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Entity Classification
Ancient serpents, dragons, giants, chimeras, sea monsters and beings representing chaos or primordial forces.
115 documented entities
Monsters, Hybrids and Primordial Creatures
Eastern Solomon Islands traditions
Adaro are powerful sea and water spirits in traditions of the eastern Solomon Islands, associated with rainbows, waterspouts, flying fish, storms, danger and assistance to…
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Welsh and broader Celtic traditions
The Afanc is a Welsh lake and river being whose body is described as beaver-like, crocodilian, demonic or simply monstrous. Traditions connect it with drowning,…
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Khoekhoe and southern African traditions
Aigamuxa are man-eating beings in Khoekhoe-related folklore, remembered for eyes placed on or beneath their feet and for the strange vulnerability this anatomy creates.
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South Slavic and Balkan traditions
Ala or Hala is a South Slavic storm being associated with hail, whirlwinds, crop destruction and the devouring of celestial light. Regional accounts describe a…
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Classical Mediterranean natural-history and medieval European bestiary traditions
Amphisbaena is the two-headed serpent, bearing a second head at the tail and able to move in either direction. Classical writers place it in Libya…
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Norse and Icelandic literary traditions
Angrboða is the jötunn named in the Prose Edda as the mother, by Loki, of Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Hel.
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Sumerian and Akkadian Mesopotamian traditions
Anzu is the lion-headed eagle whose theft of the Tablet of Destinies interrupts the authority of the divine world. He serves near Enlil, watches the…
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Ancient Egyptian traditions
Apep is the immense serpent of uncreation that confronts the solar barque during its nightly passage. He does not rule a kingdom of the dead…
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Late antique and medieval Christian bestiary, maritime legend and broader island-beast traditions
Aspidochelone is the immense sea beast mistaken for land. Sailors anchor, disembark and build a fire upon its back; feeling the heat, the creature dives…
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Chinese traditions
Ba She is the giant serpent of Chinese mythic geography said to swallow an elephant and release its bones after three years.
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Romanian and Balkan traditions
The Balaur is the great dragon or many-headed serpent of Romanian tradition, associated with storm, treasure, abduction and the wild margins beyond settlement.
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Medieval Irish tradition
Balor is the Fomorian champion whose destructive eye must be lifted open on the battlefield. In the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, his grandson Lug…
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Ancient Chinese southern mythography and later bestiary tradition
Bashe is the colossal snake of southern lands described as swallowing an elephant and digesting it over three years. The image became one of the…
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Mesopotamian traditions
Bashmu is a Mesopotamian serpent-dragon whose name is commonly connected with a venomous snake or horned viper. The being appears in learned lists, protective and…
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Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Jewish literature and rabbinic tradition
Behemoth stands on the earth as Leviathan lies in the sea: immense, unowned and beyond the reach of human rule. In Job the creature feeds…
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Philippine traditions, especially historical accounts from Cagayan Sulu
Berbalangs are beings described in a late nineteenth-century account from Cagayan Sulu as a hidden community able to leave their bodies in spirit form, fly…
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Brazilian Indigenous-derived and regional folkloric traditions
Boitatá is a luminous serpent or moving fire associated with fields, rivers, forests and the protection or burning of landscape. The name is commonly connected…
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South Slavic and Balkan traditions
Bukavac is a South Slavic wetland being associated with marshes, ponds, nocturnal roaring and attacks near the water's edge.
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Tagalog and Philippine folklore traditions
Bungisngis is the laughing one-eyed giant of Tagalog folklore, remembered for immense strength, a single eye and a name associated with grinning or constant laughter.
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Ancient Greek tradition
The Calydonian Boar is sent by Artemis when King Oeneus neglects her in the harvest offerings. The creature ravages vineyards, crops and countryside, turning a…
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Greek and Roman traditions
Centaurs are the horse-bodied beings of Greek mythology, often associated with Thessaly, wilderness, intoxication and conflict with human society.
