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Man has believed in monsters since the dawn of time. He assigned them to things that he didn't understand and things that frightened him. Maybe he found some old dinosaur bones somewhere and that convinced him that his beliefs were true. Indeed, that is how they say the belief in dragons may have started. Someone may have discovered the bones of a flying dinosaur and didn't realize that the bones were millions of years old. You can see something like this happening, it is not so far fetched. As I said before, this may have either accounted for many monster beliefs or at least reinforced them.

When the Gorgon Medusa was killed by Perseus, a winged white horse sprang from it's body. This was Pegasus the flying horse. Pegasus was beautiful and while not exactly a monster, it became a servant of Zeus and carried the thunder to him. The flying horse was caught by Athena and became tame. It was given to the Muses on Mt. Helicon and was responsible for creating a spring with its hoof which was the sacred fountain Hippocrene. Pegasus was captured by King Corinth. He used a golden bridle that was given to him by the goddess Athena. Pegasus was then used to destroy the Chimera, a three headed monster that had been plaguing the land. The king decided that he would use Pegasus to join the gods at Olympus and this arrogance angered Zeus who sent down an insect that caused Pegasus to throw the king off his back, causing the king to become both blind and crippled. Pegasus was then housed in the stables at Olympus for Zeus's use.

Lets take a look at the Chimera that Pegasus helped kill. It was an odd creature, being really three creatures in one. You wouldn't think that anything with the body of a goat would be threatening, but it had the head of a lion and the tail of a snake, and if this wasn't enough, it breathed fire. It is sometimes pictured with three heads, A lion's head, a goat's head and a dragon's head, but many times with only one. The funny part is that when you see it with three heads, the heads are in different places. The head on the font is that of the lion, on it's back is the goat's head while on it's tail is the head of a dragon. Some ancient stories tell of a Chimera with only one head. It had many siblings that were also monsters. The story of the Chimera is one of a cruel king who raised the monster to terrorize the adjacent countryside by burning buildings and eating the people. You really didn't want to mess with a Chimera.

The Basilisk was the most vicious snake on earth, and it's poison was the most deadly. If you look at a Baslisk you die. Why a creature like this needed poison is beyond me. So how can we tell what this creature looked like, if we couldn't look at it? Some how depictions of it appeared. They showed a snake with a rooster's head and legs, and part of the body of a bird with the rest of the body being snake like.It had wings covered in feathers. The Baslisk was supposedly found in Africa, in the desert. The reason for this was the fact that wherever it went it turned everything to sand. The Baslisk had an enemy that could destroy it, it was the common weasel which legend says could kill it, as could the crowing of a cock.

Beware the Kraken! The Kraken was a sea monster. It was huge and had many arms. Taller than a ship, it could destroy anything on the seas. It would entangle a ship with it's many arms and turn it over, eating the crew or letting them drown. This was probably the most feared of sea monsters. It was said that wherever a Kraken was, there were huge amounts of fish and if a fisherman could sneak in and out without getting killed he would get the haul of his life. The Kraken was believed to be the size of a small island and was said to be 1 1/2 miles across. When it was asleep and floating, it was indeed mistaken for an island.

As a truly weird creature, the Manticore out does even the Chimera. I don't know about you, but I find anything that has human parts, especially a human head, too strange for words. The Manticore fits this bill. It had the body of a lion, a tail with a stinger like a scorpion and a head of a human, not just any human, but that of a blue eyed human male. It didn't have the mouth of a human though, as it's mouth contained three rows of teeth, ouch! The tail also had poisons spines on it like that of a porcupine. It was fast and could sound something like a trumpet. It was said that it preferred to eat humans. Before it would kill you it might ask you to solve a riddle.

No discussion of monsters would be complete without discussing dragons. Dragons appear in mythology all over the world. I think we all know what a dragon looks like, it is a large winged serpent, sometimes with a crest on it's head, large claws and it breathes fire. Dragons come in many different varieties. There are also many famous dragon stories. Ladon was a dragon that guarded the golden apples of Hera, Herakles killed him for an apple. The ancient peoples of Mexico believed in dragons and their dragon god was Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was a flying serpent that had wings and feathers. It was said that he could take human form and mix with people. He had helped create the world. The story of St. George and the dragon is one of the most famous of all dragon tales. The king's daughter was given to the dragon to eat, to pacify him and stop him from destroying the town. St. George found out about it and charged the dragon with a spear or lance and slew him, thus saving the princess and the land.

Many of the ancient races that came before us created mythical monsters. Let us hope that we are not as superstitious today, although the stories of these monsters do make interesting reading.