Mythological Age

Hydra · Lernaean serpent — Multi-headed mythical beast

The Hydra (Greek Hydra, Latin Hydra) is the most famous many-headed monster of Greek mythology, properly the Lernaean Hydra after its swampy haunt at Lerna in the Peloponnese near Argos. Born of Typhon and Echidna, sister to Cerberus, Chimera, and Orthrus, the Hydra was reared by the goddess Hera as a test for Heracles. Its heads number nine in the canonical account, though variant traditions give seven, fifty, or a hundred; one central head is immortal. Its signature power is regenerative: cut off one head and two grow back. Its breath and blood are venomous. As the second of Heracles' Twelve Labours, the hero, aided by his nephew Iolaus who cauterised each severed neck with a torch, finally lopped off the immortal head and buried it under a great rock. He then dipped his arrows in the Hydra's blood, beginning a chain of poisonings that ran through the rest of Greek myth.

Medusa · Monster — Ancient creature with snakes for hair

Medusa (Μέδουσα) is the youngest and only mortal of the three Gorgon sisters (Stheno, Euryale, Medusa) in Greek mythology. Originally a beautiful priestess of Athena's temple, after being raped by Poseidon within the temple, she was unjustly transformed by the enraged Athena into a horrifying monster — hair turned into living serpents, with the curse that any who looked directly at her would turn to stone. This is considered Greek mythology's most tragic and unjust transformation myth, and Medusa is sometimes reinterpreted not as a simple villain but as a victim of patriarchal mythology. The hero Perseus killed her with help from Hermes's winged sandals and Athena's mirror shield. The severed head became a powerful weapon, used by Perseus to petrify enemies. From her blood were born the winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor.

Nemean Lion · Invulnerable Beast — Immortal creature of Greek myth

The Nemean Lion was a giant golden lion living in the Nemea valley of the Peloponnese in Greek mythology, the target of Heracles's first of the twelve labors. Born to the monstrous Typhon and Echidna, its hide was a mythological beast with absolute defense impervious to any weapon — arrows bounced off, swords and spears broke, and no human could damage the hide. Heracles initially tried with bow and arrows, but after all failed, he drove the lion into a cave and strangled it to death with his bare hands. The famous tale tells that no blade could skin it, but he ultimately used the lion's own claws to cut through. Heracles wore the hide as a cloak for the rest of his life, becoming the most iconic costume of his heroic identity.

Phoenix · Firebird — Legendary bird reborn from flames

The phoenix (Φοῖνιξ) is an immortal bird from ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology with a lifespan of 500 or 1,461 years, after which it builds a nest of cedar, cinnamon, and myrrh, sets itself ablaze, and is reborn as a young bird from its own ashes. First recorded in Herodotus's Histories Book 2, it originated from the sacred Egyptian bird Bennu of Heliopolis — the soul of the sun god Ra and embodiment of resurrection and renewal. Spreading to Greece and Rome, it gained its name from 'phoinix' (purple) and was depicted as a vibrantly multicolored bird. In Christianity it became the sacred bird symbolizing Jesus's resurrection. Similar immortal bird myths exist in every civilization — Chinese fenghuang, Japanese hou-ou, Slavic zhar-ptitsa (Russian firebird).

Naga · Serpent People — Mythical half-human, half-serpent beings

The Naga (Sanskrit nāga, 'serpent') is a semi-divine serpent-being of Indian and Southeast Asian mythology, depicted as a human-cobra hybrid: human torso above, vast coiled serpent body below, often crowned with multiple hoods. Nagas guard rivers, lakes, wells, and the subterranean realm of Patala, summon monsoon rains, and hoard treasure in jewel-encrusted underground palaces. In Hinduism, Vishnu sleeps on the cosmic serpent Shesha amid the milk-ocean; Shiva wears Vasuki coiled around his neck. In Buddhism, the naga-king Mucalinda sheltered the freshly enlightened Buddha for seven days beneath his seven hoods. In Jainism, the twenty-third Tirthankara Parshvanatha is always depicted with a seven-headed naga halo. Across Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos, multi-headed naga balustrades flank every temple stairway, and Angkor Wat's seven- and nine-headed naga causeways link the human and divine realms.

