In the following artwork by Peter Paul Rubens, you can see the encounter of Scylla and Glaucus before the horrid events ensue. Odyssey chooses to sail closer to Scylla and sacrifices six of his men. This deadly duo makes an appearance in Homer’s Odyssey. Whoever sails in those waters has to make a tough decision to either be devoured by Scylla or get ship-wrecked by Charybdis. Since then, Scylla inhabits the sea strait near current-day Sicily, and her counterpart Charybdis dwells in the open sea. Circe falls in love with him though and, out of vengeance and jealousy, prepares a potion for Scylla that turns her into a monster so scary that even she couldn’t bear to look at it. Desperate, Glaucus goes to Circe, daughter of the Sun, for a love potion. The sea god Glaucus fell in love with her, but Scylla, repelled by Glaucus’ fishtail, fled to the dry land away from him. Wikimedia Commons (public domain).Īccording to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Scylla was a beautiful ocean nymph. The Greek mythological creatures: Edvard Munch, Harpy, engraving, 1894. Below is his sketch depicting a Harpy extending her claws over, evidently, a deceased body. The famous artist Edvard Munch, who painted the iconic Scream, is also known to favor eerie, uncanny, and mystical subjects. With taloned hands and looks for ever pale and lean.” Worst plagues to issue from the Stygian mireīirds maiden-faced, but trailing with obscene, Ne’er sent a pest more loathsome ne’er were seen So called in Greece, where dwells, with Harpies, “Saved from the sea, the Strophades we gain, The Roman poet Virgil describes Harpies in his Aeneid as: When a person suddenly disappeared from the earth it was said that he or she had been carried off by the Harpies. They are one of the guardians of the Underworld – the realm of the god Hades – and agents of punishment who abduct and torture people. Harpies are also creatures with the head of a woman and the body of a bird, but compared to Siren, they are known to be much more horrid and evil.
The Greek mythological creatures: John William Waterhouse, Ulysses and the Sirens, 1891, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. Regardless of how horrid the creatures are, the females in his works are always beautiful and gracious. Works of the 19th-century artist John William Waterhouse show scenes from Greek mythology in a romanticized manner. It is often considered that Sirens might have inspired the creation of Mermaids, another popular mythological creature. There is a great heap of dead men’s bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them.” If anyone unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song. “First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. Their enchanting voices allure sailors to their doom to nearby rocks, sandbars, and shoals. Half woman and half bird, these creatures first appeared in Homer’s Odyssey. The Greek mythological creatures: Gustave Doré, Arachne, Illustration for Dante’s Divine Comedy, 1868. The 19th-century French artist and printmaker Gustave Doré produced a print illustrating the torments of Arachne for Dante’s Divine Comedy. However her weaving depicting how gods mislead and abuse mortals enrages Athena, and, for insulting gods and comparing herself with them, the goddess turns the girl into a spider. In Ovid’s version of the myth, Arachne, far more superior in her craft, defeats Athena. There are several versions of the story with different accounts of who won the contest, but whatever the result, it never seems to end in Arachne’s favor.
Here is a list of the most popular creatures and famous artworks devoted to them.Īrachne was the daughter of a shepherd and a talented weaver who challenged Athena, the goddess of wisdom and craft, to a weaving contest. These Greek mythological creatures that combine female beauty with beastly ugliness have been titillating fantasies of generations of artists and have inspired them to create their well-known masterpieces. From Sirens that lure sailors to their deaths by their sweet voice, the ravenous Sphinx guarding the entrance to a city, and evil Lamia who has an insatiable appetite for the flesh of small children. Their heredity shaped many of the fictional and fantastical creatures of our time. Gods, goddesses, demigods, horrible monsters, and beasts of hybrid forms roam the world of Ancient Greek mythology.
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