Very scary creatures. Scary photos of mutants and strange creatures

Ancient Greece is considered the cradle European civilization, which gave modernity a lot of cultural wealth and inspired scientists and artists. The myths of Ancient Greece hospitably open the doors to a world inhabited by gods, heroes and monsters. The intricacies of relationships, the deceit of nature, divine or human, unthinkable fantasies plunge us into the abyss of passions, making us shudder with horror, empathy and admiration for the harmony of that reality that existed many centuries ago, but so relevant at all times!

1) Typhon

The most powerful and frightening creature of all those generated by Gaia, the personification of the fiery forces of the earth and its vapors, with their destructive actions. The monster has incredible strength and has 100 dragon heads on the back of its head, with black tongues and fiery eyes. From its mouths one hears the ordinary voice of the gods, then the roar of a terrible bull, then the roar of a lion, then the howling of a dog, then a sharp whistle that echoes in the mountains. Typhon was the father of mythical monsters from Echidna: Orff, Cerberus, Hydra, the Colchis Dragon and others who threatened the human race on earth and under the earth until the hero Hercules destroyed them, except for the Sphinx, Cerberus and Chimera. From Typhon all the empty winds went, except Notus, Boreas and Zephyr. Typhon, crossing the Aegean, scattered the islands of the Cyclades, which had previously been closely spaced. The fiery breath of the monster reached the island of Fer and destroyed its entire western half, and turned the rest into a scorched desert. The island has since taken on the shape of a crescent. Giant waves raised by Typhon reached the island of Crete and destroyed the kingdom of Minos. Typhon was so intimidating and strong that the Olympian gods fled from their abode, refusing to fight with him. Only Zeus, the bravest of the young gods, decided to fight Typhon. The fight went on for a long time, in the heat of battle, the opponents moved from Greece to Syria. Here Typhon shattered the earth with his giant body, subsequently these traces of the battle were filled with water and became rivers. Zeus pushed Typhon north and threw him into the Ionian Sea, near the Italian coast. The Thunderer incinerated the monster with lightning and threw him into Tartarus under Mount Etna on the island of Sicily. In ancient times, it was believed that the numerous eruptions of Etna occur due to the fact that lightning, previously thrown by Zeus, erupts from the mouth of the volcano. Typhon served as the personification of the destructive forces of nature, such as hurricanes, volcanoes, tornadoes. From English version This Greek name is the origin of the word "typhoon".

2) Dracains

They represent a female snake or dragon, often with human features. Dracains include, in particular, Lamia and Echidna.

The name "lamia" etymologically comes from Assyria and Babylon, where the demons who killed infants were called so. Lamia, the daughter of Poseidon, was the queen of Libya, the beloved of Zeus and gave birth to children from him. Extraordinary beauty Lamia herself kindled the fire of revenge in the heart of Hera, and Hera, out of jealousy, killed Lamia's children, turned her beauty into ugliness and deprived her husband's beloved of sleep. Lamia was forced to take refuge in a cave and, at the behest of Hera, turned into a bloody monster, in desperation and madness, kidnapping and devouring other people's children. Since Hera deprived her of sleep, Lamia wandered tirelessly at night. Zeus, who took pity on her, gave her the opportunity to take out her eyes in order to fall asleep, and only then could she become harmless. Becoming in a new form half woman, half snake, she gave birth to a terrible offspring called lamias. Lamia have polymorphic abilities, can act in various guises, usually as animal-human hybrids. However, more often they are like beautiful girls, because it is easier to charm unwary men. They also attack the sleeping and deprive them of their vitality. These nightly ghosts under the guise fair maidens and young men suck the blood of young men. Lamia in ancient times was also called ghouls and vampires, who, according to the popular idea of ​​the modern Greeks, hypnotically lured young men and virgins and then killed them by drinking their blood. Lamia, with some skill, is easy to expose, for this it is enough to make her give a voice. Since the tongue of lamias is forked, they are deprived of the ability to speak, but they can whistle melodiously. In later legends of European peoples, Lamia was depicted in the form of a snake with a head and chest. beautiful woman. It was also associated with a nightmare - Mara.

The daughter of Forkis and Keto, the granddaughter of Gaia-Earth and the god of the sea Pontus, she was depicted as a gigantic woman with a beautiful face and a spotted snake body, less often a lizard, combining beauty with an insidious and malicious disposition. She gave birth to a whole host of monsters from Typhon, different in appearance, but disgusting in their essence. When she attacked the Olympians, Zeus drove her and Typhon away. After the victory, the Thunderer imprisoned Typhon under Mount Etna, but allowed Echidna and her children to live as a challenge to future heroes. She was immortal and ageless and lived in a gloomy cave underground far from people and gods. Crawling out to hunt, she lay in wait and lured travelers, further mercilessly devouring them. The mistress of snakes, Echidna, had an unusually hypnotic gaze, which not only people, but also animals were unable to resist. In various versions of the myths, Echidna was killed by Hercules, Bellerophon or Oedipus during her undisturbed sleep. Echidna is by nature a chthonic deity, whose power, embodied in his descendants, was destroyed by the heroes, marking the victory of ancient Greek heroic mythology over primitive teratomorphism. The ancient Greek legend of Echidna formed the basis of medieval legends about the monstrous reptile as the most vile of all creatures and the unconditional enemy of mankind, and also served as an explanation for the origin of dragons. named after Echidna oviparous mammal, covered with needles, living in Australia and the islands Pacific Ocean, as well as Australian snake, the largest venomous snake in the world. Echidna is also called an evil, caustic, insidious person.

3) Gorgons

These monsters were the daughters of the sea god Phorkis and his sister Keto. There is also a version that they were the daughters of Typhon and Echidna. There were three sisters: Euryale, Stheno and Medusa Gorgon - the most famous of them and the only mortal of the three monstrous sisters. Their appearance inspired horror: winged creatures covered with scales, with snakes instead of hair, fanged mouths, with a look that turns all living things into stone. During the fight between the hero Perseus and Medusa, she was pregnant by the god of the seas, Poseidon. From the headless body of Medusa with a stream of blood came her children from Poseidon - the giant Chrysaor (father of Gerion) and the winged horse Pegasus. From the drops of blood that fell on the sands of Libya appeared Poisonous snakes and destroyed all living things in it. Libyan legend says that red corals appeared from the stream of blood that spilled into the ocean. Perseus used the head of Medusa in a battle with a sea dragon sent by Poseidon to devastate Ethiopia. Showing the face of Medusa to the monster, Perseus turned it into stone and saved Andromeda, the royal daughter, who was intended to be sacrificed to the dragon. The island of Sicily is traditionally considered the place where the Gorgons lived and where Medusa, depicted on the flag of the region, was killed. In art, Medusa was depicted as a woman with snakes instead of hair and often boar tusks instead of teeth. In Hellenic images, a beautiful dying gorgon girl is sometimes found. Separate iconography - images of the severed head of Medusa in the hands of Perseus, on the shield or aegis of Athena and Zeus. The decorative motif - gorgoneion - still adorns clothes, household items, weapons, tools, jewelry, coins and building facades. It is believed that the myths about the Gorgon Medusa have a connection with the cult of the Scythian serpentine progenitor goddess Tabiti, whose existence is evidenced by references in ancient sources and archaeological finds images. In the Slavic medieval book legends, Medusa Gorgon turned into a maiden with hair in the form of snakes - the maiden Gorgonia. The animal jellyfish got its name precisely because of the resemblance to the moving hair-snakes of the legendary Gorgon Medusa. In a figurative sense, a "gorgon" is a grouchy, vicious woman.

Three goddesses of old age, granddaughters of Gaia and Pontus, Gorgon sisters. Their names were Deino (Trembling), Pefredo (Alarm) and Enyo (Horror). They were gray from birth, for three of them they had one eye, which they used in turn. Only the Grays knew the location of the island of Medusa Gorgon. On the advice of Hermes, Perseus went to them. While one of the grays had an eye, the other two were blind, and the sighted gray led the blind sisters. When, having taken out the eye, the graya passed it on to the next one in turn, all three sisters were blind. It was this moment that Perseus chose to take the eye. The helpless grays were horrified and were ready to do everything if only the hero would return the treasure to them. After they had to tell them how to find Medusa Gorgon and where to get winged sandals, a magic bag and an invisibility helmet, Perseus gave the eye to the Grays.

