Homer the Odyssey tells the tale of a journey of the hero Odysseus and the journey through danger, temptation, and self evaluation. The monsters of greek mythology test the heroic side of a person and that’s what they did to Odysseus. “This time his opponents are not military, instead, he encounters various monsters who try to keep him from his wife penelope. ” Greek mythology first developed in 700 bc, with that a poet named Hesiod’s Theogony who offered the first origin story of greek mythology. At the center of greek mythology is the pantheon of deities ho were said to live on mount, olympus, the highest mountain in greece.
They ruled every part of human life. Olympian gods and goddesses looked like women and men and they usually couldn’t turn into an animal or didn’t have animal parts like monsters. Greek mythology also included a number of monsters and creatures including one-eyed Cyclops in the Odysseus story, a gigantic monster, Sphinx, giant snakes, fire-breathing dragons, bulls, and more. In greek mythology creatures and monsters serve a purpose. They had to complete tasks that gods and goddesses set for them. Monsters in some way represent human life and human culture.
They also have many characteristic like humans, monster tend to hold grudges, hate others and get back at someone out of revenge, much like humans. Greek monsters were created to serve the gods and goddesses and achieve goals that the gods/goddesses could not complete. A Cerberus was a watchdog of the realm of the Hades, they were the creatures that guarded the gates of the underworld. This dog had three heads, a neck inscribed with serpents and teeth whose bites was poisonous that of a viber. He welcomes souls into the underworld and forbid them to leave.
Chained in front of the gates of the underworld, he terrorizes souls upon their entering” (public wsu. edu). Cerberus had a job to guard the gates of hell and “welcome” the souls and were forbidden to leave. Another creature were the griffin that were a symbol of the strength and valor. They had a tail and back of a lion. Head and wings of an eagle and eagles talons as front feet. Because the lion was traditionally considered the king of birds, the Griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature . They were seen as the creatures that were guardian of secretly buried wealth.
Griffins these monsters that guarded treasure and were often employed by the gods or goddesses. A griffin had the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion, when these creatures were on guard , a treasure was almost always protected” (Sears 195). Griffins were given the job to guard the treasure and when it was guarded by them it was usually always protected. The Erinyes were also creatures that did jobs for gods and goddesses. They were daughters of night; they also had the resembles of the Gorgons sister with their snaky hair.
They usually punished others who broke the laws. The Erinyes had snakes for hair, their eyes dripped blood, and their bodies look like winged donos. Their name means “angry one,” and it was their job to torment people who broke the laws of nature” (Sears 195). These creatures punished, whoever has sworn on false oath, they usually punish the ones who break the laws of nature. They were retread to as infernal goddesses, their tasis to hear complaints brought back by mortals against the insolence of the youngest aged.
Another monster, the Sphinx, was a woman who had the face of a woman; the chest, feet, and tail of lion; and wings of a bird. This monster was sent to Thebes by Hera to punish the city for the crime Laius, who had been guilty of loving Pelops son”(public. wsu. edu). The Sphinx was sent to Thebes to punish the city that was guilty of loving Pelops son. Harpies were a female creature with a human face. They stole food from their victims while they eat and carry evildoers. ”Fierce creatures with sharp claws, they were often sent by the deities to punish the criminals” (Sears 196).
The Harpies were also sent Zeus to punish criminals, or humans and they usually their punishment was stealing children and torturing their victims. Monsters and reatures usually were always sent to do jobs for the gods and goddesses, even if many of these tasks were difficult. “fierce and fantastic creatures often emphasizes the difficulty of these tasks heros are set, for example the many headed hydra to be killed by hercules” (ancient. eu).
Creatures had to do tasks that were sometimes impossible or even killing a god. They are not really horror monster, just unpleasant or nasty affliction sent by the gods and goddesses. They often do no more than throw into relief the heroism of the protagonist by exiting simply to be overcome or destroyed as obstacles to his goals” (public. wsu. edu). Gods and goddesses create monsters to overcome or destroy the obstacles to their goals. Monster and creatures were also created to symbolise a human life, or teach human things. Many of the mythical creatures were created based on human appearance like their beauty.
