to power he imprisoned the Cyclopes in Tartarus. The were released by Zeus and fought with him against the Titans. As a reward for their release the Cyclopes gave Zeus his weapons of lighting and thunder. They continued as his workers at Mount Olympus forging his thunderbolts

Apollo killed at least one of the Cyclopes to retribution for Zeus killing his son Asclepius.

There are two other groups of one eyed giants called cyclopes in the Greek myths. They are at best vaguely related.

There is a rural sheep herding tribe of cyclopes in Sicily. The best known of which is Polyphemus, son of Poseidon and Thoosa. Polyphemus was warned by the seer Telemus that he would lose his eye to a man named Odysseus. However, Polyphemus was to busy being lovesick over the sea nymph Galatea to pay attention.

Years lator he found Odysseus and his men munching his cheese in his cave. He turned the tables trapping and then proceeding to start munching them. Part way through Odysseus tricked him into getting drunk. Odysseus took advantage of this to fullfill the prophecy and blind Polyphemus. While Odysseus and his remaining men escaped Polyphemus appealed to his father to punish them. Poseidon's ravaging storms further delayed Odysseus's long trip home.

Finally, there is a group of cyclopes known as the encheirogateres - bellyhands - becaue the worked for their living. They are credit with building the walls of Tiryns for King Proetus. Also, the walls of Mycenae and the Lion Gate. They had a shrine on the Isthmus of Corinth. Virgil says that this group worked for Hephaestus as metal smiths with a forge under Mt. Etna. Here they made thunderbolts for Zeus and created armour for Aeneas. Maybe they were brought in as replacements for the cyclopes that Apollo slayed.

Echidna

A female monster consisting of half nymph, half speckled snake. It lived in a cave coming out to snatch up and eat those passing. The critter was ageless but, not immortal. It was killed by Argus Panoptes while sleeping. It mated frequently with Typhoeus producing a variety of offspring.

Hecatoncheires

Hecatoncheires means "hundred handed". They were gigantic and had fifty heads and one hundred arms each of great strength. There were three of them: Briareus also called Aegaeon, Cottus, and Gyges also called Gyes. They were born to Gaea and Uranus. Their mutual hatred of Uranus caused him to force the Hecatoncheires back into Gaea's womb. This precipitated Gaea's rebellion against Uranus. When Cronus came to power he imprisoned them in Tartarus. The were released by Zeus and fought with him against the Titans. They were able to hurl huge boulders as many as a hundred at a time against their opponents. One of them, Briareus, served as Zeus's bodyguard.

Giants

The Giants were generated from Uranus blood resulting from his castration by Cronus. They became powerful enough to try to unseat Zeus and the Olympians. When the gods won they imprisoned the Giants in Tartarus.

Gorgons

These are female monsters with snakes for hair. Their faces are so ugly that any man that see the face will turn to stone. Oddly the three gorgons have very different origins. Stheno and Euryale were born as gorgons from Phorcys and Ceto. They are immortal. Medusa was not.

Medusa

Medusa began life as a girl so lovely she made Athena jealous. Such beauty turned Poseidon's head. He seduced the girl but, unfortunately for her did so in one of Athena's temples. Such an affront to Athena would not go unpunished particularly by one already in ill favor. So Medusa was turned by Athena into a gorgon. Since she started as human she remained mortal. As if this were not punishment enough, Athena later helped Perseus hunt her down and kill her.

When Perseus cut her head off Pegasus and Chrysaor, her children by Poseidon, sprang forth. Drops of her blood fell into the Libyan desert and turned into snakes. Later one of these snakes killed Mopsus. After Perseus left with her head Athena took charge of what was left of her body. She flayed off Medusa skin and made it into her trademark Aegis. She two drops of the blood to King Erichthonius explaining that one would cure disease and the other was a deadly poison. She gave a lock of the hair Heracles hidden in an urn.

Ash Tree Nymphs

The Ash Tree Nymphs were generated from Uranus blood resulting from his castration by Cronus .

Typhoeus

Typhoeus, was a fire breathing dragon with a hundred heads that never rest. It was birthed by Gaea as a last ditch effort to keep the Olympians from defeating her children the Titans. It came close to succeeding, setting most of the gods to flight and capturing Zeus. Hermes was able to free Zeus. Zeus was then able to dispatch Typhoeus with his lighting bolts. Typhoeus is buried under Mount Etna in Sicily.

Cerberus

Cerberus is one of the offspring of Typhoeus and Echidna. It is a three headed dog with a snake tail and snake heads protruding from his back. He guards the entrance to the underworld, allowing the dead to enter but, never to leave. One of the few living mortals to get past Cerberus was Orpheus who charmed it to sleep with his song during his attempt to rescue Eurydice from death. Fetching Cerberus from the underworld.


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