This monster, born of Echidna and Typhon, had three heads: one was a lion's, the second was a goat's, growing on its back, and the third, a snake's, ended with a tail. It breathed fire and burned everything in its path, devastating the houses and crops of the inhabitants of Lycia. Repeated attempts to kill the Chimera, made by the king of Lycia, suffered invariable defeat. Not a single person dared to come close to her dwelling, surrounded by the decaying carcasses of decapitated animals. Fulfilling the will of King Jobat, the son of King Corinth, Bellerophon, on a winged Pegasus, went to the cave of Chimera. The hero killed her, as predicted by the gods, hitting the Chimera with an arrow from a bow. As proof of his feat, Bellerophon delivered one of the severed heads of the monster to the Lycian king. Chimera is the personification of a fire-breathing volcano, at the base of which snakes are teeming, there are many meadows and goat pastures on the slopes, flames blaze from the top and there, above, lions' dens; probably the Chimera is a metaphor for this unusual mountain. The Chimera Cave is considered to be the area near the Turkish village of Cirali, where there are exits to the surface of natural gas in concentrations sufficient for its open combustion. In honor of the Chimera, a detachment of deep-sea cartilaginous fish. In a figurative sense, a chimera is a fantasy, an unrealizable desire or action. In sculpture, images of fantastic monsters are called chimeras, while it is believed that stone chimeras can come to life to terrify people. The prototype of the chimera served as the basis for the terrible gargoyles, considered a symbol of horror and extremely popular in the architecture of Gothic buildings.

The winged horse that emerged from the dying Gorgon Medusa at the moment when Perseus cut off her head. Since the horse appeared at the source of the Ocean (in the ideas of the ancient Greeks, the Ocean was a river encircling the Earth), it was called Pegasus (translated from Greek - “stormy current”). Swift and graceful, Pegasus immediately became the object of desire for many heroes of Greece. Day and night, hunters ambushed Mount Helikon, where Pegasus, with one blow of his hoof, made clean, cool water of a strange dark violet color, but very tasty, spring up. This is how the famous source of Hippocrene's poetic inspiration appeared - the Horse Spring. The most patient have happened to see a ghostly steed; Pegasus let the luckiest ones get so close to him that it seemed just a little bit more - and you could touch his beautiful white skin. But no one was able to catch Pegasus: at the last moment, this indomitable creature flapped its wings and, with the speed of lightning, was carried away beyond the clouds. Only after Athena gave the young Bellerophon a magical bridle, he was able to saddle the wonderful horse. Riding Pegasus, Bellerophon was able to get close to the Chimera and struck down the fire-breathing monster from the air. Intoxicated by his victories with the constant help of the devoted Pegasus, Bellerophon imagined himself equal to the gods and, saddling Pegasus, went to Olympus. The angry Zeus struck the proud, and Pegasus received the right to visit the shining peaks of Olympus. In later legends, Pegasus fell into the number of horses of Eos and into the society strashno.com.ua of muses, into the circle of the latter, in particular, because he stopped Mount Helikon with the blow of his hoof, which began to oscillate at the sound of the songs of the muses. In terms of symbolism, Pegasus unites vitality and the power of a horse with liberation, like a bird, from earthly gravity, so the idea is close to the unfettered spirit of the poet, overcoming earthly obstacles. Pegasus personified not only a wonderful friend and faithful comrade, but also boundless intelligence and talent. Favorite of the gods, muses and poets, Pegasus often appears in fine arts. In honor of Pegasus, the constellation of the northern hemisphere, a genus of marine ray-finned fish and weapons are named.

7) Colchis dragon (Colchis)

Son of Typhon and Echidna, vigilantly awake fire-breathing huge dragon guarding the Golden Fleece. The name of the monster is given by the area of ​​​​its location - Colchis. The king of Colchis, Eet, sacrificed a ram with a golden skin to Zeus, and hung the skin on an oak tree in the sacred grove of Ares, where Colchis guarded it. Jason, a pupil of the centaur Chiron, on behalf of Pelius, king of Iolk, went to Colchis for the Golden Fleece on the Argo ship, built specifically for this trip. King Eet gave Jason impossible assignments so that the Golden Fleece would remain forever in Colchis. But the god of love Eros ignited love for Jason in the heart of the sorceress Medea, daughter of Eet. The princess sprinkled Colchis with a sleeping potion, calling for help from the god of sleep, Hypnos. Jason stole the Golden Fleece, hastily sailing with Medea on the Argo back to Greece.

The giant, the son of Chrysaor, born from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, and the oceanid Kalliroi. He was known as the strongest on earth and was a terrible monster with three bodies fused at the waist, had three heads and six arms. Geryon owned wonderful cows of unusually beautiful red color, which he kept on the island of Erifia in the Ocean. Rumors about the beautiful cows of Geryon reached the Mycenaean king Eurystheus, and he sent Hercules after them, who was in his service. Hercules went through all of Libya before reaching the extreme West, where, according to the Greeks, the world ended, which was bordered by the Ocean River. The path to the ocean was blocked by mountains. Hercules parted them with his mighty hands, forming the Strait of Gibraltar, and installed stone steles on the southern and northern shores - the Pillars of Hercules. On the golden boat of Helios, the son of Zeus sailed to the island of Erifia. Hercules slew with his famous club the watchdog Orff, who was guarding the flock, killed the shepherd, and then took the fight with the three-headed master who came to the rescue. Geryon covered himself with three shields, three spears were in his powerful hands, but they turned out to be useless: the spears could not penetrate the skin of the Nemean lion thrown over the hero’s shoulders. Hercules also fired several poisonous arrows at Geryon, and one of them turned out to be fatal. Then he loaded the cows into the boat of Helios and swam across the Ocean in the opposite direction. So the demon of drought and darkness was defeated, and the heavenly cows - rain-bearing clouds - were released.

A huge two-headed dog guarding the cows of the giant Gerion. The offspring of Typhon and Echidna, the older brother of the dog Cerberus and other monsters. He is the father of the Sphinx and the Nemean lion (from Chimera), according to one version. Orff is not as famous as Cerberus, therefore much less is known about him and information about him is contradictory. Some myths report that in addition to two dog heads, Orff has seven more dragon heads, and there was a snake in place of the tail. And in Iberia, the dog had a sanctuary. He was killed by Hercules during the execution of his tenth feat. The plot of the death of Orff at the hands of Hercules, who led away the cows of Geryon, was often used by ancient Greek sculptors and potters; presented on numerous antique vases, amphoras, stamnos and skyphos. According to one of the very adventurous versions, Orff in ancient times could simultaneously personify two constellations - Canis Major and Minor. Now these stars are combined into two asterisms, and in the past their two most bright stars(Sirius and Procyon, respectively) could well be seen by people as fangs or heads of a monstrous two-headed dog.

10) Cerberus (Cerberus)

The son of Typhon and Echidna, a terrible three-headed dog with a terrible dragon tail, covered with menacingly hissing snakes. Cerberus guarded the entrance to the gloomy, full of horrors of the underworld of Hades, making sure that no one came out of there. According to ancient texts, Cerberus welcomes those who enter hell with his tail and tears to pieces those who try to escape. In a later legend, he bites the new arrivals. To appease him, a honey gingerbread was placed in the coffin of the deceased. In Dante, Cerberus torments the souls of the dead. For a long time, at Cape Tenar, in the south of the Peloponnese, they showed a cave, claiming that here Hercules, on the instructions of King Eurystheus, descended into the kingdom of Hades in order to bring Cerberus out of there. Appearing before the throne of Hades, Hercules respectfully asked the underground god to allow him to take the dog to Mycenae. No matter how severe and gloomy Hades was, he could not refuse the son of the great Zeus. He set only one condition: Hercules must tame Cerberus without weapons. Hercules saw Cerberus on the banks of the Acheron River - the border between the world of the living and the dead. The hero grabbed the dog with his mighty hands and began to strangle him. The dog howled menacingly, trying to escape, the snakes writhed and stung Hercules, but he only squeezed his hands tighter. Finally, Cerberus gave in and agreed to follow Hercules, who took him to the walls of Mycenae. King Eurystheus was horrified at one glance at scary dog and ordered to send him back to Hades as soon as possible. Cerberus was returned to his place in Hades, and it was after this feat that Eurystheus gave Hercules freedom. During his stay on earth, Cerberus dropped drops of bloody foam from his mouth, from which the poisonous herb aconite later grew, otherwise called hecatine, since the goddess Hecate was the first to use it. Medea mixed this herb into her witch's potion. In the image of Cerberus, teratomorphism is traced, against which heroic mythology is fighting. Name vicious dog has become a household word to refer to an unnecessarily harsh, incorruptible watchman.

