Monster

Contents

1 Beast of Gvaudan 1
1.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2.1 Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2.2 Royal intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.3 Final attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 Depictions in ction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4.1 Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4.2 Film and television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.7 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 Behemoth 5
2.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Later Jewish writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4 Literary references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.5 Plural as singular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.6 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.7 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3 Canvey Island Monster 8

3.1 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4 Centaur 9
4.1 Mythology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.1 Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.2 Centauromachy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

i
ii CONTENTS

4.2 Other depictions in classical art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4.3 Theories of origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.4 Indian centaur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.5 Female centaurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.6 Persistence in the medieval world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.7 Modern day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.8 Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.9 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.10 Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.11 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.12 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.13 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

5 Cerberus 16
5.1 Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.2 The Twelfth Labour of Heracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.2.1 Theseus and Pirithous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.2.2 Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.2.3 Exit from the underworld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.2.4 Presented to Eurystheus, returned to Hades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.3 Principal sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.4 Iconography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.5 Etymology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.6 Cerberus rationalized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.7 Cerberus allegorized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.8 Constellation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.9 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.10 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.11 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.12 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

6 Changeling 31
6.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
6.2 Purpose of a changeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
6.3 Changelings in folklore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.3.1 Cornwall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.3.2 Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.3.3 Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.3.4 The Isle of Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.3.5 Lowland Scotland and Northern England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.3.6 Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.3.7 Scandinavia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
CONTENTS iii

6.3.8 Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.3.9 Wales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.4 Changelings in the historical record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.5 Changelings in other countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.6 Changelings in the modern world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.6.1 Neurological dierences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.6.2 In nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.6.3 Popular culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.7 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

7 Chimera (mythology) 38
7.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7.1.1 Similar creatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
7.2 Classical sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
7.3 Hypothesis about origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
7.4 Use for Chinese mythological creatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
7.5 Popular culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
7.6 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
7.7 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.10 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.10.1 Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.10.2 Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.10.3 Content license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Chapter 1

Beast of Gvaudan

The Beast of Gvaudan (French: La Bte du G-

vaudan; IPA: [la bt dy evod ], Occitan: La Bstia
de Gavaudan) is the historical name associated with
the man-eating gray wolf, dog or wolfdog which ter-
rorized the former province of Gvaudan (modern-day
dpartement of Lozre and part of Haute-Loire), in the
Margeride Mountains in south-central France between
1764 and 1767.[2] The attacks, which covered an area
stretching 90 by 80 kilometres (56 by 50 mi), were said
to have been committed by a beast or beasts that had
formidable teeth and immense tails according to contem-
porary eyewitnesses.
Victims were often killed by having their throats torn out.
The Kingdom of France used a considerable amount of
manpower and money to hunt the animals; including the
resources of several nobles, soldiers, civilians, and a num-
ber of royal huntsmen.[2]
The number of victims diers according to sources. In
1987, one study estimated there had been 210 attacks;
resulting in 113 deaths and 49 injuries; 98 of the victims
killed were partly eaten.[2] However, other sources claim
it killed between 60 and 100 adults and children, as well An 18th-century print showing a woman defending herself from
as injuring more than 30.[2] the Beast of Gvaudan.

her. However, the bulls in the herd charged the beast,

1.1 Description keeping it at bay. They then drove it o after it attacked
a second time. Shortly afterwards the rst ocial victim
Descriptions of the time vary, but generally the beast was of the beast was recorded; 14-year-old Janne Boulet was
said to look like a wolf but be about as big as a calf. It killed near the village of Les Hubacs near the town of
had a large dog-like head with small straight ears, a wide Langogne.
chest, and a large mouth which exposed very large teeth.
The beasts fur was said to be red in color but its back was Over the later months of 1764, more attacks were re-
streaked with black.[3] ported throughout the region. Very soon terror had
gripped the populace because the beast was repeatedly
preying on lone men, women and children as they tended
livestock in the forests around Gvaudan. Reports note
1.2 History that the beast seemed to only target the victims head or
neck regions.
1.2.1 Beginnings By late December 1764 rumors had begun circulating
that there might be a pair of beasts behind the killings.
The Beast of Gvaudan carried out its rst recorded at- This was because there had been such a high number of
tack in the early summer of 1764. A young woman, who attacks in such a short space of time, many had appeared
was tending cattle in the Mercoire forest near Langogne to have been recorded and reported at the same time.
in the eastern part of Gvaudan, saw the beast come at Some contemporary accounts suggest the creature had