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Ancient Greek traditions
Charybdis is not a reef, storm or ordinary whirlpool. She is the sea performing the act of swallowing. Three times a day the water descends…
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Ancient Greek and Lycian traditions
Chimera is one body built from incompatible creatures and made stable by fire. Homer calls it divine in breed, lion in front, goat in the…
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Ancient Greek and Cretan traditions
The Cretan Bull emerges from the sea as a sign of divine favor and becomes the instrument of a royal betrayal. Minos asks Poseidon for…
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Brazilian folklore shaped by Iberian bogey traditions and local literary transformation
Cuca is a child-frightening being whose Brazilian form developed from Iberian Coca and Coco traditions and acquired a distinct witchlike, often reptilian body. Lullabies invoke…
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Ancient Greek and Roman traditions
Greek tradition preserves more than one order of Cyclopes. Hesiod's elder Cyclopes—Brontes, Steropes and Arges—are primordial sons of Gaia and Uranus who forge Zeus's…
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Romanian and Balkan traditions
Căpcăun is a Romanian ogre-like being described as man-eating, animal-headed, dog-faced or double-mouthed. The name also carries historical layers in which feared outsiders were transformed…
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Fijian traditions
Dakuwaqa is a powerful Fijian shark-associated ancestral and divine being connected with sea travel, protection, danger, chiefly descent and particular reefs.
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South Slavic and Balkan traditions
Drekavac is the shrieking nocturnal being of South Slavic folklore, associated with graveyards, unbaptized children, restless dead and omens.
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Ancient Greek traditions
Echidna waits in a cave far from gods and mortals, half radiant woman and half enormous serpent. Hesiod does not present her as a wandering…
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Ancient Greek tradition
The Erymanthian Boar lives on the high slopes and ravines of Mount Erymanthus, descending to devastate the surrounding country. Heracles is ordered not merely to…
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Ancient Greek and Roman traditions
Euryale is one of the two Gorgons whom Perseus cannot kill. She sleeps beside Medusa beyond Ocean, awakens after the blade falls and pursues the…
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Old Norse and wider Germanic traditions
Fenrir grows among the gods while they already know the prophecy of what he will do. Only Týr dares feed him. Each day the wolf…
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Medieval Irish mythological tradition
The Fomorians are a powerful collective in medieval Irish literature, associated with sea, tribute, distorted kingship and forces opposed to the Túatha Dé Danann.
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Old Norse and continental Germanic heroic tradition
Fáfnir begins not as a dragon but as a son of Hreiðmarr. After the gods pay compensation with gold taken from the dwarf Andvari, a…
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Khoekhoe and Nama traditions
Ga-Gorib is the pit-associated adversary defeated by Heitsi-Eibib in Khoekhoe and Nama narrative tradition.
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Old Norse mythological tradition
Garmr is the hound bound at Gnipahellir whose barking announces the breaking of the world. *Völuspá* repeats the refrain that Garmr bays loudly before the…
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Ancient Greek and Roman traditions
The Gigantes are born from Gaia when the blood of mutilated Uranus falls upon the earth. They rise as an armed generation and later wage…
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Ancient Mesopotamian traditions
Girtablullu is the Mesopotamian scorpion-man, a composite being with human upper body and scorpion lower form. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, a scorpion-man and scorpion-woman…
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Ancient Greek traditions
The Graeae are old from birth. Hesiod places them in the family of Phorcys and Ceto and names Pemphredo and Enyo; later tradition adds Deino.…
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Old English heroic and Christianized Germanic tradition
Grendel comes from the fens and moors to Heorot, the hall of King Hrothgar, because the music and communal joy within it torment him. Night…
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Old English heroic and Christianized Germanic tradition
Grendel’s mother enters *Beowulf* after her son’s severed arm has been raised in triumph. She attacks Heorot not to establish a reign of predation but…
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South African regional folklore
The Grootslang is a South African legendary creature combining elephant and serpent traits and associated with caves, diamonds and the Richtersveld.
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Khoekhoe and southern African traditions
Hai-uri is a southern African liminal being described in later mythology references as a half-bodied pursuer associated with the underworld.
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Ancient Greek and Roman traditions
The Harpies begin as swift storm powers, daughters of Thaumas and Electra, able to keep pace with winds and birds. In later narrative they become…
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Old Norse mythological tradition
Hati is the wolf associated with pursuit of the moon or the bright heavenly bride. In *Grímnismál*, Hati Hróðvitnisson runs before the bright bride of…
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Māori and Ngāi Tūhoe traditions
Haumapuhia is the taniwha of Waikaremoana, remembered in Ngāi Tūhoe tradition as a young woman transformed by her father whose struggles shaped the lake.