11) Sphinx

The most famous Sphinx in Greek mythology was from Ethiopia and lived in Thebes in Boeotia, as mentioned by the Greek poet Hesiod. It was a monster spawned by Typhon and Echidna, with the face and chest of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. Sent by the Hero to Thebes as a punishment, the Sphinx settled on a mountain near Thebes and asked each passerby a riddle: “Which of the living creatures walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?” Unable to give a clue, the Sphinx killed and thus killed many noble Thebans, including the son of King Creon. Dejected with grief, Creon announced that he would give the kingdom and the hand of his sister Jocasta to the one who would save Thebes from the Sphinx. Oedipus solved the riddle by answering the Sphinx: "Man." The monster in despair threw himself into the abyss and crashed to death. This version of the myth supplanted the older version, in which the original name of the predator that lived in Boeotia on Mount Fikion was Fix, and then Orf and Echidna were named his parents. The name Sphinx arose from the rapprochement with the verb “compress”, “strangle”, and the image itself - under the influence of the Asia Minor image of a winged half-maiden-half-lion. Ancient Fix was a ferocious monster capable of swallowing prey; he was defeated by Oedipus with weapons in his hands during a fierce battle. Depictions of the Sphinx abound in Classical art, from 18th-century British interiors to Romantic Empire furniture. Freemasons considered sphinxes as a symbol of the mysteries and used them in their architecture, considering them as guardians of the gates of the temple. In Masonic architecture, the sphinx is a frequent decorative detail, for example, even in the version of the image of his head on the form of documents. The Sphinx personifies mystery, wisdom, the idea of ​​a person's struggle with fate.

12) Siren

Demonic beings born of god fresh water Aheloy and one of the muses: Melpomene or Terpsichore. Sirens, like many mythical creatures, are mixanthropic in nature, they are half-birds-half-women or half-fish-half-women who inherited a wild spontaneity from their father, and a divine voice from their mother. Their number ranges from a few to many. Dangerous maidens lived on the rocks of the island, littered with the bones and dried skin of their victims, whom the sirens lured with their singing. Hearing their sweet singing, the sailors, losing their minds, sent the ship straight to the rocks and eventually died in the depths of the sea. After that, the merciless virgins tore the bodies of the victims to pieces and ate them. According to one of the myths, Orpheus on the ship of the Argonauts sang sweeter than the sirens, and for this reason the sirens, in despair and violent anger, rushed into the sea and were turned into rocks, for they were destined to die when their spells were powerless. The appearance of sirens with wings makes them similar in appearance to harpies, and sirens with fish tails to mermaids. However, sirens, unlike mermaids, are of divine origin. Attractive appearance is also not their obligatory attribute. Sirens were also perceived as muses of another world - they were depicted on tombstones. In classical antiquity, wild chthonic sirens turn into sweet-voiced wise sirens, each of which sits on one of eight celestial spheres the world spindle of the goddess Ananke, creating with her singing the majestic harmony of the cosmos. To appease the sea deities and avoid shipwreck, sirens were often depicted as figures on ships. Over time, the image of sirens became so popular that a whole detachment of large marine mammals, which includes dugongs, manatees, as well as sea (or Steller's) cows, unfortunately, completely exterminated by the end of the 18th century.

13) Harpy

Daughters of the sea deity Thaumant and the oceanides Electra, archaic pre-Olympic deities. Their names - Aella ("Whirlwind"), Aellope ("Whirlwind"), Podarga ("Swift-footed"), Okipeta ("Fast"), Kelaino ("Gloomy") - indicate a connection with the elements and darkness. The word "harpy" comes from the Greek "grab", "abduct". In ancient myths, harpies were gods of the wind. The proximity of the strashno.com.ua harpies to the winds is reflected in the fact that the divine horses of Achilles were born from Podarga and Zephyr. They interfered little in the affairs of people, their duty was only to carry the souls of the dead to the underworld. But then the harpies began to kidnap children and annoy people, swooping in suddenly, like the wind, and just as suddenly disappearing. AT different sources harpies are described as winged deities with long flowing hair, flying faster than birds and winds, or like vultures with female faces and sharp, hooked claws. They are invulnerable and stinking. Eternally tormented by a hunger that they cannot satisfy, the harpies descend from the mountains and, with piercing cries, devour and soil everything. The harpies were sent by the gods as punishment for the people who had been guilty of them. Monsters took away food from a person every time he took food, and this lasted until the person died of hunger. So, the story is known about how the harpies tortured King Phineus, damned for an involuntary crime, and, stealing his food, doomed him to starvation. However, the monsters were expelled by the sons of Boreas - the Argonauts Zet and Kalaid. The heroes of Zeus, their sister, the goddess of the rainbow Irida, prevented the heroes from killing the harpies. The habitat of the harpies was usually called the Strofada Islands in the Aegean Sea, later, along with other monsters, they were placed in the kingdom of gloomy Hades, where they were ranked among the most dangerous local creatures. Medieval moralists used harpies as symbols of greed, gluttony, and uncleanliness, often confusing them with furies. Evil women are also called harpies. Harpy named large predatory bird from the hawk family, living in South America.

The brainchild of Typhon and Echidna, the hideous Hydra had a long serpentine body and nine dragon heads. One of the heads was immortal. Hydra was considered invincible, since two new ones grew from a severed head. Coming out of the gloomy Tartarus, the Hydra lived in a swamp near the city of Lerna, where the killers came to atone for their sins. This place became her home. Hence the name - Lernaean Hydra. The hydra was always hungry and devastated the surroundings, eating herds and burning crops with its fiery breath. Her body was thicker than the thickest tree and covered with shiny scales. When she rose on her tail, she could be seen far above the forests. King Eurystheus sent Hercules on a mission to kill the Lernean Hydra. Iolaus, the nephew of Hercules, during the battle of the hero with the Hydra, burned her necks with fire, from which Hercules knocked down his heads with his club. Hydra stopped growing new heads, and soon she had only one immortal head. In the end, she was demolished with a club and buried by Hercules under a huge rock. Then the hero cut Hydra's body and plunged his arrows into her poisonous blood. Since then, the wounds from his arrows have become incurable. However, this feat of the hero was not recognized by Eurystheus, since Hercules was helped by his nephew. Hydra is named after Pluto's satellite and the constellation southern hemisphere sky, the longest of all. The unusual properties of Hydra also gave their name to the genus of freshwater sessile coelenterates. A hydra is a person with an aggressive character and a predatory demeanor.

15) Stymphalian birds

Birds of prey with sharp bronze feathers, copper claws and beaks. Named after Lake Stimfal near the city of the same name in the mountains of Arcadia. Having multiplied with extraordinary speed, they turned into a huge flock and soon turned all the surroundings of the city almost into a desert: they destroyed the entire crop of the fields, exterminated the animals that grazed on the fat shores of the lake, and killed many shepherds and farmers. Taking off, the Stymphalian birds dropped their feathers like arrows, and they hit everyone who was in the open area with them, or tore them apart with copper claws and beaks. Upon learning of this misfortune of the Arcadians, Eurystheus sent Hercules to them, hoping that this time he would not be able to escape. Athena helped the hero by giving him copper rattles or timpani forged by Hephaestus. Alarming the birds with noise, Hercules began to shoot at them with his arrows poisoned by the poison of the Lernaean Hydra. Frightened birds left the shores of the lake, flying to the islands of the Black Sea. There the Stymphalidae were met by the Argonauts. They probably heard about the feat of Hercules and followed his example - they drove the birds away with a noise, hitting the shields with swords.