1
2 CHAPTER 1. BEAST OF GVAUDAN
been seen with another such animal, while others thought have followed attacks by La Besseyre-Saint-Mary.
the beast was with its young.
On January 12, 1765, Jacques Portefaix and seven friends
were attacked by the Beast. After several attacks, they
drove it away by staying grouped together. The en-
counter eventually came to the attention of Louis XV,
who awarded 300 livres to Portefaix and another 350
livres to be shared among his companions. The king also
directed that Portefaix be educated at the states expense.
He then decreed that the French state would help nd and
kill the beast.
1.2.2 Royal intervention
An 18th-century engraving of Antoine de Beauterne slaying the
wolf of Chazes.
Three weeks later Louis XV sent two professional wolf-
hunters, Jean Charles Marc Antoine Vaumesle d'Enneval
and his son Jean-Franois, to Gvaudan. They arrived in
Clermont-Ferrand on February 17, 1765, bringing with
them eight bloodhounds which had been trained in wolf-
hunting. Over the next four months the pair hunted for
Eurasian wolves believing them to be the beast. How-
ever, as the attacks continued, they were replaced in June
1765 by Franois Antoine (also wrongly named Antoine
de Beauterne), the kings arquebus bearer and Lieutenant
of the Hunt who arrived in Le Malzieu on June 22.
On September 20, 1765, Antoine had killed his third
large grey wolf measuring 80 cm (31 in) high, 1.7 m (5 ft
7 in) long, and weighing 60 kg (130 lb). The wolf, which
was named Le Loup de Chazes after the nearby Abbaye
des Chazes, was said to have been quite large for a wolf.
Antoine ocially stated: We declare by the present re-
port signed from our hand, we never saw a big wolf that
could be compared to this one. Which is why we es-
timate this could be the fearsome beast that caused so
much damage. The animal was further identied as the
culprit by attack survivors who recognised the scars on
its body inicted by victims defending themselves.[2] The
wolf was stued and sent to Versailles where Antoine was
received as a hero, receiving a large sum of money as well
as titles and awards.
However, on December 2, 1765, another beast severely
injured two men. A dozen more deaths are reported to
1.2.3 Final attacks
The killing of the creature that eventually marked the end
of the attacks is credited to a local hunter named Jean
Chastel, who shot it during a hunt organized by a local no-
bleman, the Marquis d'Apcher, on June 19, 1767. Writ-
ers later introduced the idea that Chastel shot the creature
with a blessed silver bullet of his own manufacture and
upon being opened, the animals stomach was shown to
contain human remains.[4]
1.3 Theories
The wolf shot by Franois Antoine on 21 September 1765, dis-
played at the court of Louis XV
According to modern scholars, public hysteria at the
time of the attacks contributed to widespread myths that
supernatural beasts roamed Gvaudan, but deaths at-
tributed to a beast were more likely the work of a num-
ber of wolves or packs of wolves.[5][6] In 2001 the French
naturalist Michel Louis proposed that the red-colored
masti belonging to Jean Chastel sired the beast and its
resistance to bullets may have been due to it wearing the
armoured hide of a young boar thus also accounting for
the unusual colour.[7] The problem of attacks by wolves
in those years was very serious, not only in France but
throughout Europe, with tens of thousands of deaths in
the eighteenth century alone.[8] In contrast to the latter
assumption, the following assessments, based on the his-
torical research of Pierre Pourcher and Franois Fabre,[9]
were published in 2016 by a mammalogist on the website
of the National Geographic Society: (1) From 1764 to
1767, there were only a few wolf attacks on humans in
Gvaudan. (2) The descriptions of several arbitrarily se-
lected and killed wolves were adapted so that they corre-
sponded to the descriptions provided by the victims and
the hunters of the beast. (3) The numerous details about
size, appearance, behaviour, and strength of the beast,
handed down by contemporary witnesses, allow one to
1.5. SEE ALSO
identify the beast as a subadult male lion that had escaped
from captivity.[10]
1.4 Depictions in ction
1.4.1 Literature
the rst literary reference to the 'Beast Of Gvau-
dan' occurs in lie Berthet's 1858 novel La Bte du
Gvaudan [translated as The Beast of Gevaudan
but not currently available in English], in which the
killings are attributed to both a wolf and a man who
believes himself to be a werewolf.
in 1904, the author and journalist Robert Sher-
ard faithfully revisited Berthets idea with his novel
Wolves: An Old Story Retold which once again fea-
tured both a werewolf and a huge savage wolf. lie
Berthets La Bte du Gvaudan is referenced in the
introduction as being the source of the story.
Robert Louis Stevenson travelled through the re-
gion in 1878 and described the incident in his book
Travels with a Donkey in the Cvennes, in which he
claims that at least one of the creatures was a wolf:
For this was the land of the ever-
memorable Beast, the Napoleon Bonaparte of
wolves. What a career was his! He lived ten
months at free quarters in Gvaudan and Vi-
varais; he ate women and children and shep-
herdesses celebrated for their beauty"; he pur-
sued armed horsemen; he has been seen at
broad noonday chasing a post-chaise and out-
rider along the kings high-road, and chaise and
outrider eeing before him at the gallop. He
was placarded like a political oender, and ten
thousand francs were oered for his head. And
yet, when he was shot and sent to Versailles, be-
hold! a common wolf, and even small for that.
(Chapter: 'I Have A Goad')
In the Patricia Briggs novel Hunting Ground, the
Beast is in fact Jean Chastel, who is a werewolf.
1.4.2 Film and television
The beast featured in an episode of Animal X sug-
gesting it was a wolf-dog hybrid that was trained to
attack people.
The French television lm La bte du Gvaudan
(2003),[11] directed by Patrick Volson was based on
the attacks of the Beast
Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001),[12] directed by
Christophe Gans, is a popular feature lm based
3
on the legend. The lm took several creative lib-
erties in order to make the story more interesting to
a general audience. Rather than a wolf or wolf-dog
crossbreed, the movie portrays the creature as the
ospring of a lion crossbred with another unknown
big cat, equipped with armor to make it seem more
threatening. The Beast is the instrument of the lms
eponymous secret organisation, which attempts to
undermine public condence in the king and ulti-
mately take over the country by stating that the Beast
is a divine punishment for the Kings indulgence of
the modern embrace of science over religion.
In the 2010 remake The Wolfman the wolf-headed
cane given to Lawrence Talbot was acquired, ac-
cording to the previous owner, in the city of Gvau-
dan.
In October 2009, the History Channel aired a doc-
umentary called The Real Wolfman which argued
that the beast was an exotic animal in the form of
a striped hyena, a long-haired species of hyena now
extinct in Europe.[13]
In the MTV drama Teen Wolf, the character Allison
learns in the sixth episode of the rst season that her
werewolf-hunting family was responsible for slaugh-
tering the Beast of Gvaudan. The same beast is the
main focus of the second half of the series fth sea-
son.[14]
1.5 See also
List of wolves
Wolf attacks on humans
Wolf hunting
Wolf of Ansbach
Wolf of Soissons
Hell Hound
Cerberus
List of cryptids
Barghest
1.6 References
[1] Woodward, Ian (1979). The Werewolf Delusion. p. 256.
ISBN 0-448-23170-0.
[2] The Fear of Wolves: A Review of Wolf Attacks
on Humans (PDF). Norsk Institutt for Naturforskning.
Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-09. Re-
trieved 2008-06-26.
4 CHAPTER 1. BEAST OF GVAUDAN

[3] Pourcher, Pierre (1889) Translated by Brockis, Derek

The Beast of Gevaudan AuthorHokuse, 2006, p.5 ISBN
9781467014632

[4] Jackson, Robert (1995). Witchcraft and the Occult. De-

vizes, Quintet Publishing. p. 25. ISBN 1-85348-888-7.

[5] Smith, Jay M. (2011). Monsters of the Gvaudan. Cam-

bridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 6.
ISBN 0-674-04716-8.

[6] Thompson, Richard H. (1991). Wolf-Hunting in France

in the Reign of Louis XV: The Beast of the Gvaudan. p.
367. ISBN 0-88946-746-3.

[7] Louis, Michel (2001). La Bte Du Gvaudan

L'innocence Des Loups. Librairie Acadmique Perrin.
ISBN 978-2-262-01739-2.