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Ancient Greek traditions
The Hecatoncheires are three primordial sons of Earth and Sky: Cottus, Briareus and Gyges. Each bears one hundred arms and fifty heads. Uranus hates them…
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Old Norse mythological tradition
Hræsvelgr sits at the end of heaven in the form of an eagle. When he beats his wings, winds move over the world. His name…
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Sumerian and Akkadian Mesopotamian traditions
Humbaba guards the Cedar Forest where the human city’s authority ends. In Sumerian poems he is Huwawa, a terrifying guardian appointed by the god Enlil.…
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Classical Chinese cosmology and philosophical parable
Hundun is primordial undifferentiation given body. In the Zhuangzi, the ruler of the center has no seven openings; grateful visitors bore one opening each day,…
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Ancient Greek traditions
The Hydra waits at Lerna, where springs, marsh and underworld memory gather beneath the surface. It is not simply a many-headed snake. Its body turns…
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Korean traditions
Imugi is a Korean dragon-serpent figure often described as a great lesser dragon or serpent awaiting the conditions needed to become a true dragon.
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Korean traditions
Jangsanbeom is a modern Korean legendary beast associated with Jangsan near Busan, described as a pale or white-furred predator capable of imitating human voices to…
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Old Norse and wider Germanic traditions
Jörmungandr lies in the ocean around Midgard, so immense that the human world exists inside the circle of its body. Odin casts the young serpent…
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Krishna traditions, Sanskrit Purāṇic literature and North Indian devotional culture
Kaliya is the many-hooded nāga whose poison corrupts a pool of the Yamuna until the young Krishna leaps upon his heads and dances them into…
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Philippine folklore traditions
Kapre is a large tree-dwelling being of Philippine folklore, commonly described as dark, hairy and fond of tobacco. It inhabits old trees, disorients travelers and…
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Vedic, epic, Purāṇic and Hindu astral traditions
Ketu is the descending lunar node and, in the common Purāṇic account, the body or tail left after Rahu is decapitated. He is represented with…
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Babylonian Mesopotamian tradition
Kingu is the champion elevated by Tiamat in the Babylonian Epic of Creation. She gives him leadership and the Tablet of Destinies; after defeat, his…
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Hindu, Buddhist and Jain architectural traditions across South and Southeast Asia
Kirtimukha is the devouring guardian face placed above temple doors, arches, images and ritual objects. In the Shaiva myth, a lion-headed being consumes its own…
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English, especially Sussex, folklore
Knuckers are water-dragons of English folklore, especially associated with Sussex and the Knuckerhole near Lyminster.
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Ancient Mesopotamian traditions
Kulullu is the Mesopotamian fish-man, a composite human and fish being known from art, lexical classification and protective contexts.
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Ancient Mesopotamian traditions
Kusarikku is the Mesopotamian bull-man or bison-man, a human-animal hybrid prominent in contest scenes and later protective classification.
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Ancient Greek and Roman traditions
Ladon coils around the tree of golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides at the far western limit. The dragon's parentage varies, but its…
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Ancient Mesopotamian traditions
Lahmu is both a primordial deity in Babylonian creation genealogy and a name associated with protective hairy beings in Mesopotamian art and ritual.
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Ugaritic and Northwest Semitic traditions
Lotan is the twisting serpent named in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, a dragon of the sea conflict whose language survives with remarkable precision in later…
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South Asian and Southeast Asian Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions
Makara is the great aquatic hybrid of South and Southeast Asian art. Crocodile, fish, elephant, boar, serpent and other bodies combine in a creature that…
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Amazonian Indigenous-derived and caboclo oral traditions of Brazil
Mapinguari is a powerful Amazonian forest being described in many forms: giant hairy humanoid, one-eyed creature, backward-footed guardian, or a body with a vertical mouth…
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Paraguayan Guaraní and mestizo folkloric traditions
Mbói Tu’ĩ is one of the seven children of Taú and Keraná in Paraguayan folklore. Its name joins *mbói*, serpent, with *tu’ĩ*, parrot or parakeet.…
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Ancient Greek and Roman traditions
Medusa dwells beyond Ocean with the immortal Gorgons, at the edge of the inhabited world where Night begins. Hesiod calls her mortal and gives her…
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Bagobo and related Mindanao traditions
Minokawa is the enormous bird associated in Bagobo tradition with swallowing the moon or sun during eclipse.