“Greek and roman culture is known for its sculpture of what has become the ideal of male and female beauty naturally its monsters diverge from his” (public. su. edu). Some of the monsters have human features and greek roman sculpture the human features into the creatures to symbolise their beauty, although, some of these creatures weren’t always pretty. Many of the Greek and Roman creatures symbolise religious or spiritual beings. “In these cases the creatures bear more similarity to spiritual beings such as angles, in religious thought, often legendary creatures has come to symbolize voices of the power of good or evil” (newworldencyclopedia. org).
Monsters in Greek mythology shared similarities to spiritual creatures such as angles, they symbolize things like voices or the power of the good or bad. Monsters also have educate humanity or even children to inculcate values of life and also be educated. ”They have been education, helped parents to discipline their children, and inculcate ultural values and names and have served to stimulate the imagination and desire that is ingrained in human nature to experience more than this physical world.
Whether they truly exist in physical form is indeed secondary to their existence in the minds of so many people throughout the world and through history”(newworldencyclopedia. org). Mythical creatures have educated people and have given value to the imagination and make people appreciate more than this physical world they have thought people things about Greek and Roman mythology. Another thing is that these monster represent how animals communicate and how human imagination can reate these things. ”They are not just the “talking animals”creatures animals able to communicate using language and also rather clever as in aesop’s fables.
Mythical creatures are in themselves beyond normal reality, often composition of existing animals or animals and humans” (newworldencyclopedia. org). mythical creatures represent how life is like as a human and animal life, they are beyond reality but they give a purpose on what’s it like to be human and animal. Greek monsters and creatures are violent and are always looking for a fight, many of these creatures were good but eventually turned bad for making a mistake. Like humans they make mistakes and pick fights that are unnecessary.
Usually violent and looking for a fight centaurus represented savagery and uncivilized life. Caught between their human and animal world, their human side couldn’t overcome their wild animal nature”(Sears 194). Centaurs were creatures that were both human and animal, they usually were very violent and picked fights for no reason, they are best known for picking a fight with Lapith. One creature the Sphinx, made up a riddle that is still talked about today; the riddle is “what is the creature that walks on four legs in the orning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening? the answer is man.
“Sphinx asked a riddle of young Theban men who passed by the walls of the Citadel where she was advantaged preached; if they could not answer (and they usually couldn’t) she strangled them” (Room 279). Sphinx created the riddle and asked the Theoben men if they knew the answer to it, and they never knew the answer, and if they didn’t she would strangle them but, there was someone who did, the only one who ever answered her riddle was Oedipus, Sphinx was so shocked and and angry she jumped off a cliff and died.
Another monstrous creature was the Harpies that abducted children and used their wickedness to scare others. “Their bony, vulture like bodies, their wrinkled faces, their beaks, their nocked nails and the offensive odor they spread were sensitive respiration of drought, famine and epidemic, but also the image of impossibly insatiable monsters who abduct children and carry away the dead from the underworld. The gods did not destroy them because they used their wickedness to torment such as the blind Phineus, whose food they stole and devoured” (Schmidt 118).
The Harpies used their wickedness to torment others and steal their things especially babies, food, and carry dead from the underworld, anything that went missing, the Harpies were responsible. Not all monsters were born monstrous, Medusa was once a beautiful woman who was turned into a monster by Athena and made her ugly so whoever looked at her would turn into stone. “Some myths explain that Medusa wasn’t always terrifying, hideous, creature in these myths she was once a beautiful woman and her beauty attracted Poseidon’s attention” (Sears 191).
Medusa was once a beautiful women and she wasn’t always ideous or terrifying but because of the mistake she made; her mistake was having relations with Poseidon who later killed her following the orders of Athena. Another mythical creature that was not a monstrous was Cyclopes who helped Zeus when he freed them from the underworld. They were glonts with one enormous eyes in the middle of their forehead and were thrown into the underworld by their brother Cronus. “Zeus freed them from their improvement as a sign of their gratitude they fashioned thunder and lightning for Zeus and these enabled him to conquer Cronus