[8] The man-eater of Gvaudan: when the serial killer is an

animal, by Giovanni Todaro, 2014, Lulu Com, 539 pages,
ISBN 9781291503401

[9] Fabre, Franois (2002). La bte du Gvaudan. Edition

complte par Jean Richard. Editions De Bore. ISBN
978-2844944191

[10] Solving the Mystery of the 18th-Century Killer 'Beast of

Gvaudan'". National Geographic Society. 2016.

[11] Patrick Volson (Director) (2003). La Bte du Gvaudan

(Motion picture).

[12] Christophe Gans (Director) (2001). Le Pacte des Loups

(Motion picture).

[13] The Real Wolfman. History Alive. Season 4. Episode

16. History. Retrieved 2009-10-29.

[14] Massabrook, Nicole (February 24, 2016). "'Teen Wolf'

Season 5B Spoilers: Episode 19 Synopsis Released; What
Will Happen In The Beast Of Beacon Hills?". Interna-
tional Business Times. Retrieved March 9, 2016.

1.7 External links

A comprehensive history on the Beast of Gvaudan
Robert Darnton, The Wolf Mans Revenge, The
New York Review of Books, June 9, 2011; review of
Monsters of the Gvaudan: The Making of a Beast
by Jay M. Smith (Harvard University Press, 2011).
Multi language site of the Beast of Gvaudan.

Solving the Mystery of the 18th-Century Killer

Beast of Gvaudan (National Geographic)
Chapter 2
Behemoth
For other uses, see Behemoth (disambiguation).
Behemoth (/bhim/ or /bi.m/, also /be.m/; monsters destroyed by the deity at the time of creation,
Behemoth and Leviathan, watercolour by William Blake from
his Illustrations of the Book of Job.
Hebrew: , behemoth (modern: behemot)) is a beast
mentioned in Job 40:1524. Suggested identities range
from a mythological creature to an elephant, hippopota-
mus, rhinoceros, or bualo.[1] Some Young Earth cre-
ationists believe it to be a description of a dinosaur.
Metaphorically, the name has come to be used for any
extremely large or powerful entity.
2.1 Description
Job 40:1524 describes Behemoth, and then the sea-
monster Leviathan, to demonstrate to Job the futility of
questioning God, who alone has created these beings and
who alone can capture them.[2] Both beasts are chaos
although such a conict is not found in the Genesis cre-
ation narrative.[3]
Leviathan is identied guratively with both the primeval
sea (Job 3:8, Psalms 74:13) and in apocalyptic literature
describing the end-time as that adversary, the Devil,
from before creation who will nally be defeated. In the
divine speeches in Job, Behemoth and Leviathan may
both be seen as composite and mythical creatures with
enormous strength, which humans like Job could not hope
to control. But both are reduced to the status of divine
pets, with rings through their noses and Leviathan on a
leash.[1][4]
Job 40:15-24 King James Version
15 Behold now behemoth,
which I made with thee; he eateth
grass as an ox.
16 Lo now, his strength is in his
loins, and his force is in the navel
of his belly.
17 He moveth his tail like a
cedar: the sinews of his stones are
wrapped together.
18 His bones are as strong pieces
of brass; his bones are like bars of
iron.
19 He is the chief of the ways of
God: he that made him can make
his sword to approach unto him.
20 Surely the mountains bring him
forth food, where all the beasts of
the eld play.
21 He lieth under the shady trees,
in the covert of the reed, and fens.
22 The shady trees cover him with
their shadow; the willows of the
brook compass him about.
23 Behold, he drinketh up a river,
and hasteth not: he trusteth that he
can draw up Jordan into his mouth.
24 He taketh it with his eyes: his
nose pierceth through snares.
5
6 CHAPTER 2. BEHEMOTH

2.2 Later Jewish writings

In Jewish apocrypha and pseudepigrapha such as the 2nd
century BCE Book of Enoch, Behemoth is the primal un-
conquerable monster of the land, as Leviathan is the pri-
mal monster of the waters of the sea and Ziz the primor-
dial monster of the sky. According to this text Leviathan
lives in "the Abyss", while Behemoth the land-monster
lives in an invisible desert east of the Garden of Eden
(1 Enoch 60:78). A Jewish rabbinic legend describes
a great battle which will take place between them at the
end of time: "...they will interlock with one another and
engage in combat, with his horns the Behemoth will gore
with strength, the sh [Leviathan] will leap to meet him
with his ns, with power. Their Creator will approach
them with his mighty sword [and slay them both]. Then,
from the beautiful skin of the Leviathan, God will con-
struct canopies to shelter the righteous, who will eat the
meat of the Behemoth and the Leviathan amid great joy
and merriment. (Artscroll siddur, p. 719).
In the Haggadah, Behemoths strength reaches its peak Behemoth as depicted in the Dictionnaire Infernal.
on the summer solstice of every solar year (around 21
June). At this time of year, Behemoth lets out a loud roar
that makes all animals tremble with fear, and thus renders
them less ferocious for a whole year. As a result, weak
animals live in safety away from the outreach of wild ani-
mals. This mythical phenomenon is shown as an example
animal. Biologist Michael Bright suggests that the ref-
of divine mercy and goodness. Without Behemoths roar,
erence to the cedar tree actually refers to the brush-like
traditions narrate, animals would grow more wild and fe-
shape of its branches, which resemble the tails of mod-
rocious, and hence go around butchering each other and
ern elephants and hippopotamuses.[6] Some have identi-
humans.[5]
ed the cedar as an elephant trunk, but it might instead
refer to Behemoths penis, since the Hebrew word for
move can also mean extend, and the second part of
2.3 Identity the verse speaks of the sinew around his stones. The
Vulgate seems to endorse such a reading by using the
word "testiculorum".[7] Russian-language speakers have
used the cognate word (begemot) to refer to the
hippopotamus from third quarter of the 18th century.
(Earlier Russian-speakers used the name
(gippopotam).)
Another opinion sees Behemoth as a product of the imag-
ination of the author of Job, a symbol of Gods power: in
verse 24 he is described as having a ring (snare) through
his nose, a sign that he has been tamed by Yahweh.[1]
Some Young Earth creationists identify Behemoth as pos-
sibly a sauropod dinosaur,[8][9][10] arguing that no other
animal but a sauropod dinosaur has a tail that moves like
Leviathan, Behemoth and Ziz.
a cedar.[11]
The Dictionnaire Infernal has depicted Behemoth as a hu-
Since the 17th century CE there have been many at- manoid Elephant Demon with a round belly. This depic-
tempts to identify Behemoth. Some scholars have seen tion of Behemoth is a huge soldier of Satan that lives in
him as a real creature, usually the hippopotamus, oc- Hell. Behemoth is an infernal watchman who also pre-
casionally the elephant, rhinoceros, or water bualo.[2] sides over the gluttonous banquets and feasts. It is also
The reference to Behemoths tail that moves like a said that Behemoth has also enjoyed a certain renown for
cedar presents a problem for most of these readings, his voice where he was regarded as Hells ocial demonic
since it cannot easily be identied with the tail of any singer.
2.8. REFERENCES 7