Forest deities who made up the retinue of the god Dionysus. Satyrs are shaggy and bearded, their legs end in goat (sometimes horse) hooves. Other character traits the appearance of satyrs - horns on the head, a goat or bull's tail and a human torso. Satyrs were endowed with the qualities of wild creatures with animal qualities, who thought little about human prohibitions and moral standards. In addition, they were distinguished by fantastic endurance, both in battle and for festive table. A great passion was dancing and music, the flute is one of the main attributes of satyrs. Also, thyrsus, flute, leather bellows or vessels with wine were considered attributes of satyrs. Satyrs were often depicted on the canvases of great artists. Often the satyrs were accompanied by girls, for whom the satyrs had a certain weakness. According to a rationalistic interpretation, a tribe of shepherds who lived in forests and mountains could be reflected in the image of a satyr. A satyr is sometimes called a lover of alcohol, humor and sorority. The image of a satyr resembles a European devil.

17) Phoenix

Magic bird with golden and red feathers. In it you can see the collective image of many birds - an eagle, a crane, a peacock and many others. The most striking qualities of the Phoenix were the extraordinary life expectancy and the ability to be reborn from the ashes after self-immolation. There are several versions of the Phoenix myth. In the classical version, once every five hundred years, the Phoenix, bearing the sorrows of people, flies from India to the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, Libya. The head priest kindles a fire from the sacred vine, and the Phoenix throws itself into the fire. Its incense-soaked wings flare and it quickly burns. With this feat, Phoenix returns happiness and harmony to the world of people with its life and beauty. Having experienced torment and pain, three days later a new Phoenix grows from the ashes, which, having thanked the priest for the work done, returns to India, even more beautiful and shining with new colors. Experiencing cycles of birth, progress, death and renewal, Phoenix strives to become more and more perfect over and over again. Phoenix was the personification of the most ancient human desire for immortality. Even in the ancient world, the Phoenix began to be depicted on coins and seals, in heraldry and sculpture. The Phoenix has become a beloved symbol of light, rebirth and truth in poetry and prose. In honor of the Phoenix, the constellation of the southern hemisphere and the date palm were named.

18) Scylla and Charybdis

Scylla, the daughter of Echidna or Hekate, once a beautiful nymph, rejected everyone, including the sea god Glaucus, who asked for help from the sorceress Circe. But out of revenge, Circe, who was in love with Glaucus, turned Scylla into a monster, which began to lie in wait for sailors in a cave, on a steep rock of the narrow Strait of Sicily, on the other side of which lived another monster - Charybdis. Scylla has six dog heads on six necks, three rows of teeth and twelve legs. In translation, her name means "barking". Charybdis was the daughter of the gods Poseidon and Gaia. She was turned into a terrible monster by Zeus himself, while dropping into the sea. Charybdis has a gigantic mouth into which water flows non-stop. She personifies a terrible whirlpool, the opening of the deep sea, which arises three times in one day and absorbs and then spews water. No one has seen her, as she is hidden by the water column. That is how she ruined many sailors. Only Odysseus and the Argonauts managed to swim past Scylla and Charybdis. In the Adriatic Sea you can find the Scylleian rock. According to local legends, it was on it that Scylla lived. There is also a shrimp with the same name. The expression "to be between Scylla and Charybdis" means to be in danger from different sides at the same time.

19) Hippocampus

A marine animal that looks like a horse and ends in a fish tail, also called hydrippus - a water horse. According to other versions of the myths, the hippocampus is a sea creature in the form of a seahorse with the legs of a horse and a body ending in a snake or fish tail and webbed feet instead of hooves on the front legs. The front of the body is covered with thin scales in contrast to the large scales on the back of the body. According to some sources, lungs are used for breathing by the hippocampus, according to others, modified gills. Sea deities - nereids and tritons - were often depicted on chariots harnessed by hippocampuses, or seated on hippocampuses dissecting the abyss of water. This amazing horse appears in the poems of Homer as a symbol of Poseidon, whose chariot was drawn by fast horses and glided over the surface of the sea. In mosaic art, the hippocampus was often depicted as a hybrid animal with a green, scaly mane and appendages. The ancients believed that these animals were already the adult form of the seahorse. Other fish-tailed land animals that appear in Greek myth include the leocampus, a lion with a fish tail), the taurocampus, a bull with a fish tail, the pardalocampus, a fish-tailed leopard, and the aegikampus, a goat with a fish tail. The latter became a symbol of the constellation Capricorn.

20) Cyclops (Cyclops)

Cyclopes in the 8th-7th centuries BC. e. were considered a product of Uranus and Gaia, the titans. Three immortal one-eyed giants with eyes in the form of a ball belonged to the Cyclopes: Arg (“flash”), Bront (“thunder”) and Sterop (“lightning”). Immediately after the birth, the Cyclopes were thrown by Uranus into Tartarus (the deepest abyss) along with their violent hundred-handed brothers (hekatoncheirs), who were born shortly before them. The Cyclopes were freed by the rest of the Titans after the overthrow of Uranus, and then again thrown into Tartarus by their leader Kronos. When Zeus, the leader of the Olympians, began a struggle with Kronos for power, he, on the advice of their mother Gaia, freed the Cyclopes from Tartarus to help the Olympian gods in the war against the titans, known as gigantomachy. Zeus used lightning bolts made by the Cyclopes and thunder arrows, which he threw at the titans. In addition, the Cyclopes, being skilled blacksmiths, forged a trident and a manger for Poseidon for his horses, Hades - an invisibility helmet, Artemis - a silver bow and arrows, and also taught Athena and Hephaestus various crafts. After the end of the Gigantomachy, the Cyclopes continued to serve Zeus and forge weapons for him. As henchmen of Hephaestus, forging iron in the bowels of Etna, the Cyclopes forged the chariot of Ares, the aegis of Pallas and the armor of Aeneas. The mythical people of the one-eyed cannibal giants who inhabited the islands were also called Cyclopes. mediterranean sea. Among them, the most famous is the ferocious son of Poseidon, Polyphemus, whom Odysseus deprived of his only eye. Paleontologist Otenio Abel suggested in 1914 that ancient finds of pygmy elephant skulls gave rise to the myth of the Cyclopes, since the central nasal opening in the elephant's skull could be mistaken for a giant eye socket. The remains of these elephants have been found on the islands of Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades and the Dodecanese.

21) Minotaur

Half-bull-half-human, born as the fruit of the passion of the queen of Crete Pasiphae for a white bull, love for which Aphrodite inspired her as a punishment. The real name of the Minotaur was Asterius (that is, "star"), and the nickname Minotaur means "the bull of Minos." Subsequently, the inventor Daedalus, the creator of many devices, built a labyrinth in order to imprison her monster son in it. According to ancient Greek myths, the Minotaur ate human flesh, and in order to feed him, the king of Crete imposed a terrible tribute on the city of Athens - seven young men and seven girls had to be sent to Crete every nine years to be eaten by the Minotaur. When Theseus, the son of the Athenian king Aegeus, fell to the lot to become a victim of an insatiable monster, he decided to rid his homeland of such a duty. Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae, in love with the young man, gave him a magic thread so that he could find his way back from the labyrinth, and the hero managed not only to kill the monster, but also to free the rest of the captives and put an end to the terrible tribute. The myth of the Minotaur was probably an echo of the ancient pre-Hellenic bull cults with their characteristic sacred bullfights. Judging by the wall paintings, human figures bull-headed were common in Cretan demonology. In addition, the image of a bull appears on Minoan coins and seals. The minotaur is considered a symbol of anger and bestial savagery. The phrase "Ariadne's thread" means a way to get out of a difficult situation, to find the key to solving a difficult problem, to understand a difficult situation.

22) Hecatoncheires

Hundred-armed fifty-headed giants named Briares (Egeon), Kott and Gies (Guy) personify the underground forces, the sons of the supreme god Uranus, the symbol of Heaven, and Gaia-Earth. Immediately after their birth, the brothers were imprisoned in the bowels of the earth by their father, who feared for his dominion. In the midst of the fight against the Titans, the gods of Olympus called on the Hecatoncheirs, and their help ensured the victory of the Olympians. After their defeat, the titans were thrown into Tartarus, and the hekatoncheirs volunteered to guard them. Poseidon, the lord of the seas, gave Briareus his daughter Kimopolis as his wife. Hecatoncheirs are present in the book by the Strugatsky brothers "Monday begins on Saturday" as loaders at the Research Institute of FAQ.

