Top Special Animals in Greek Mythology

The Most Important and the Most Bizarre

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Updated on May 05, 2019

Neither entirely human, nor your run-of-the-mill pet, snake-in-the-grass, or barnyard animal, these animals, chimeras, and animal-like creatures from Greek mythology played a range of roles in the lives of the ancient Greeks. Some devoured; others helped. Rather than determining a criterion for importance, this list ranks the animals in terms of how humanoid they are. for importance, this list ranks the animals in terms of how humanoid they are.

01

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Medusa - Serpentine

Medusa goes on this list of animal and animal-like creatures from mythology because she was transformed by Athena into a woman with snakes for hair. One look at Medusa turned a man to stone. From her severed head sprang the winged horse Pegasus, whose father was Poseidon.

02

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Chiron - Equine

Centaur. Clipart.com

Chiron, not to be mistaken for Charon the ferryman, was half man and half horse because he was a centaur. A very humane chimera, Chiron taught most of the Greek heroes. He was the son of Cronus and is credited with inventing medicine.

03

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Minotaur - Taurine

Theseus and the Minotaur. CC tiredcynic at Flickr.com

The minotaur was half man and half bull. Unlike the centaur, his bull half is usually shown as his head. His mother was the human Queen of Crete, Pasiphae. His father was a bull Pasiphae fell in love with. The minotaur ate young Athenian men and women.

04

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Echidna - Serpentine

Typhon. Detail of the side B from a Chalcidian Black-figured Hydria, c. 550 B.C. Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich, Germany. PD Courtesy Bibi Saint-Pol at Wikipedia.

Although half a nymph, according to Hesiod Theogony 295-305, the raw flesh-eating serpentine Echidna was the mother of many monsters in Greek mythology and one of the opponents the great hero Hercules had to face. Gaia's last son, the hundred-headed Typhon, was Echidna's mate.

05

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Cerberus - Canine

Cerberus. Clipart.com

The famous hellhound Cerberus is one Echidna's children. It is said to be fierce enough that the gods fear it. Cerberus is flesh-eating, but he serves as a watchdog in the land of the already dead. What distinguishes Cerberus from ordinary dogs is that it had three heads, in the most common version of his story. A character in the Harry Potter series resembles him.

06

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Pegasus - Equine

Pegasus. Clipart.com

Pegasus was a winged horse. Born from the bleeding body of his mother Medusa when Perseus chopped off her head, Pegasus sprang forth with a warrior named Chrysaor on his back.

07

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Lernean Hydra - Serpentine

Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra Mosaic. CC Zaqarbal at Flickr.com

The Lernaean monster had nine heads, and one of these was immortal. If ever a mortal head was cut, from the stump would immediately spring forth two new heads. The hydra lived in the swamps and ravaged the countryside devouring cattle.

08

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Trojan Horse - Equine

A "Replica" of the Trojan Horse in Troy, Turkey. CC Alaskan Dude at Flickr.com

The Trojan Horse was a wooden device designed by Odysseus to get the Greek troops inside the Trojan Walls. The Trojans took the horse as a gift not knowing it was filled with warriors.
The Trojan Horse put an end to the great city of Troy.

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Gill, N.S. "Top Special Animals in Greek Mythology." ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/top-special-animals-in-greek-mythology-118586. Gill, N.S. (2021, February 16). Top Special Animals in Greek Mythology. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/top-special-animals-in-greek-mythology-118586 Gill, N.S. "Top Special Animals in Greek Mythology." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/top-special-animals-in-greek-mythology-118586 (accessed March 20, 2023).