2.4 Literary references [2] Van Der Toorn, Karel; Becking, Bob; Van Der Horst,
Pieter W (1999). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in
the Bible: Second Extensively Revised Edition. Brill. pp.
The 17th-century political philosopher Thomas Hobbes
165168. ISBN 978-90-04-11119-6.
named the Long Parliament 'Behemoth' in his book
Behemoth. It accompanies his book of political theory [3] Iwanski, Darius (2006). The dynamics of Jobs interces-
that draws on the lessons of English Civil War, the rather sion. Biblical Institute Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-88-7653-
more famous Leviathan. It is also the name of a character 161-3.
in Mikhail Bulgakov's novel, The Master and Margarita.
[4] Michael D. Coogan, A Brief Introduction to the Old Tes-
The Behemoth also appears in John Miltons Paradise tament Page 387
Lost (Book VII 470472): "[ ]Scarce from his mould /
[5] Adapted from Legends of the Jews, Louis Ginzberg - vol-
Behemoth biggest born of earth upheaved / His vastness:
ume I
Fleeced the ocks and bleating rose,[ ]"
[6] Bright, Michael (2006). Beasts of the Field: The Revealing
The Behemoth is mentioned in The Seasons by James
Natural History of Animals in the Bible. London: Robson.
Thomson: "[] behold ! in plaited mail / Behemoth rears
pp. 2627. ISBN 1-86105-831-4.
his head." [] (Summer). The German migr Franz
Leopold Neumann entitled his 1941 book about National [7] Mitchell (1987)
Socialism, Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of Na-
[8] Steel, Allan K. (2001-08-01). Could Behemoth Have
tional Socialism.
Been a Dinosaur?". Answers in Genesis. Retrieved 2014-
The Behemoth is also mentioned in the opera, Nixon in 02-04.
China, composed by John Adams, and written by Alice
Goodman. At the beginning of the rst act, the chorus [9] Scriptural Evidence: Dinos in the Bible. Genesis Park.
2013-09-15. Retrieved 2014-02-04.
sings The people are the heroes now, Behemoth pulls
the peasants plow several times.[12] [10] Taylor, P. S. (February 13, 2008). DinosaursAlive Af-
ter Babel?". Answers in Genesis. Retrieved February 27,
2012.

2.5 Plural as singular [11] Job 40:17

[12] Nixon in China Libretto | Adams. Opera-Arias.com.

Main article: Pluralis excellentiae 1972-02-21. Retrieved 2014-02-04.

Job 40:15 is an example of the use of a plural noun sux

to mean great, rather than plural. The feminine plural 2.8 References
Hebrew noun behemoth is also used in Isaiah 30:6, Joel
1:20, and Psalm 73:22. Metzeger, Bruce M.; Michael D. Coogan, eds.
(1993). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Ox-
ford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-
2.6 See also 504645-5.
Mitchell, Stephen, 1987. The Book of Job. San
Bahamut Francisco: North Point Press. Cited in R. T. Pen-
nock, 1999, Tower of Babel, Cambridge, MA: MIT
The Beast (Revelation), two beasts described in the Press.
New Testament

Beast of the Earth

2.9 External links
Book of Job in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts
Leviathan and Behemoth article in the Jewish Ency-
Tarasque clopedia

Putting God on Trial The Biblical Book of Job

contains a major section on the literary use of Be-
2.7 Notes hemoth.

[1] Metzger, Bruce Manning; Coogan, Michael D (2004).

The Oxford Guide To People And Places Of The Bible. Ox-
ford University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-19-517610-0.
Retrieved 22 December 2012.
Chapter 3

Canvey Island Monster

The Canvey Island Monster is the name given to an un- determination was later seconded by Alwyne Wheeler,
usual creature whose carcass washed up on the shores of former ichthyologist for the Department of Zoology at the
Canvey Island, England, in November 1953.[1][2] A sec- British Natural History Museum, who put forward that
ond, more intact, carcass was discovered in August 1954. the creature was an anglersh whose pronounced ns had
[2]
The 1953 specimen was described as being 76 cm (2.4 been incorrectly described as being hind legs.
ft) long with thick reddish brown skin, bulging eyes and
gills. It was also described as having hind legs with ve-
toed horseshoe-shaped feet with concave arches which 3.1 References
appeared to be suited for bipedal locomotion but no
forelimbs. Its remains were cremated after a cursory in- [1] Edwards, Frank (1959) "Stranger than Science", L. Stuart,
spection by zoologists who said that it posed no danger to ISBN 0-8065-0850-7 (1983 reprint)
the public. The 1954 specimen was described as being
[2] Warren Nick (02-1999), The Fortean Times, #119
similar to the rst but much larger, being 120 cm (3.9 ft)
long and weighing approximately 11.3 kg (25 lb). It was
suciently fresh for its eyes, nostrils and teeth to be stud-
ied, though no ocial explanation was given at the time 3.2 External links
as to what it was or what happened to the carcass.[1][2]
The only known photograph on the creature, from a
website about its discoverer

Lophius piscatorius, also known as the angler sh or simply,

angler.