23) Giants

The sons of Gaia, who were born from the blood of castrated Uranus, absorbed into the Earth-mother. According to another version, Gaia gave birth to them from Uranus after the titans were cast down by Zeus into Tartarus. The pre-Greek origin of the Giants is obvious. The story of the birth of the Giants and their death is told in detail by Apollodorus. The giants inspired horror with their appearance - thick hair and beards; Bottom part their bodies were serpentine or octopus-like. They were born on the Phlegrean Fields in Halkidiki, in northern Greece. In the same place, then the battle of the Olympic gods with the Giants took place - gigantomachy. Giants, unlike titans, are mortal. By the will of fate, their death depended on the participation in the battle of mortal heroes who would come to the aid of the gods. Gaia was looking for a magical herb that would keep the Giants alive. But Zeus was ahead of Gaia and, having sent darkness to the earth, cut this grass himself. On the advice of Athena, Zeus called for Hercules to participate in the battle. In the Gigantomachy, the Olympians destroyed the Giants. Apollodorus mentions the names of 13 Giants, of which there are generally up to 150. Gigantomachy (like titanomachy) is based on the idea of ​​ordering the world, embodied in the victory of the Olympic generation of gods over chthonic forces, strengthening the supreme power of Zeus.

This monstrous serpent, born of Gaia and Tartarus, guarded the sanctuary of the goddesses Gaia and Themis in Delphi, at the same time devastating their surroundings. Therefore, it was also called Dolphin. By order of the goddess Hera, Python raised an even more terrible monster - Typhon, and then began to pursue Laton, the mother of Apollo and Artemis. The grown-up Apollo, having received a bow and arrows forged by Hephaestus, went in search of a monster and overtook him in a deep cave. Apollo killed Python with his arrows and had to remain in exile for eight years in order to appease the angry Gaia. The huge dragon was periodically mentioned in Delphi during various sacred rites and processions. Apollo founded a temple on the site of an ancient soothsayer and established the Pythian games; this myth reflected the replacement of chthonic archaism by a new, Olympian deity. The plot, where a luminiferous deity kills a snake, a symbol of evil and an enemy of mankind, has become a classic for religious teachings and folk tales. The Temple of Apollo at Delphi became famous throughout Hellas and even beyond its borders. From a crevice in the rock, located in the middle of the temple, vapors rose, which had a strong effect on the consciousness and behavior of a person. The priestesses of the temple of the Pythia gave often confusing and vague predictions. From Python came the name of the whole family non-venomous snakes- pythons, sometimes reaching up to 10 meters in length.

25) Centaur

These legendary creatures with a human torso and a horse's torso and legs are the embodiment of natural strength, endurance, cruelty and unbridled disposition. Centaurs (translated from Greek as “killing bulls”) drove the chariot of Dionysus, the god of wine and winemaking; they were also ridden by the god of love, Eros, which implied their propensity for libations and unbridled passions. There are several legends about the origin of centaurs. A descendant of Apollo named Centaur entered into a relationship with the Magnesian mares, which gave the appearance of a half-man, half-horse to all subsequent generations. According to another myth, in the pre-Olympic era, the smartest of the centaurs, Chiron, appeared. His parents were the oceanid Felira and the god Kron. Kron took the form of a horse, so the child from this marriage combined the features of a horse and a man. Chiron received an excellent education (medicine, hunting, gymnastics, music, divination) directly from Apollo and Artemis and was a mentor to many heroes of the Greek epics, as well as a personal friend of Hercules. His descendants, the centaurs, lived in the mountains of Thessaly, next to the Lapiths. These wild tribes coexisted peacefully with each other until, at the wedding of the king of the Lapiths, Pirithous, the centaurs tried to kidnap the bride and several beautiful Lapithians. In a violent battle, called centauromachia, the Lapiths won, and the centaurs were scattered across mainland Greece, driven into mountainous regions and deaf caves. The appearance of the image of a centaur more than three thousand years ago suggests that even then the horse played an important role in human life. Perhaps the ancient farmers perceived horse riders as an integral being, but, most likely, the inhabitants of the Mediterranean, prone to inventing "composite" creatures, having invented the centaur, thus simply reflected the spread of the horse. The Greeks, who bred and loved horses, were well acquainted with their temper. It is no coincidence that it was the nature of the horse that they associated with the unpredictable manifestations of violence in this generally positive animal. One of the constellations and signs of the zodiac is dedicated to the centaur. To refer to creatures that do not look like a horse, but retain the features of a centaur, the term "centauroids" is used in the scientific literature. There are variations in the appearance of centaurs. Onocentaur - half man, half donkey - was associated with a demon, Satan or a hypocritical person. The image is close to satyrs and European devils, as well as to the Egyptian god Seth.

The son of Gaia, nicknamed Panoptes, that is, the all-seeing, who became the personification of the starry sky. The goddess Hera forced him to guard Io, the beloved of her husband Zeus, who was turned into a cow by him in order to protect him from the wrath of his jealous wife. Hera begged a cow from Zeus and assigned to her an ideal caretaker, the hundred-eyed Argus, who vigilantly guarded her: only two of his eyes closed at the same time, the others were open and vigilantly watched Io. Only Hermes, the crafty and enterprising herald of the gods, managed to kill him, freeing Io. Hermes put Argus to sleep with a poppy and cut off his head with one blow. The name of Argus has become a household name for the vigilant, vigilant, all-seeing guardian, from whom no one and nothing can hide. Sometimes this is called, following an ancient legend, a pattern on peacock feathers, the so-called "peacock eye". According to legend, when Argus died at the hands of Hermes, Hera, regretting his death, collected all his eyes and attached them to the tails of her favorite birds, peacocks, which were supposed to always remind her of her devoted servant. The myth of Argus was often depicted on vases and on Pompeian wall paintings.

27) Griffin

Monstrous birds with a lion's body and an eagle's head and front paws. From their cry, flowers wither and grass withers, and all living beings fall dead. The eyes of a griffin with a golden tint. The head was the size of a wolf's head with a huge, intimidating beak, wings with a strange second joint to make it easier to fold them. The griffin in Greek mythology personified insightful and vigilant power. Closely associated with the god Apollo, appears as an animal that the god harnesses to his chariot. Some of the myths say that these creatures were harnessed to the cart of the goddess Nemesis, which symbolizes the speed of retribution for sins. In addition, the griffins rotated the wheel of fate, and were genetically related to Nemesis. The image of the griffin personified dominance over the elements of earth (lion) and air (eagle). The symbolism of this mythical animal is associated with the image of the Sun, since both the lion and the eagle in myths are always inextricably linked with it. In addition, the lion and eagle are associated with mythological motifs of speed and courage. The functional purpose of the griffin is protection, in this it is similar to the image of a dragon. As a rule, guards treasures or some secret knowledge. The bird served as an intermediary between heaven and earthly world, gods and people. Even then, ambivalence was embedded in the image of the griffin. Their role in various myths is ambiguous. They can act both as defenders, patrons, and as vicious, unrestrained animals. The Greeks believed that griffins guard the gold of the Scythians in northern Asia. Modern attempts to localize griffins are quite different and place them from northern Urals to the Altai mountains. These mythological animals are widely represented in antiquity: Herodotus wrote about them, their images were found on the monuments of the period of prehistoric Crete and in Sparta - on weapons, household items, on coins and buildings.

28) Empusa

A female demon of the underworld from the retinue of Hekate. Empusa was a nocturnal vampire with donkey legs, one of which was copper. She took the form of cows, dogs or beautiful maidens, changing her appearance in a thousand ways. According to existing beliefs, the empusa often carried away small children, sucked blood from beautiful young men, appearing to them in the form of a lovely woman, and, having had enough of blood, often ate their meat. At night, on deserted roads, the empusa lay in wait for lone travelers, either frightening them in the form of an animal or a ghost, then captivating them with the appearance of a beauty, then attacking them in their true terrible appearance. According to popular beliefs, it was possible to drive away the empusa with abuse or a special amulet. In some sources, the empusa is described as close to the lamia, onocentaur, or female satyr.

