Rare Monsters

   Campe was a primordial monster and guardian of Tartarus in Greek mythology. She appears in the Titanomachy. Campe’s name means twisting or crooked one. She was known as the nymph of Tartarus. Campe is described as one of the more confusing monsters from Greek mythology. She had the qualities of several other monsters mixed together. Campe had the head and torso of a human woman, albeit covered in reptilian scales. She had snakes for hair like Medusa. She had eagles talons for hands and wings as black as the night, alternatively wings like the sphinx. Her hips were wreathed in the heads of animals, similar to Scylla, but instead of dogs it was an assembly of every fearsome and vicious animal possible. She had snakes for legs like Echidna, specifically it was said Campe had one hundred snakes for legs. Finally Campe had a scorpions tail, which she held high over her head. It’s unknown if she was supposed to be beautiful apart from her monstrous features or a hideous hag. ...

  The pyraustra, also known as the pyrallis was a fiery dragon like insect from Greek and Roman mythology. It is tiny, somewhere between the size of a gnat and a house fly. It had fiery colours, and a glowing bulb on the end of its tail. It also only had four legs in spite of being insect like, but believing insects had only four legs was a pretty common thing in ancient times. Pyraustras are born directly from fire. They must stay within the heat of the fire or die. Within the fire’s range pyraustraus fly about chaotically, mostly moving upward until they are out of range of the fire and then puff out of existence. The pyraustra were primarily found in the copper smelting furnaces of Cyprus. It’s wildly believed today that the legend of the pyraustra was misinterpretations of sparks or embers flying away from the fire. How dragony the pyraustra was has been called into question, as the only reference to it being dragon like comes from a modern source, Inventorum Naturum ...

   The kallikantzaros are small demons or goblins from modern Greek folklore. They’re associated with the Christmas season, which is when they appear and cause mischief in people’s lives. The kallikantzaros look like small, hairy, demons. They have small horns, fur covering their bodies, split hooves, and donkey like ears and tails. Their size varies from child sized to insect sized, but they’re always smaller than an adult human. In Greek Orthodox Christianity the twelve days of Christmas come after Christmas Day, and represent the time between Jesus’s birth and his baptism. During this time spirits and malevolent forces are able to run amok on Earth. While this is happening people must be especially religiously observant or they will fall prey to the various evil forces. It’s during this time the kallikantzaros come to Earth. For most of the year the kallikantzaros spend their time in Hell. They busy themselves trying to saw through the world tree that holds Earth ...

   In ancient Greece cetus referred to sea monsters in general, as well as whales, as they didn’t see a difference between the two, and it was seen as the ocean equivalent of the draikon, or dragon. While cetus was thought of as a type of monster, rather than an individual, there are two myths about notable individual cetus, the Trojan cetus, which was killed by Heracles, and the Ethiopian cetus, which was killed by Perseus. There were two main ways the cetus was depicted. One was as a bulky sea beast with the head of a boar and the tail of a whale, sometimes with paws. Another was a more serpentine creature, with the head of a greyhound, and it’s long serpent tail ending in a whale fluke. Even though there are two major cetus myths, both appearances were equally associated with both myths interchangeably, rather than each being a specific monster. The Trojan Cetus was sent by Poseidon to torment King Laomedon. Laomedon had asked Poseidon to build the walls of Troy f...

  The Telchines were primordial daemons from Greek mythology. They were associated with the sea, smithing and the Island of Rhodes. They created Cronos’s scythe and Poseidon’s trident. They also raised the infant Poseidon. However, even though they initially aided the Olympian gods, the Telchinese eventually turned to evil and defiled the soils of Rhodes, causing Zeus to punish them. Every detail in the Telchine’s story beyond these broad strokes is variable, making them hard to pin down.  Telchines have multiple origins that contradict each other. They were either the children of Pontus and Gaia, or Tartaros and Nemesis, or of the goddess Thalassa alone. Sometimes they’re said to be created from the blood that was spilled when Uranus was castrated, however this contradicts the Telchines creating Cronos’s scythe, which he used to perform this act. Regardless of their origins the Telchinese are always regarded as primordial beings, created by the primal forces of the universe T...

  The ophiotaurus was a monster who's front half was that of a bull, with a snake's tail replacing the back legs. It's only known appearance was from Fasti by Ovid. Although he's retelling a story from the lost Greek poem Titanomachia. The ophiotaurus was a primordial being existed at the beginning of time when the world was forming. At that time animals were not fully formed and so had miss matched parts from the wrong species. The ophiotaurus, as well as the other first animals, were born from the goddess Gaia without a mate. The bull was so toxic that its flesh could kill any being. If its entrails were burned (such as was done in ritual sacrifices) then the smoke would kill the gods. The bull was otherwise peaceful and not inclined to harm other creatures. Because of this the bull was trapped in a triple walled ring, within an endless dark forest, on the far side of the river Styx. During the Titanomachy one of the titans' allies, either Briareus the Hecatonch...

  Many real creatures were turned into mythical beasts in the Medieval era. The hyena inspired the crocotta, the wildebeest the bonnacon and the ibex the yale. Yet few beasts have strayed so far from their real life inspiration as the antelope and the calopus. The antelope was first known in Europe by the ancient Greeks, who called it antelopos. The records of Alexander the Great called them aeternae and the Romans called them calopus, which means pretty foot. The name calopus continued through the Medieval period as a mostly separate creature from antelopes. Medieval bestiaries varied on whether they had entries on the calopus, antelope or both. Eventually the calopus became a symbolic beast in heraldry, where it gained its most unfamiliar form yet. The antelope known to the ancient Greeks was considered a fearsome beast, yet it still had the overall form of a goat or a roe deer. The calopus had dangerous serrated horns which it used to shred tree branches. It would hesitate to ...

  Everyone knows about python snakes, but fewer people know about the ancient Greek dragon the genus was named after. It does tend to get lost in search results, after all. Python is described by Hyginus as being a giant snake, not unlike it's real life counterparts. Although the dragon Python was said to be venomous. In later depictions from the medieval era onward Python is depicted as a more typical dragon, with legs and wings. Python first appeared when it was sent by Hera to torment Leto after Zeus took interest in her. Once Apollo was born he sought to avenge his mother's constant torment by slaying Python. In some versions of the myth Apollo accomplished this while he was still a child. Apollo pursued Python to Delphi, where he had to enter sacred ground to slay Python. In some versions of the myth it was Python's blood that gave the location of Delphi its prophetic qualities, in other versions Delphi's placement at the centre of the world already gave it thes...

      The monoceros is an animal that is mentioned by many Greek and Roman authors. Many people assume the monoceros was just a rhinoceros, however its description differs quite a bit from a mere rhino, and it was probably a mythical amalgamation of different animals. The description was added to multiple times by subsequent authors, further elaborating on the monoceros's attributes.      The monoceros was first mentioned by  Megasthenes, who was a Greek explorer who travelled to India. It's likely out of all the authors who wrote about the monoceros, Megasthenes was the only one who actually saw a rhinoceros. Yet, his description still doesn't quite fit a rhino, as he said the creature had the head of a stag and a horn two cubits long, which would be nearly 3 feet. The monoceros was also said to live in the foothills of the Himalayas, rather than in the lowlands where rhinoceros are actually found. Still Megasthenes' description does have a fair bit i...