Yr 5’s guide to Greek Monsters

1. Yr 5’s guide to Greek Monsters

2. Argus Argus may have had as many as one hundred eyes which were located all over his body. Hera employed him as a guard.

3. Charybdis Charybdis is a five headed dragon. The five headed dragon lives under a small rock on a narrow channel. Opposite Charybdis is a another sea monster called Scylla who lives on a much larger rock. Charybdis is a daughter to Poseidon and Gaia.

4. Cerberus Cerberus the three headed hell hound. The hell hound was used to guard the under world to Keep away the living gods, goddesses, young children and humans. It is impossible to Catch or even kill the hell hound only Hercules has captured Cerberus because he was the strongest man alive his farther Zeus.

5. Cyclopes There is more than one Cyclopes. Cyclopes are one eyed giants with three horns on their heads who liked to eat humans. They were the children of Uranus and Gaea. They only had one eye because they swapped one eye so that they could see the future.

6. Furies Furies are huge creatures that glided in the sky and killed robbers. They had massive wings to help them fly. There were three of them and they were also the goddesses of vengeance and the Guardians of law. They were horrible to look at - the Furies had snakes for their hair and devil red blood dripping from their eyes. Furious and infuriated were named after the Furies.

7. Gorgon Medusa The Gorgon Medusa had two sisters called Stheno and Evryale. She had snakes on her head instead of hair and had the power to turn people into stone when they looked at her. She was once a beautiful woman, but she offended Athena and changed her hair into snakes. Medusa was the only Gorgon who was mortal, however she was more powerful than her sisters. If you killed her she would die but her snakes would be alive. How we know is because a boy called Perseus killed her because he looked at her reflection in a shiny shield.

8. Griffin The griffin was a combination of a lion and an eagle. It had the body of a lion and the head, wings, and talons of an eagle. Griffins were said to live in northern Greece where they guarded a huge treasure. In ancient times the griffin is also said to have nested in Pomerania.

9. Harpies The Harpies are birds with the face of a women. There are three of them! They were sometimes called the hounds of Zeus. They serve Zeus. One of the most famous stories involves Phineas, the king of Thessaly, who had the gift of seeing into the future.

10. Hydra The Hydra was a big dragon which had nine heads. This dragon was very hard to defeat. His tail was stretched out. When you cut off one of Hydra’s heads two more would grow.

11. Minotaur The Minotaur was half man, half bull, that devoured sacrificial victims thrown into the Labyrinth. The Minotaur was eventually killed by Theseus. But in the Middle Ages, artists portrayed a man’s head and torso on a bull’s body. Here’s how the Minotaur figured into the legend of Theseus.

12. Sirens The sirens were giant, winged creatures with heads of women. They lived on rocks on the sea, where their beautiful singing lured sailors to shipwreck. Odysseus filled his sailors’ ears with wax so they might sail safely past the Sirens. Beautiful half- women, half bird-like who sang such sweet songs that listeners forgot everything and died of hunger. The Sirens used a bewitching song to lure the sailors in.