Top Ten Mythical Animals
Chimera
One of the most scary of mythical animals the Chimera is a fantastic creature of Greek mythology the chimera is made up of three parts of other animals. It is a snake and a goat and a lion. The lionshead has with a goat arching out of its back and tail that ends in a snakes head. The chimera and brothers in Cerberus and Hydra and came from Lycia in Asia. Nowadays a chimera has come to mean anything fictional with parts coming from different animals.
It is also the name of a vintage 2 seater sports car made by TVR !
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Griffin
The Griffin has any body of a lion and the head of an eagle and this combination is supposed to indicate strength and intelligence combined.
Since the lion is the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of the birds it is rumoured that only the female Griffin has wings. The Greeks in particular Herodotus travelled the world and make notes about everything that he saw, he observed the Griffin in an area which is now central Asia and Ukraine, they also extended up to the Gobi Desert particularly near the gold deposits. The Griffin are often known as guardians protecting treasure, they were clever and tricky creatures and would make up riddles and tricks to defeat people who were trying to find and take the treasure they were guarding.
It is said that the Griffin guarded many fantastic treasures such as the holy grail the tree of life and the road to salvation.
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Sphynx
The Sphinx is famous from monuments in ancient Egypt and was a daughter of Typhon and Echidna having the head and chest of a woman, wings of a bird lion’s claws and the body of a dog. She has similarities to the Griffin and had the Griffin like traits of posing a riddle to passers-by. Failure to solve the riddle resulted in them being eaten and destroyed by the Sphinx, hence the reason She guards the Pharohs.
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Cerberus
Cerberus was a terrifying three headed dog that guarded the underworld. His mane was made of snakes and he had a tail of reptiles. His saliva was deadly poison. It is even said that he was so frightening that looking at him could turn you into stone. The story of how he came to guard Hades, (Hell) tells us that perhaps he had a kind heart?
The story goes that Cerberus saved a girl called Delia who was trapped in a boat by a shark Cerberus killed the shark and freed the girl. Despite his ugly appearance the girl formed a friendship with the dog. Sadly one day of Hades monsters. Argus, killed Delia and in order to get Delia back he agreed to guard Hades for thousands of years.
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Chinese New Years Monster
A trip to chinese mythology with the New Years monster. Chinese New Year varies between January and February at that time the monster that lives in both mountainous regions and also sometimes under the sea is know to enter villages and devour it’s inhabitants, it quite enjoys children.
This was until it was discovered that the monster is afraid of loud noises, fire and the colour red. These are called the weaknesses of “nian shou”. This may account for the fire works and firecrackers at the Chinese new years parades coupled with vivid red costumes!
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El Chupacabra
El Chupacabra?
actually means goat sucker and was first spotted in 1994 in Puerto Rico.
It has been found more recently in South America as well as parts of the USA, the Chupacabra has it seems attacked and devoured the blood of animals including sheep and dogs. When it kills its prey it leaves puncture marks in its neck and the body is found bloodless. The animals organs are often removed and even some cuts on the animal victims ears. Often there are no signs of tracks around the dead animals.
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Hydra
The Hydra lived in the swamps of the city of Lerna in Argolis. It was born from Echidna, who was half man half snake and Typhon who had 100 heads. The Hydra is definitely a multi headed creature that can have anything from at least 5 to 100 heads like its parents!
One of its heads couldn’t be harmed the others simply grew back if cut off. It is said that it’s foul smelling breath could kill you, if that didn’t get you then its deadly venom would. With so many heads feeding on the local villagers was easy and it terrorized Lerna.
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Mythical Animals – Phoenix
The Phoenix is a famous bird of Arabia it is said to be about the size of an eagle with a neck of gold plumage it has a purple body and a dark blue tail with long feathers.
The throat has a crest and on top of its head it has a tuft of feathers it lives for 1000 years, when it gets old it builds a nest of cassia and incense as a funeral pyre. From the ashes of the pyre a new Phoenix emerges.
The tears of the phoenix are said to have the power to restore life.
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Unicorn
The unicorn is an awe-inspiring animal that has been written of by such writers as Aristotle and even Genghis Khan. They considered it to be a very real animal it has the body and the head of a horse and it’s hind legs were of a stag the tail was of a lion and the single horn in the middle of its forehead make it a truly iconic mythical animal. In Chinese legend it was supposed to have the body of a deer with horses hooves and an ox’s tail but it was no less revered!!
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Mythical Animals – Leviathan
The leviathan was a biblical sea monster sometimes called a dragon of the sea. Legend has it as a fire-breathing creature of such immense size that the sea boiled when it was swimming on the surface. It ruled all the creatures of the sea ruthlessly and its skin was like a double coat of chain mail with over lapping scales as big as shields. Spears and harpoons failed to penetrate it and it would breath smoke from its nostrils and flames from its mouth. It’s fins radiated a brilliant lights and its eyes resembled sunrise !
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