29) Triton

The son of Poseidon and the mistress of the seas Amphitrite, depicted as an old man or a young man with a fish tail instead of legs. Triton became the ancestor of all newts - marine mixanthropic creatures frolicking in the waters, accompanying Poseidon's chariot. This retinue of lower sea deities was depicted as a half-fish and half-man blowing a snail-shaped shell to excite or tame the sea. His appearance they resembled classic mermaids. Tritons in the sea became, like satyrs and centaurs on land, minor deities serving the main gods. In honor of the tritons are named: in astronomy - a satellite of the planet Neptune; in biology - the genus of tailed amphibians of the salamander family and the genus of prone gill mollusks; in technology - a series of ultra-small submarines Navy of the USSR; in music, an interval formed by three tones.

The world is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. And many scientists today repeat that there are parallel worlds in which various entities live, previously unseen. And fairy tales and myths are not fiction at all, but rather, even epics. That is why this article will present a list of mythical creatures that may have once lived, or maybe they live somewhere else at the moment.

Unicorn

In this list, both positive and negative representatives will be studied. If a good list is considered, the unicorn should definitely open. What is it? So, most often it is a beautiful white horse, in the forehead of which there is a sharp horn. It is a symbol of chastity and the struggle for justice. However, according to the esotericists, the unicorn must be a creature with a red head and a white body. Previously, he could be depicted with the body of a bull or a goat, and only later - a horse. Legends also say that unicorns by nature have an inexhaustible supply of energy. It is very difficult to tame them, but they obediently lie down on the ground if a virgin approaches them. If you want to ride a unicorn, you will have to stock up on a golden bridle.

The life of unicorns is also very difficult. They feed exclusively on flowers, drink only morning dew, and bathe in the cleanest forest lakes (in which the water becomes healing after that). Moreover, all the power of these creatures is contained in a single horn (healing powers are also attributed to him). Today they say: to meet a unicorn - to great happiness.

Pegasus

The list of mythical creatures similar to horses can also be replenished by a winged horse, the son of the Medusa Gorgon and Poseidon. His main function is to be on Olympus and give lightning and thunder to his father. However, being on earth, Pegasus knocked out Hippocrene with his hoof - the source of the muses, which should inspire all creative people to useful deeds.

Valkyries

You can also consider separately mythical creatures female. The list will be added to without fail Valkyries. These are warrior maidens who are companions and executors of the will of Odin (the supreme god in These are some symbols of an honorable death in hostilities. After the warrior has fallen, the Valkyries on their winged horses take him to the heavenly castle of Valhalla, where they serve him at the table. In addition, Valkyries can predict the future.

Other mythical female creatures

1. Norns. These are spinning women who determine the birth, life and death of people.
2. Parks, or moira. These are the three sisters, daughters of the night. They also predetermined the life of each person. Clota (first daughter) spins the thread of life, Lachesis (second daughter) keeps it, Atropos (third daughter) cuts it.
3. Erinyes. These are the goddesses of revenge, who are depicted with torches and whips in their hands. They push a person to avenge insults.
4. We continue to consider female names mythical creatures. Dryads can add to the list. These are the women guardians of the trees. They live in them and die with them. And those who planted and helped the tree grow were the wards of the dryads. They tried their best to help them.
5. Graces. These are mythical creatures that personify youthful charm and beauty. Their main goal was to arouse in the young hearts of girls such a feeling as love. In addition, they brought joy to everyone who met on their way.

Birds

The list of mythical creatures must be replenished with various birds. After all, they also occupied leading places in folk beliefs.

1. Phoenix. Today, many will say that this is a bird of happiness. However, earlier she personified the immortality of the soul and the cyclical nature of the world, as she could give rebirth and she herself was reborn, burning herself. The phoenix appears in the form of an eagle with golden and red plumage.
2. Anka. This is a bird from Muslim mythology, very similar in function and presentation to the phoenix. It was created by Allah, and is inaccessible to people.
3. Ruhh. This is a gigantic bird, which in its claws (huge and strong, like bull horns) can lift three elephants at once. It was believed that the meat of this bird returns lost youth. It was called Nog or Fear.

Griffins and similar creatures

The list of mythical creatures can be continued by monsters, which are the result of crossing two or more powerful animals.

1. First of all, these are griffins. These are winged creatures that have the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. They are guardians of the gold and treasures of the Riphean mountains. The cry of these monsters is very dangerous: every living thing in the area, even a person, dies from it.
2. Hippogriffs. This is the result of crossing a vulture bird (the front of the creature) and a horse (the body). This creation also had wings.
3. Manticore. This is a creature that has human face, crowned with three rows of teeth, the body of a lion and the tail of a scorpion. His eyes are filled with blood. It moves very quickly, and feeds on human bodies.
4. Sphinx. This is a creature that has the head and chest of a woman, and the body of a lion. It was called to protect Thebes. The Sphinx gave a riddle to every passer-by. Who could not guess it, he was killed by this creature.

dragons

What other mythical creatures are there? The list can be replenished with monsters, outwardly something similar to dragons.

1. Basilisk. This creature has the eyes of a toad, the head of a rooster, wings bat and the body of a dragon. In other legends, this is a huge lizard. From the gaze of this creature, all living things turn to stone (if the basilisk looks at itself in the mirror, it will die). Its saliva is also poisonous, it can also petrify. Lives in a cave, eats stones, comes out only at night. The main goal of his life: the protection of unicorns, as they are "pure" creatures.
2. Chimera. It is a creature with the head and neck of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and the body of a goat. This is a symbol of a breathing volcano, as this monster spewed fire. Some people believe that modern stone chimeras can come to life and do things.
3. We continue to consider mythical creatures. The list can be replenished with a monster with a body of a snake and nine heads of a dragon. She lived in a swamp near the city of Lerna and ate entire herds. Saved the city from the hydra Hercules.
4. Kraken. This is a kind of sea serpent, an Arabian dragon. He could capture an entire ship with his tentacles, and his back stood out in the middle of the ocean like a huge island.

Russian mythical creatures

Separately, consider the mythical creatures of Russia. This list can be opened by villains. They were also called Khmyri, or Crixes. They live in swamps, pester people. They can even move into a person if he is old and has no children. They represent darkness, poverty, poverty. In the house, the villains settle behind the stove, and then jump on the shoulders of a person and ride on him. Another mythical creature is Khukhlik. This is a mummer, water devil. This is an unclean spirit that comes out of the water and loves to play tricks on people, arranging various dirty tricks for them. Especially active during Christmas time.

Greek mythical creatures

Separately, I would also like to present a list of the mythical creatures of Greece, the cradle of human civilization.

1. Typhon. This is a monster that has about 100 dragon heads with long black tongues on the back of its head. It can scream with the voices of a variety of animals. This is a special personification of the destructive forces of nature.
2. Lamia is a demon with a female appearance who kills babies.
3. Echidna. An immortal and ageless woman with the body of a snake who lured travelers and devoured them.
4. Grai - three goddesses of old age.
5. Geryon. This is a giant, a monster, on the belt of which three bodies have grown together. He owned beautiful cows that lived on the island of Erifia.

Movies about mythical creatures

Fans of everything unusual can watch films about mythical creatures. This list can be replenished by the following films:

1. "Jason and the agronauts", 1963 release.
2. "The Lord of the Rings", several films that were released from 2001 to 2003.
3. Cartoon "How to Train Your Dragon", 2010 release.
4. Percy Jackson and the Sea of ​​Monsters, 2013.
5. The 2001 film Horror from the Abyss.
6. "My pet dinosaur" 2007 release.

Having considered the complete list of mythical creatures and demons, I would like to say that all these monsters are fictional. And so it is necessary to consider as long as there are no facts that testify to the contrary.

When we have nightmares about terrible monsters, we realize that this is just a fantasy: monsters emerge from the darkest depths of the subconscious and embody our secret fears (special thanks to the movie Aliens!). However, there have been many cases where people actually believed that some creature actually existed. Everyone has heard about Bigfoot, but there are others - so evil and scary that some people are even afraid to mention them.

Yovi

Yovi is the Australian equivalent of Bigfoot. It has been spotted in different parts of Australia, most often in the Blue Mountains region to the west of Sydney. Reports of encounters with strange creatures appeared shortly after the settlers from Europe decided to settle in the area, and do not stop to this day. The Australian Aborigines also have many legends about encounters with the yowie. At first, it was called "yehu" (yahoo), which means "evil spirit." And although there have been no cases of a direct attack by a yovi on a person, this creature itself is terrifying. They say that he stands and stares at you, without looking up, and then disappears into the forest thicket.