Some have speculated that the specimens may have been

some type of anglersh, whose ns had been mistaken for
feet, while others have come to a more likely conclusion,
that the specimens may have been frogsh, which do in
fact walk on leg-like ns, have bulging eyes, and take on
a variety of colours including reddish brown.
In 1999, Fortean journalist Nicholas Warren carried out
an investigation into the 195354 sightings. He was un-
able to locate any ocial records at the Plymouth Marine
Biology Association Laboratory or the National Rivers
Authority identifying the creature as being a known or
unknown specimen, but was able to nd accounts from lo-
cals who believed the creature was an anglersh.[2] This

8
Chapter 4

Centaur

This article is about the mythological creatures. For and were familiar gures in the medieval bestiary. They
other uses, see Centaur (disambiguation). remain a staple of modern fantastic literature. The cen-
Sintar redirects here. For the Romanian village, seetaurs half-human, half-horse composition has led many
Bogda. writers to treat them as liminal beings, caught between the
two natures, embodied in contrasted myths, both as the
embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the
A centaur (/sntr/; Greek: , Kntauros,
Latin: centaurus), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a Lapiths (their kin), or conversely as teachers, like Chiron.
mythological creature with the upper body of a human
and the lower body of a horse.[1][2]
4.1.2 Centauromachy

4.1 Mythology

4.1.1 Origin

The centaurs were usually said to have been born of Ixion

and Nephele (the cloud made in the image of Hera). An-
other version, however, makes them children of a cer-
tain Centaurus, who mated with the Magnesian mares.
This Centaurus was either himself the son of Ixion and
Nephele (inserting an additional generation) or of Apollo
and Stilbe, daughter of the river god Peneus. In the later
version of the story his twin brother was Lapithes, ances-
tor of the Lapiths, thus making the two warring peoples
cousins.
Centaurs were said to have inhabited the region of Mag- Centauromachy, tondo of an Attic red-gure kylix, ca. 480 BC
nesia and Mount Pelion in Thessaly, the Foloi oak forest
in Elis, and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia. The Centaurs are best known for their ght with the
Another tribe of centaurs was said to have lived on Lapiths, which was caused by their attempt to carry o
Cyprus. According to Nonnus, they were fathered by Hippodamia and the rest of the Lapith women on the day
Zeus, who, in frustration after Aphrodite had eluded of Hippodamias marriage to Pirithous, king of the Lap-
him, spilled his seed on the ground of that land. Un- ithae, himself the son of Ixion. The strife among these
like those of mainland Greece, the Cyprian centaurs were cousins is a metaphor for the conict between the lower
horned.[3][4] appetites and civilized behavior in humankind. Theseus,
a hero and founder of cities, who happened to be present,
There were also the Lamian Pheres, twelve rustic dai- threw the balance in favour of the right order of things,
mones of the Lamos river. They were set by Zeus to guard and assisted Pirithous. The Centaurs were driven o
the infant Dionysos, protecting him from the machi- or destroyed.[6][7][8] Another Lapith hero, Caeneus, who
nations of Hera but the enraged goddess transformed was invulnerable to weapons, was beaten into the earth
them into ox-horned Centaurs. The Lamian Pheres by Centaurs wielding rocks and the branches of trees.
later accompanied Dionysos in his campaign against the Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as wild
Indians.[5] as untamed horses. Like the Titanomachy, the defeat of
Centaurs subsequently featured in Roman mythology, the Titans by the Olympian gods, the contests with the

9
10 CHAPTER 4. CENTAUR

Centaurs typify the struggle between civilization and bar- 4.3 Theories of origin
barism.
The Centauromachy is most famously portrayed in the
Parthenon metopes by Phidias and in a Renaissance-era
sculpture by Michelangelo.

4.2 Other depictions in classical art

Chiron teaching Achilles how to play the lyre, a Roman fresco

from Herculaneum, 1st century AD.

The most common theory holds that the idea of cen-

Boeotian kantharos, Late Geometric period taurs came from the rst reaction of a non-riding culture,
as in the Minoan Aegean world, to nomads who were
The tentative identication of two fragmentary Myce- mounted on horses. The theory suggests that such rid-
naean terracotta gures as centaurs, among the extensive ers would appear as half-man, half-animal (Bernal Daz
Mycenaean pottery found at Ugarit, suggests a Bronze del Castillo reported that the Aztecs had this misappre-
Age origin for these creatures of myth.[9] A painted terra- hension about Spanish cavalrymen).[14] Horse taming and
cotta centaur was found in the Heros tomb at Lefkandi, horseback culture arose rst in the southern steppe grass-
and by the Geometric period, centaurs gure among the lands of Central Asia, perhaps approximately in modern
rst representational gures painted on Greek pottery. Kazakhstan.
An often-published Geometric period bronze of a war-
rior face-to-face with a centaur is at the Metropolitan Mu- The Lapith tribe of Thessaly, who were the kinsmen of
seum of Art.[10] the Centaurs in myth, were described as the inventors
of horse-back riding by Greek writers. The Thessalian
In Greek art of the Archaic period, centaurs are depicted tribes also claimed their horse breeds were descended
in three dierent forms. Some centaurs are depicted from the centaurs.
with a human torso attached to the body of a horse at
the withers, where the horses neck would be; this form, Of the various Classical Greek authors who mentioned
centaurs, Pindar was the rst who describes undoubt-
designated Class A by Professor Baur, later became
standard. Class B centaurs are depicted with a hu- edly a combined monster.[15] Previous authors (Homer)
tend to use words such as pheres (cf. theres, beasts)[16]
man body and legs, joined at the waist with the hindquar-
ters of a horse; in some cases centaurs of both types ap- that could also mean ordinary savage men riding ordinary
pear together. A third type, designated Class C, de- horses, though Homer does specically
[17]
refer to a centaur
picts centaurs with human forelegs terminating in hooves. (kentauros) in the Odyssey Contemporaneous rep-
Baur describes this as an apparent development of Aeolic resentations of hybrid centaurs can be found in archaic
art, which never became particularly widespread.[11] At a Greek art.
later period, paintings on some amphoras depict winged Lucretius in his rst century BC philosophical poem On
centaurs. the Nature of Things denied the existence of centaurs
Centaurs were also frequently depicted in Roman art. A based on their diering rate of growth. He states that
particularly famous example is the pair of centaurs draw- at the age of three years horses are in the prime of their
ing the chariot of Constantine the Great and his fam- life while, at three humans are still little
[18]
more than babies,
ily, in the Great Cameo of Constantine (circa AD 314- making hybrid animals impossible.
16), which embodies wholly pagan imagery, and contrasts Robert Graves (relying on the work of Georges
sharply with the popular image of Constantine as the pa- Dumzil,[19] who argued for tracing the centaurs back to
tron of early Christianity.[12][13] the Indian gandharva), speculated that the centaurs were a
4.4. INDIAN CENTAUR
Centaur carrying o a nymph (1892) by Laurent Marqueste
(Tuileries Garden, Paris)
dimly remembered, pre-Hellenic fraternal earth cult who
had the horse as a totem.[20] A similar theory was in-
corporated into Mary Renault's The Bull from the Sea.
Kinnaras, another half-man half-horse mythical creature
from the Indian mythology, appeared in various ancient
texts, arts as well as sculptures from all around India. It
is shown as a horse with the torso of a man in place of
where the horses head has to be, that is similar to a Greek
centaur.[21][22]
The Greek word kentauros is generally regarded as of
obscure origin.[23] The etymology from ken tauros,
piercing bull-stickers was a euhemerist suggestion in
Palaephatus' rationalizing text on Greek mythology, On
Incredible Tales ( ): mounted archers from Centaurs preserved a Dionysian connection in the 12th
a village called Nephele eliminating a herd of bulls that
were the scourge of Ixions kingdom.[24] Another possi-
ble related etymology can be bull-slayer.[25] Some say
that the Greeks took the constellation of Centaurus, and
also its name piercing bull, from Mesopotamia, where it
symbolized the god Baal who represents rain and fertility,
ghting with and piercing with his horns the demon Mot
who represents the summer drought. In Greece, the con-
stellation of Centaurus was noted by Eudoxus of Cnidus
in the fourth century BC and by Aratus in the third cen-
tury.
11
4.4 Indian centaur
In a popular legend associated with Pazhaya Sreekan-
teswaram Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the curse of a
saintly Brahmin transformed a handsome Yadava prince
into a creature having a horses body with the princes
head, arms and torso in place of the head and neck of
the horse.
4.5 Female centaurs
Main article: Centaurides
Though female centaurs, called centaurides or centau-
Female centaurs anking Venus (Mosaic from Roman Tunisia,
2nd century AD)
resses, are not mentioned in early Greek literature and
art, they do appear occasionally in later antiquity. A
Macedonian mosaic of the 4th century BC is one of the
earliest examples of the centauress in art.[26] Ovid also
mentions a centauress named Hylonome[lower-roman 1] who
committed suicide when her husband Cyllarus was killed
in the war with the Lapiths.[27]
4.6 Persistence in the medieval
world
century Romanesque carved capitals of Mozac Abbey
in the Auvergne, where other capitals depict harvesters,
boys riding goats (a further Dionysiac theme) and grins
guarding the chalice that held the wine.
Centaurs are shown on a number of Pictish carved stones
from north-east Scotland, erected in the 8th9th centuries
AD (e.g., at Meigle, Perthshire). Though outside the lim-
its of the Roman Empire, these depictions appear to be
derived from Classical prototypes.
Jeromes version of the Life of St Anthony the Great, the
12 CHAPTER 4. CENTAUR