Pegasus · Winged Horse — A Legendary Creature from Greek Mythology

Pegasus (Πήγασος) is a white winged horse from ancient Greek mythology, born when blood from Medusa's severed head met the sea, with the giant Chrysaor as his brother. The hero Bellerophon, with goddess Athena's help, tamed Pegasus and together they slew the Chimera — one of Greek mythology's most heroic adventures. However, when Bellerophon's hubris led him to attempt riding Pegasus to Mount Olympus to join the gods, Zeus sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus, throwing only Bellerophon while Pegasus safely reached Olympus. He became the messenger carrying Zeus's thunderbolts, and after death was placed eternally in the heavens as the constellation Pegasus. As the archetype of 'winged horse,' he is the most familiar sacred animal appearing in fantasy worldwide.

Cerberus · Infernal Gatekeeper — Legendary triple-headed hound

The colossal three-headed hound of Greek myth, set at the gate of the underworld of Hades. In Hesiod's Theogony 310-318 (c. 700 BCE) he is the offspring of the great monsters Typhon and Echidna, sibling of the Hydra, the Chimera, and Orthos; Hesiod gives him fifty heads, but from Pindar and Stesichorus in the fifth century BCE the canonical three-headed form has been standard (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.12, 1st-2nd c. CE). His task is two-way: he prevents the dead from rising and the living from descending. The twelfth and last of the labours of Heracles was to bring Cerberus alive from the underworld; Virgil's Aeneid 6.417-425 (19 BCE) shows the Sibyl casting a honey-and-drugged cake to send the three heads at once to sleep, and Dante in Inferno 6.13-33 (c. 1308-1320) sets him as the warden of the gluttonous in the third circle of Hell. J. K. Rowling's three-headed Fluffy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Bloomsbury, 1997), who is sent to sleep by music, is a direct descendant of the same canonical motif.

Borges's Imaginary Stag-Bird Hybrid

The Peryton is a composite imaginary beast introduced as a canonical entry by Jorge Luis Borges and Margarita Guerrero in their Manual de zoologia fantastica (1957). It has the body and head of a stag and the dark plumed wings of an enormous bird, but its most striking feature is that the shadow it casts under the sun is not its own: it is the shadow of a human being. Borges presents the entry by citing a fictitious sixteenth-century manuscript of an Arab physician at Fez, together with a fictitious fragment of the Erythraean Sibyl preserved at Ravenna, from which we learn that the Peryton was once human and only after killing one mortal acquires the right to cast its own shadow. The 1967 expanded edition El libro de los seres imaginarios, translated into English by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in 1969, fixed the Peryton in fantasy literature; in 1983 Gary Gygax canonised it as a Dungeons and Dragons monster in the Monster Manual II.

Persian Legendary Lion-Man-Scorpion Hybrid

The manticore is a legendary creature originating in ancient Persian tradition, with a lion's body, human face, and scorpion's tail. The name derives from Old Persian 'martyaxwar' (man-eater) and was first recorded in the 4th-century BCE Indian travelogue of Greek physician Ctesias. With blue eyes and three rows of sharp teeth, it shoots venomous spines from its tail. Depicted as a man-eating monster, it appears throughout medieval European bestiaries and became a heraldic symbol of cruelty.

Charybdis · Oceanic Monster — The Devouring Whirlpool

A monstrous sea-creature of Greek myth who lives at the foot of a narrow cliff in the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Daughter of Poseidon and Gaia in the later tradition, she was changed into a creature by the wrath of Zeus; three times a day she draws the dark sea down into a vast whirlpool and again belches it back, swallowing every ship and creature that comes too near. In Homer's Odyssey book 12 (c. eighth century BCE) Odysseus must pass between Charybdis and the six-headed Skylla on the opposite cliff, and from that ordeal comes the English idiom 'between Scylla and Charybdis' for an unwinnable choice.

Valkyrie · Warrior Maidens — Choosers of the Slain in Norse Mythology

The Valkyrie (Valkyrja) is a female demi-divine being in Norse mythology guiding warriors' souls to Odin, god of war. The name means 'chooser of the slain' (Val-kyrja) in Old Norse — they decide who falls gloriously in battle, then guide the heroes' souls to Valhalla, the gods' hall, gathering an army for the final battle of Ragnarok. In Valhalla, Valkyries pour mead and serve the fallen heroes. Traditionally thirteen Valkyries existed. The most famous is Brunhilde — her tragic love for the hero Sigurd became central to Wagner's opera Der Ring des Nibelungen. Depicted in shining armor, winged helmets, mounted on horses or swans, they appear in all Norse fantasy from Marvel's Valkyrie to the Diablo series and God of War Ragnarok.