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Ancient Greek and Cretan mythic traditions
The Minotaur is the concealed consequence of a broken royal vow. Born from Pasiphaë and the divine bull that Minos refused to sacrifice, the being…
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Paraguayan Guaraní and mestizo folkloric traditions
Moñái is one of the seven monstrous children of Taú and Keraná. It is usually described as an immense horned serpent associated with theft, caves…
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Ancient Mesopotamian traditions
Mušmaḫḫu is an exalted serpent or multiheaded dragon of Mesopotamian tradition, most famously counted among the beings of Tiamat's host.
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Babylonian and Mesopotamian traditions
The mušḫuššu is the serpent-dragon of Marduk and Nabu, a composite creature whose body marched in glazed relief along Babylon’s Processional Way and Ishtar Gate.…
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Vedic, Brāhmaṇa and epic traditions of South Asia
Namuci is an asura defeated by Indra through a liminal weapon after a compact appears to make him invulnerable. Foam—neither wet nor dry—and twilight—neither day…
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Odia literary, Vaishnava and visual traditions of eastern India
Navagunjara is the nine-part composite form through which Krishna appears before Arjuna in the Odia Mahabharata of Sarala Dasa. Arjuna first raises his bow, then…
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Ancient Greek tradition
The Nemean Lion occupies a cave with two mouths and wears a hide that no ordinary weapon can pierce. Heracles enters the beast’s territory as…
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Modern and regional Chinese Spring Festival folklore
Nian is the predatory beast of a popular Spring Festival legend. It descends from mountain or sea at the year’s end to take livestock, crops…
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Orcadian and northern Scottish folklore
Nuckelavee is the skinless horse-and-rider being of Orcadian folklore, feared as a sea demon whose breath blights crops, sickens livestock and spreads epidemic disease.
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Medieval Japanese warrior and court traditions
The nue is the composite being shot by Minamoto no Yorimasa after its nightly presence sickens the emperor. It carries a monkey-like head, tiger limbs,…
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Old Norse mythological tradition
Níðhöggr gnaws beneath Yggdrasil and feeds among the dead. In *Grímnismál*, serpents lie under the world tree’s ash and Níðhöggr is named among them. In…
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Ancient Greek tradition
Orthrus is the two-headed hound guarding the red cattle of Geryon on the distant island of Erytheia. He stands beside the herdsman Eurytion at the…
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Māori traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand
Ponaturi are supernatural sea-dwelling people in Māori tradition, described as pale or red-haired, clawed, nocturnal and vulnerable to sunlight and fire.
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Ancient Greek traditions
Python is the great serpent associated with Delphi and the older authority of Earth. In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, the god kills a female…
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Classical Chinese mythography and moral-political tradition
Qiongqi is a violent being associated with the Four Perils and described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas in more than one form. Later…
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Hebrew Bible and later Jewish interpretation
Rahab is the proud sea power remembered in biblical poetry as shattered, pierced or silenced by divine force. The name can signify a mythic marine…
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Vedic, epic, Purāṇic, Hindu and Buddhist astral traditions
Rahu is the immortal severed head of the being who infiltrated the gods’ distribution of amrita. Exposed by Sun and Moon, he is decapitated by…
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Ancient Greek traditions
Scylla lives where the ship cannot retreat. Her cave stands high in the strait, opposite Charybdis, and the channel between them is too narrow for…
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Sanskrit epic, Purāṇic and Shaiva traditions with regional theological variation
Sharabha is an extraordinary beast whose form changes across sources. Early literature knows a powerful wild animal; medieval Shaiva traditions develop an eight-legged, winged lion-bird…
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Visayan and broader Philippine folklore traditions
Sigbin is a nocturnal creature of Visayan and broader Philippine folklore, described with a backward gait, long ears, whipping tail and ability to drain vitality.
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Philippine coastal and aquatic folklore traditions
Siyokoy is a male aquatic being of Philippine folklore, usually described as scaled, webbed, fishlike and more dangerous than the beautiful mermaid figure.