taurs are gifted at stargazing, prophecy, healing, and war-

fare, a erce and valiant race always faithful to the High
King Aslan the Lion. Lewis generally used the species to
inspire awe in his readers.
In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, centaurs live in the
Forbidden Forest close to Hogwarts, preferring to avoid
contact with humans. They live in societies called herds
and are skilled at archery, healing and astrology, but like
in the original myths, they are known to have some wild
and barbarous tendencies. Although lm depictions in-
clude very animalistic facial features, the reaction of the
Hogwarts girls to Firenze suggests a more classical ap-
pearance.
With the exception of Chiron, the centaurs in Rick Ri-
Centaurs harvest grapes on a 12th-century capital from the ordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians are seen as wild
Mozac Abbey in the Auvergne party-goers who use a lot of American slang. Chiron re-
tains his mythological role as a trainer of heroes and is
hermit monk of Egypt, written by Athanasius of Alexan- skilled in archery. In Riordans subsequent series, Heroes
dria, was widely disseminated in the Middle Ages; it re- of Olympus, another group of centaurs are depicted with
lates Anthonys encounter with a centaur, who challenged more animalistic features (such as horns) and appear as
the saint but was forced to admit that the old gods had villains, serving the Gigantes.
been overthrown. The episode was often depicted; in The Philip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers series (1965) includes
Meeting of St Anthony Abbot and St Paul the Hermit by centaurs, called Half-Horses or Hoi Kentauroi. His cre-
Stefano di Giovanni called Sassetta,[28] of two episodic
ations address several of the metabolic problems of such
depictions in a single panel of the hermit Anthony's travel
creatureshow could the human mouth and nose intake
to greet the hermit Paul, one is his encounter along the sucient air to sustain both itself and the horse body and,
pathway with the demonic gure of a centaur in a wood. similarly, how could the human ingest sucient food to
A centaur-like half-human half-equine creature called sustain both parts.
Polkan appeared in Russian folk art, and lubok prints of Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series features Centaurs that
the 17th19th centuries. Polkan is originally based on live in an area called Grunhold. The Centaurs are por-
Pulicane, a half-dog from Andrea da Barberino's poem I trayed as a proud, elitist group of beings that consider
Reali di Francia, which was once popular in the Slavonic themselves superior to all other creatures. The fourth
world in prosaic translations. book also has a variation on the species called an Alc-
etaur, which is part man, part moose.
Centaur appears in the novel by John Updike (The Cen-
4.7 Modern day taur, 1963). The author depicts a rural Pennsylvanian
town as seen through the optics of the myth of Centaur.
Main article: Centaurs in popular culture An unknown and marginalized local school teacher, just
like the mythological Chiron did for Prometheus, gave up
his life for the future of his son who had chosen to be an
The John C. Hodges library at The University of Ten- independent artist in New York.
nessee hosts a permanent exhibit of a Centaur from
Volos", in its library. The exhibit, made by sculptor Bill
Willers, by combining a study human skeleton with the
skeleton of a Shetland pony is entitled Do you believe 4.8 Gallery
in Centaurs?" and was meant to mislead students in or-
der to make them more critically aware, according to the
exhibitors.[29]
Another exhibit by Willers is now on long-term display at
the International Wildlife Museum in Tucson, Arizona.
The full-mount skeleton of a Centaur, built by Skulls Un-
limited International, is on display, along with several
other fabled creatures, including the Cyclops, Unicorn
and Grin.
C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia series depicts cen- Diosphos Painter, white-
taurs as the wisest and noblest of creatures. Narnian Cen- ground lekythos (500 BC)
4.10. FOOTNOTES 13

Botticelli, Pallas and Centaur

(148283)

Painting by Sebastiano Ricci, of centaurs at the marriage of

Pirithous, king of the Lapithae

Hippocamp

Hybrid (mythology)
Antonio Canova,
Legendary creature
Theseus Defeats the Centaur (1805-1819)
Lists of legendary creatures

Minotaur

Onocentaur

Sagittarius

Satyr

Prince
Bova ghts Polkan, Russian lubok (1860) Also,

Egyptian deities, including Anubis, Horus and

Thoth

Indian Kinnara which are half-horse and half-man

creature.