Yakumama

Rumors of a giant anaconda living in the jungles of South America have always existed. This is not an ordinary giant anaconda, but an unknown reptile of truly monstrous proportions. Witnesses claimed that this snake is larger than any they have ever seen, and its length reaches 40-50 meters. The natives gave her the name "mother of water". They say that the head of this snake is almost two meters wide. She can cut down trees on her way, let alone large animals or a person - when they meet this monster, they are doomed.

Brownie

Brownie - a creature from Slavic mythology, devilry. He looks like a little man with a big beard. It is believed that every house has its own brownie and that brownies love cleanliness and help maintain it. These creatures do not seem to be evil, but on the contrary, they are useful in the household, but if the brownie does not like something, he can begin to build evil intrigues and ruin your life. It's best not to mess with him. If he loves you, he will help you, and if he suddenly dislikes you, he will pinch you to bruises at night, lean on top in a dream and press so that you can’t breathe. In general, the brownie is an ambiguous figure.

Bunyip

Bunyip, also known as "kyanprati", is an Australian sea devil, or evil spirit. This creature large sizes and rather peculiar in appearance: he has the head of a crocodile, the muzzle of a dog, fangs and flippers like a walrus, and on top of that, a horse's tail. Bunyip lives in swamps, streams, rivers, ponds and lakes. There have been no reports of encounters with him since the middle of the 19th century, but the natives still believe in his existence. Bunyips are bloodthirsty: at night they go hunting, devouring animals and people, and they especially love to feast on women.

Bigfoot

Almost everyone has heard of Bigfoot. But if suddenly you do not know - this creature large sizes, which has been seen in many parts of North America. Bigfoot is known to be very tall, have thick brown or black fur, and stink terribly. There are reports that he abducted people and kept them in the forest for a long time in his hiding places. Whether this is true or not is not known for sure. They say he likes to watch people, looking into the windows of houses at night.

Jikininki

Jikininki is a very peculiar mythical creature. This is a Japanese evil spirit, a goblin that eats human corpses. It is known that once they were people, but for sins after their death they were turned into terrible spirits. If you are a bad and greedy person, you will be cursed and after death you will have to roam the Earth forever in the guise of a jikininka, endowed with an insatiable hunger. They say they look like a decaying corpse with very bright eyes, with which they can immobilize you with a look. So it's better not to see them.

Yeti

Yeti - Himalayan Bigfoot. They say that he comes from Tibet, from where he then spread to the nearby highlands. Witnesses claim to have seen a yeti carrying a large rock and whistling an eerie tune. Yeti walks on two legs, is covered with white hair, and he also has huge fangs. Yeti should not be taken lightly, because. in Tibet, many cases have been recorded when people encountered it.

Chupacabra

The Chupacabra is the legendary goat vampire. This creature is rather modest in size, but very vicious. The first mention of the chupacabra came from Puerto Rico, and then there were many reports of a meeting with this monster in both South America and North. Chupacabra translates as "sucking goats." She kills animals and sucks their blood. There is not a single serious proof of the existence of the Chupacabra, but people still believe in it.

Beast of Gevaudan

Between 1764 and 1767, the French province of Gévaudan (now the Lozère department) was terrorized by a creature that looked like a huge wolf. It is known that in three years the ruthless cannibal wolf, whom everyone considered a werewolf, made 250 attacks, 119 of which led to death. The killings continued for several years, and even King Louis XV sent hundreds of professional hunters to round up the beast, but their efforts were unsuccessful. They say that he was eventually killed by a local hunter - with a consecrated silver bullet. And human remains were found in the stomach of the beast.

wendigo

Wendigo is an Indian bloodthirsty cannibal spirit. It is said that if a person is cursed, they can turn into a wendigo, especially if that person has practiced black magic and cannibalism. And also if he was cursed by a healer or bitten by another wendigo. The danger is that the wendigo is always hungry and loves human flesh very much. This creature is three times taller than a human, it has translucent, but very hard skin that no weapon can take. You can only kill him with fire.

Gugalanna

The Sumerians were an interesting people. They built such a highly developed civilization that they rose above the rest. Their epic, like the epic of other ancient peoples, tells of various outlandish creatures, gods and goddesses, including very bloodthirsty ones. One of the most famous mythical monsters of the Sumerians is Gugalanna, the heavenly bull from the Epic of Gilgamesh. This creature killed thousands of people in search of the city where the great king lives, and it was also looking for him to kill. It was possible to cope with this bull, but not without losses. Gugalanna was a terrible heavenly punishment that one of the gods sent to people.

Mananangal

These creatures, legends about which are common in the Philippines, look like vampires. They are also very fond of blood, but they have features that distinguish them from other vampire-like creatures: these monsters love to feast on the hearts of babies and know how to split their body in half. They say that at night they do just that - they leave the lower half of the body to stand on the ground, and the upper one releases membranous wings from the shoulders and flies away to look for a victim. Mananangals fly into houses, grab pregnant women, drink their blood and steal the heart of their child with their long proboscis tongue. The good news is that they can be killed. To do this, pour salt, crushed garlic or ashes on the lower half of the monster's body.

Black Annis

Black Annis is known to every Briton. This is evil witch blue skinned, long sharp teeth and claws and a frightening smile that roams the countryside and steals little children. It is necessary to protect not only children, but also animals from her, because she eats children and small sheep, tearing off their skin. From this skin she then makes belts and wears them. She lives in a cave called "Black Annis's Dwelling" and is scratched with witches' claws into the roots of an old oak - the only tree left from an ancient forest in Leicestershire.

dybbuk

A dybbuk for Jews is the same as for Christians a demon or spirit that inhabits a person and which Catholics exorcise in the process of exorcism, and Orthodox ones - with reprimand prayers. Dybbuk is the soul of the deceased bad man. She cannot rest and is looking for someone to move into. It is said that a dybbuk can attach itself to a good person and make him demon-possessed. It seems that the dybbuk is desperately looking for help and support in this way, but in the end it brings only evil, completely mastering the person. It takes one righteous and ten other members of the community, dressed in funeral shirts, to exorcise the dybbuk.

Koschey

The tale of Koshchei the Immortal is common among the Slavic peoples. This is a powerful and strong sorcerer who always plots and is considered one of the most terrible precisely because of his immortality. Looks like a tall thin old man or a skeleton. Likes to kidnap other people's brides. He has a weakness - his soul, but this soul is bewitched and turned into a needle "Koshcheev's death", and the needle is very well hidden. We know it by heart: a needle in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, a hare in an iron chest, a chest buried under an oak, an oak on a magical island. Not the best way to spend your vacation.

How Koschei hid death
Kashchei is tired. If he wasn't immortal, he would have died long ago. The whole body of the old man was hardened from proteins and yolks. Some of them have already dried up, some are rotten. Kashchei died. In his hands, the old man stupidly held another egg, inside of which he hammered a needle. Stuffing it up the duck's ass was no easy task. Taking the bird by the neck, he tried to stick the egg into its hollow. The shell cracked and flooded the old man once again. Kashchei swore dirtyly and carefully took a needle out of the wreckage. The deadly tool had to be sanded into the next egg. The duck dutifully waited. The old man took the egg with his lips, parted the duck's legs and carefully began to shove the ellipsoid into her asshole. The egg burst. The old man jumped up, threw the bird into the sea, and cursing began to jump along the shore.

Calm down, Kashchei, calmly, - he finally calmed himself and continued the procedure. The immortal did it again and again, but the eggs burst. Finally, lathered with a safeguard, one of them crawled into the bird's womb. The old man leaned back contentedly on the trunk of a pine tree. But what is it?! The damned feathered one is dead!
- Ioptvayu, stsuko!!! One hundred and thirty years down the drain! - Kashchei fell on the sand with a howl and began to gnaw and beat it with his hands. Three days later he came to his senses and thought deeply. A thought came into the immortal head. The old man got up and went into the cave. For a whole month, the sound of a hammer, the grinding of iron and the sound of welding could be heard from there. Finally, Kashchei proudly stepped out into the light, holding a funnel in his hands. The ducks saw the device and precipitated.