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Old Norse mythological tradition
Sköll is the wolf who pursues the sun. The daily course of light becomes flight, and the final darkening at Ragnarök becomes the moment when…
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Ancient Greek tradition with earlier eastern Mediterranean hybrid precedents
The Greek Sphinx occupies the approach to Thebes and kills those who cannot answer her riddle. She has the body of a lion, wings of…
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Ancient Greek and Roman traditions
Stheno is the strong one, the immortal Gorgon whose name carries the root of force. She lives beyond Ocean with Euryale and Medusa, in the…
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Haudenosaunee and neighboring Indigenous traditions with nation-specific names
Stonecoat traditions describe giant beings protected by stone-like skin or armor. Haudenosaunee nations preserve distinct names and stories, and Cherokee Nvyvnuwi traditions…
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Ancient Greek tradition
The Stymphalian Birds infest the marsh and lake of Stymphalus in Arcadia, a landscape of reeds, hidden water and difficult approach. Heracles must drive them…
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Old Norse mythological tradition
Surtr stands in the fiery south before the ordered world is complete and returns when that world ends. His name means the Black or Swarthy…
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Ancient Greek and Cretan traditions
Talos patrols the coast of Crete as a living body of bronze. In the most influential account he circles the island three times each day…
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Ancient and classical Chinese ritual, textual and later moral traditions
Taotie is the later name applied to the great frontal animal mask of ancient Chinese ritual bronzes and to a monstrous glutton in classical moral…
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Paraguayan Guaraní and mestizo folkloric traditions
Teju Jagua is the first of the seven children of Taú and Keraná in the best-known Paraguayan cycle. Its name joins lizard and dog. The…
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Babylonian and Mesopotamian traditions
Tiamat is the saltwater deep before the world has borders. In the Babylonian *Enuma Elish*, she mingles with Apsu’s fresh waters before heaven, earth and…
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Tagalog and broader Philippine folklore traditions
Tikbalang is the tall horse-headed or long-limbed being of Philippine folklore that inhabits mountains, forests and lonely roads and misleads travelers.
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Mexica and Nahua traditions
Tlaltecuhtli is the earth as a living, generative and devouring being. The Nahuatl title is grammatically masculine, yet images and descriptions can present male, female…
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Ancient Greek traditions
Typhon is the final vast threat raised against Zeus’s rule. Born from Gaia and Tartarus in Hesiod, he rises after the defeat of the Titans…
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Ancient Mesopotamian traditions
Ugallu is the lion-headed big weather beast of Mesopotamian tradition, a fearsome hybrid that became an important apotropaic protector.
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Babylonian Mesopotamian tradition
Umū Dabrūtu, the raging or violent storms, are counted among the terrible forces assembled by Tiamat in the Babylonian Epic of Creation.
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Ancient Mesopotamian traditions
Urdimmu or Uridimmu is the Mesopotamian mad lion, a lion-human hybrid known from learned classifications and protective imagery.
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Ancient Mesopotamian traditions
Ušumgallu is the great dragon or great serpent of Mesopotamian learned tradition, a title and creature-name associated with overwhelming serpentine power.
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Ancient Chinese flood and culture-hero traditions
Xiangliu is the nine-headed serpentine minister of the rebellious water power Gonggong. Each head feeds from a separate mountain, and the places the creature occupies…
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Indian temple architecture, especially South Indian Hindu traditions
Yali, closely related to the Sanskrit vyala, is a fierce architectural hybrid combining lion, elephant, horse, serpent and other forms. It stands on pillars, stairways…
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Ancient Japanese traditions recorded in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki
Yamata no Orochi is the immense eight-headed and eight-tailed serpent defeated by Susanoo in the Izumo cycle. Its body crosses mountains and valleys, its eyes…
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Old Norse mythological tradition
Ymir is the first anthropomorphic being in the Norse creation account preserved by Snorri Sturluson, born where heat from Muspelheim meets frost from Niflheim in…
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Rabbinic Jewish literature and medieval Jewish tradition
Ziz occupies the upper realm of a later Jewish cosmic triad. Leviathan fills the sea, Behemoth the land, and Ziz the sky. The bird is…
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Japanese heroic legend and regional mountain-serpent traditions
Ōmukade is the giant centipede defeated by the warrior Fujiwara no Hidesato, remembered as Tawara Tōda, after a dragon or serpent power asks him to…
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