Philippine Tikbalang

Roman Faun
A bronze statue of a centaur, after
the Furietti Centaurs Scottish Each uisge

Welsh Ceyl Dr

Hindu Kamadhenu
4.9 See also
Other hybrid creatures appear in Greek mythology, al-
ways with some liminal connection that links Hellenic 4.10 Footnotes
culture with archaic or non-Hellenic cultures:
[1] The name Hylonome is Greek, so Ovid may have drawn
Furietti Centaurs her story from an earlier Greek writer.
14
4.11 References
[1] Denition of centaur. Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford Uni-
versity Press. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
[2] Websters Third New International Dictionary, G. & C.
Merriam Company (1961), s.v. hippocentaur.
[3] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, v. 611 , xiv. 193 , xxxii. 65 .
[4] http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/KentauroiKyprioi.
html
[5] http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/PheresLamioi.html
[6] Plutarch, Theseus, 30.
[7] Ovid, Metamorphoses xii. 210.
[8] Diodorus Siculusiv. pp. 69-70.
[9] Ione Mylonas Shear, Mycenaean Centaurs at Ugarit The
Journal of Hellenic Studies (2002:147153); but see the
interpretation relating them to abbreviated group gures
at the Bronze-Age sanctuary of Aphaia and elsewhere,
presented by Korinna Piladis-Williams, No Mycenaean
Centaurs Yet, The Journal of Hellenic Studies 124 (2004),
p. 165, which concludes we had perhaps do best not to
raise hopes of a continuity of images across the divide be-
tween the Bronze Age and the historical period.
[10] Metropolitan Museum of Art Retrieved 9 October 2011.
[11] Paul V. C. Baur, Centaurs in Ancient Art: The Archaic
Period, Karl Curtius, Berlin (1912), pp. 57.
[12] The Great Cameo of Constantine, formerly in the col-
lection of Peter Paul Rubens and now in the Geld en
Bankmuseum, Utrecht, is illustrated, for instance, in Paul
Stephenson, Constantine, Roman Emperor, Christian Vic-
tor, 2010:g. 53.
[13] Iain Ferris, The Arch of Constantine: Inspired by the Di-
vine, Amberley Publishing (2009).
[14] Stuart Chase, Mexico: A Study of Two Americas, Chapter
IV (University of Virginia Hypertext). Retrieved 24 April
2006.
[15] "...that strange race was born, like to both parents, their
mothers form below, above their sires. (Second Pythian
Ode).
[16] For example, Homer Iliad i. 268, ii. 743. Compare the
Hesiodic Shield of Heracles, 104.
[17] At Odyssey 21.295, Antinous tells the disguised
Odysseus the tale of the drunken rage of Eurytion, the
centaur who caused the strife between the centaurs and
the Lapiths. The Greek word for centaur appears in lines
295 and 303 of Book 21.
[18] Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, book V, translated by
William Ellery Leonard, 1916 (The Perseus Project.) Re-
trieved 27 July 2008.
[19] Dumzil, Le Problme des Centaures (Paris 1929) and
Mitra-Varuna: An essay on two Indo-European represen-
tations of sovereignty (1948. tr. 1988).
CHAPTER 4. CENTAUR
[20] Graves, The Greek Myths, 1960 81.4; 102 Centaurs";
126.3;.
[21] Devdutt Pattanaik, Indian mythology : tales, sym-
bols, and rituals from the heart of the Subcontinent
(Rochester, USA 2003) P.74: ISBN 0-89281-870-0.
[22] K. Krishna Murthy, Mythical Animals in Indian Art (New
Delhi, India 1985).
[23] Alex Scobie, The Origins of 'Centaurs" Folklore 89.2
(1978:142147); Scobie quotes Martin P. Nilsson,
Geschichte der griechischen Religion, 1955, Die Etymolo-
gie und die Deutung der Ursprungs sind unsicher und m-
gen auf sich beruhen.
[24] Noted by Scobie 1978:142.
[25] Alexander Hislop, in his polemic The Two Babylons: Pa-
pal Worship Revealed to be the Worship of Nimrod and
His Wife. (1853, revised 1858) theorized that the word is
derived from the Semitic Kohen and tor (to go round)
via phonetic shift the less prominent consonants being lost
over time, with it developing into Khen Tor or Ken-Tor,
and being transliterated phonetically into Ionian as Ken-
taur, but this is not accepted by any modern philologist.
[26] Pella Archaeological Museum
[27] Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses, xii. 210 .
[28] National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC: illustration.
[29] Anderson, Maggie (August 26, 2004). Library hails cen-
taurs 10th anniversary. 97 (7 or 8). Archived from the
original on September 20, 2007. Retrieved 2006-09-21.
4.12 Further reading
M. Grant and J. Hazel. Whos Who in Greek Mythol-
ogy. David McKay & Co Inc, 1979.
Rose, Carol (2001). Giants, Monsters, and Dragons:
An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth.
New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
Inc. p. 72. ISBN 0-393-32211-4.
Homers Odyssey, Book 21, 295
Harry Potter, books 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
The Chronicles of Narnia, book 2.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians, book 1, 2, 3, 4 and
5.
Frdrick S. Parker. Finding the Kingdom of the
Centaurs.
4.13. EXTERNAL LINKS 15

4.13 External links

Theoi Project on Centaurs in literature

Centaurides on female centaurs

MythWeb article on centaurs

Harry Potter Lexicon article on centaurs in the Harry

Potter universe
Erich Kissings centaurs contemporary art
Chapter 5

Cerberus

This article is about the mythical dog. For other uses, a snake.[4] And, like these close relatives, Cerberus was,
see Cerberus (disambiguation).
with only the rare iconographic exception, multi-headed.
In the earliest description of Cerberus, Hesiod's
Theogony (c. 8th 7th century BC), Cerberus has fty
heads, while Pindar (c. 522 c. 443 BC) gave him
one hundred heads.[5] However, later writers almost
universally give Cerberus three heads.[6] An exception is
the Latin poet Horace's Cerberus which has a single dog
head, and one hundred snake heads.[7] Perhaps trying
to reconcile these competing traditions, Apollodorus's
Cerberus has three dog heads and the heads of all
sorts of snakes along his back, while the Byzantine
poet John Tzetzes (who probably based his account on
Apollodorus) gives Cerberus fty heads, three of which
were dog heads, the rest being the heads of other beasts
of all sorts.[8]