Work boiled over. It was possible to insert a funnel into a feathered point right away. But vile creatures died and died. Finally done!!! Fucked up, but alive, the duck lay on the ground with bulging eyes. Her ass was tightly sealed with sealing wax - Kashchei did not like to take risks. The whole courtyard was strewn with the bones of eight hundred and fifty-two thousand waterfowl. The old man sat down on a stump and looked longingly into the forest. I had to put a duck in a hare's ass.

Kashchei sat on the sand, looked into the eyes of the hare and thought. Oblique o @ ueval. He had never been looked into both eyes at once. "Maybe there's a simpler way to hide the needle?" the old man thought, but nothing came to mind. "There are no fortresses that the Bolsheviks would not take!" - decided the Immortal and energetically jumped up. A minute later, he was already busily scurrying around near the rodent crucified on the ground, measuring it with a tape measure. The hare is a powerful beast, an ornament of the breed, theoretically could accommodate a duck. The only thing left was to figure out a way.

The duck itself was sitting in a cage nearby. Just looking at the hare hollow made her feel claustrophobic. Kashchei did not touch the bird, realizing its value. For the experiment, he chose another.
"We care about you and your health!" - Kashchei kept saying, smearing cream on the hare's ass. Then he took the bird and began little by little, with rotational movements, to introduce it to the hare with his beak in the ass. The head went in, as it was there, but then things stalled. The neck of the duck was bent in different directions, and then curled up nafig. Having exterminated one and a half birds, Kashchei realized that this would not work. A revolutionary solution was needed. And the Immortal found it!

To begin with, he drilled a carrot along the axis and passed a nylon cord through the hole. Having firmly fixed it on the other side of the vegetable, Kashchei put the root crop into the hare's mouth and waited. The rodent has earned jaws.

The sun was already going down when the end of the cord appeared from the shaggy ass. Tying a duck to it by its beak was a matter of minutes. The hare generally did not like ducks, especially in his own ass. The beast twitched its ears and shook slightly. Kashchei sat down opposite the hare, spat in his palms and, resting his feet on his shoulders, began to pull the cord. The eyes of the oblique converged at the bridge of the nose and climbed onto his forehead. Looking at him, I recalled the words of the romance "Today it hurts me so much!"

And suddenly! Feel sorry for the Immortal Hare! "How long?!" he yelled, looking around. The remains of various living creatures covered the surface with a three-meter layer. Birds did not fly, animals hid in holes. Desolation reigned everywhere. Then Kashchei spat poisonous saliva. He caught a kangaroo, wrote “Hare” on his ass with a felt-tip pen, put a duck in her bag and put it in a chest. "Steroids, yopt!" The old man smiled and went to bed.
Here is the END of the fairy tale ....

If someone looks like a person, talks like a person, and even smells like a person, it may not be a person at all.

Who are they?

Many creatures look like humans or are wearing a mask. Many of them, including vampires, ghosts and werewolves, have both fascinated and frightened us for centuries. For good reason, we are all very much afraid of them, because we simply do not know who or what is hiding in the dark. Have you ever seen your colleague eat garlic? Or can you say that you were next to him during the full moon? How do you know that your closest friends are not something completely different? Are you sure that the people with whom you communicate are people, and not the creatures described?

Changelings

Stories about swapped children are popular in European folklore. These are the creatures that are tossed evil spirits instead of stolen children. Swap babies rarely lived normal human lives. When they grew up, they looked and behaved very differently from ordinary people. Why did fairies or other creatures do this? Some say it's just for curiosity. But other stories claim that being raised by humans is more respectable than by other creatures, so swapping was a way to raise a child's social status.

Medieval literature is teeming with stories of changelings as society struggled to come to terms with such horrors as infant mortality, disability, childhood illness, and the like. It was difficult for parents to understand why some children suffered, while others enjoyed life, because everyone is under the protection of God. And it all ended with the fact that they began to invent different stories about kidnapped children and substitution in order to try to understand the tragic reality.

But this is not just a medieval fear. In the 2008 film Changeling with Angelina Jolie in leading role reveals a real case about the substitution of children. In 1928, in Los Angeles, a mother discovered that her son had been kidnapped. The police managed to find the child a few days later, but the mother does not believe that the boy returned to her, it was not her son.

Demons and devil

The best way to push people into sin is to convince them that you are one of their own and live among them. To do this, demons and the devil sometimes disguise themselves as people in order to carry out their insidious plan. Sometimes this manifests itself as an obsession of one person with another, but often the demons simply take on human form. However, they are bad at disguise, especially if the people they are trying to deceive are righteous. Some neglect to hide their horns, so to speak, or their forked tongues.

When demons take on human form, they are usually easy to spot. If suddenly they are discovered, then they, as a rule, will have to disappear. However, sometimes a person who noticed a demon or devil did not renounce him and was not against the temptation. best example of this in folklore is Faust, who sold his soul to the devil. Tom Walker in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Devil and Tom Walker does the same.

Angels

Demons are not the only ones who consider the human form a good cover. Angels also disguise themselves to deal with humans directly, although the Bible describes them as beings that cannot be seen. However, the first appearance of angels in the Bible is in Genesis, where they are sent to assess the moral state of Sodom and Gomorrah. In order to do this, they pretended to be ordinary travelers.

Many stories describe angels, or beings thought to be angels, such creatures that visit people. If demons often prefer to take on the appearance of powerful people, businessmen or lawyers, then angels tend to turn into people with a more modest standard of living. They usually try to use words and wisdom to gently push people towards the right way, although they may become angry if they are treated incorrectly.

Angels disguise themselves in the same way as demons, they try to be invisible. Where demons are "dark", angels tend to be radiant, white and pure. Their holiness outshines and outstrips their false human forms. But those who are corrupted by sin will not be able to see this, and they risk facing divine punishment.

Doubles

Perhaps this is the most famous creature on this list. This is an entity that looks like someone else. Obviously, these people are completely different, the double is not even a person. They are completely impossible to tell apart. But in all actions they are the same.

Maybe each of us has our own doppelganger - an exact duplicate who lives in a neighboring city or a few streets away, but we never meet because we have different social circles, we never come into contact with each other. But should we meet? If you see your doppelganger, it is an omen of death. It won't kill you, but something is bound to happen.

Many believe that everyone has a double, and this is true. It's entirely possible that we all have a doppelganger we've yet to meet. What if you're still alive and it's because your doppelganger saw you first and not the other way around? How do you know you're not a doppelganger?

kitsune

These are foxes in Japanese folklore and mythology. Like foxes, they use their cunning and intelligence to outsmart those they encounter, but their greatest ability is to disguise themselves as humans. Why do they do it? Maybe it's a game or a prank in order to steal something or just to attack the victim. Sometimes a kitsune uses human form to have sex with sleeping humans. Whatever the reason, a kitsune in disguise is always a wolf in sheep's clothing.

However, many kitsune disguises are imperfect. Some retain their shadow despite their human appearance, their long red hair giving them away. However, the best way to see a disguised kitsune is to keep it close to you until it betrays itself and says something that proves that it is not human. Can you outsmart the fox?

Werewolves, ghouls, vampires

Many different creatures try to look like people, and some succeed. For example, vampires. They are almost indistinguishable from humans, but you can't hide their fangs. They have many physical limitations that clearly mark them as vampires. Werewolves have similar problems - they are usually human, but on certain days they become hideous, carnivorous animals.

Zombies, vampires, ghouls, ghosts - they all exist, and all can be among us. These creatures push us to reflect on what it means to be human. What does it say about us as humans if these creatures make us question how human we are?

But such monsters penetrate deeper into our fears. Any woman we meet could be a kitsune, or our friends could be vampires, or when our newborn babies seem a little weird, everything immediately changes for us. We feel that we have been betrayed, captured and used for insidious purposes. And when we think that this creature is a person whose life is practically no different from ours, what does this say about us? How long can we believe that it is actions that make us human? It's scary to think that we share such an intense personal connection with the most feared killers and criminals while being alike. We're all so close to monsters and we don't even realize it.

Conclusion

All these evil and good beings in disguise encourage us to confront our fear and determine our own human path.