Heracles, wearing his characteristic lion-skin, club in right hand,

leash in left, presenting a three-headed Cerberus, snakes coiling
from his snouts, necks and front paws, to a frightened Eurystheus
hiding in a giant pot. Caeretan hydria (c. 530 BC) from Caere
(Louvre E701).[1]

In Greek mythology, Cerberus (/srbrs/;[2] Greek:

Kerberos [kerberos]), often called the hound
of Hades", is the monstrous multi-headed dog that guards
the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leav-
ing. Cerberus was the ospring of the monsters Echidna
and Typhon, and usually is described as having three
heads, a serpent for a tail, and snakes protruding from
parts of his body. Cerberus is primarily known for his Heracles, chain in left hand, his club laid aside, calms a two-
capture by Heracles, one of Heracles twelve labours.
5.1 Descriptions
Descriptions of Cerberus vary, including the number of
his heads. Cerberus was usually three-headed, though not
always. Cerberus had a multi-headed heritage. His fa-
ther was the multi snake-headed Typhon,[3] and Cerberus
was the brother of three other multi-headed monsters, the
multi-snake-headed Lernaean Hydra; Orthrus, the two-
headed dog who guarded the Cattle of Geryon; and the
Chimera, who had three heads, that of a lion, a goat, and
headed Cerberus, which has a snake protruding from each of
his heads, a mane down his necks and back, and a snake tail.
Cerberus is emerging from a portico, which represents the palace
of Hades in the underworld. Between them, a tree represents the
sacred grove of Hades wife Persephone. On the far left, Athena
stands, left arm extended. Amphora (c. 525510 BC) from Vulci
(Louvre F204).[9]
In art Cerberus is most commonly depicted with two dog
heads (visible), never more than three, but occasionally
with only one.[10] On one of the two earliest depictions
(c. 590580 BC), a Corinthian cup from Argos (see be-
low), now lost, Cerberus is shown as a normal single-
headed dog.[11] The rst appearance of a three-headed

16
5.2. THE TWELFTH LABOUR OF HERACLES 17

Cerberus occurs on a mid sixth century BC Laconian cup to Apollodorus, this was the twelfth and nal labour im-
(see below).[12] posed on Heracles.[29] In a fragment from a lost play Pirit-
Horaces many snake-headed Cerberus followed a long hous, (attributed to either Euripides or Critias) Heracles
tradition of Cerberus being part snake. This is per- says that, although Eurystheus commanded him to bring
haps already implied as early as in Hesiods Theogony, back Cerberus, it was not from any desire to see Cer-
where Cerberus mother is the half-snake Echidna, and berus, but only because
[30]
Eurystheus thought that the task
his father the snake-headed Typhon. In art Cerberus was impossible.
is often shown as being part snake,[13] for example the Heracles was aided in his mission by his being an initiate
lost Corinthian cup shows snakes protruding from Cer- of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Euripides has his initiation
berus body, while the mid sixth-century BC Laconian being lucky for Heracles in capturing Cerberus.[31] And
cup gives Cerberus a snake for a tail. In the liter- both Diodorus Siculus and Apollodorus say that Heracles
ary record, the rst certain indication of Cerberus ser- was initiated into the Mysteries, in preparation for his de-
pentine nature comes from the rationalized account of scent into the underworld. According to Diodorus, Hera-
Hecataeus of Miletus (. 500494 BC), who makes Cer- cles went to Athens, where Musaeus, the son of Orpheus,
berus a large poisonous snake.[14] Plato refers to Cer- was in charge of the initiation rites,[32] while according to
berus composite nature,[15] and Euphorion of Chalcis Apollodorus, he went to Eumolpus at Eleusis.[33]
(3rd century BC) describes Cerberus as having multiple Heracles also had the help of Hermes, the usual guide
snake tails,[16] and presumably in connection to his ser- of the underworld, as well as Athena. In the Odyssey,
pentine nature, associates Cerberus with the creation of Homer has Hermes and Athena as his guides.[34] And
the poisonous aconite plant.[17] Virgil has snakes writhe Hermes and Athena are often shown with Heracles on
around Cerberus neck,[18] Ovid's Cerberus has a ven- vase paintings depicting Cerberus capture. By most ac-
omous mouth,[19] necks vile with snakes,[20] and hair counts, Heracles made his descent into the underworld
inwoven with the threatening snake,[21] while Seneca through an entrance at Tainaron, the most famous of the
gives Cerberus a mane consisting of snakes, and a single various Greek entrances to the underworld.[35] The place
snake tail.[22] is rst mentioned in connection with the Cerberus story
Cerberus was given various other traits. According in the rationalized account of Hecataeus of Miletus (.
to Euripides, Cerberus not only had three heads but 500494 BC), and Euripides, Seneca, and Apolodorus,
three bodies,[23] and according to Virgil he had mul- all have Heracles descend into the underworld there.[36]
tiple backs.[24] Cerberus ate raw esh (according to However Xenophon reports that Heracles was said to have
Hesiod),[25] had eyes which ashed re (according to Eu- descended at the Acherusian Chersonese near Heraclea
phorion), a three-tongued mouth (according to Horace), Pontica, on the Black Sea, a place more usually associated
and acute hearing (according to Seneca).[26] with Heracles exit from the underworld (see below).[37]
Heraclea, founded c. 560 BC, perhaps took its name
from the association of its site with Heracles Cerberian
5.2 The Twelfth Labour of Hera- exploit.[38]

cles
5.2.1 Theseus and Pirithous

While in the underworld, Heracles met the heroes

Theseus and Pirithous, where the two companions were
being held prisoner by Hades for attempting to carry o
Hades wife Persephone. Along with bringing back Cer-
berus, Heracles also managed (usually) to rescue Theseus,
and in some versions Pirithous as well.[39] According to
Apollodorus, Heracles found Theseus and Pirithous near
the gates of Hades, bound to the Chair of Forgetfulness,
to which they grew and were held fast by coils of ser-
pents, and when they saw Heracles, they stretched out
their hands as if they should be raised from the dead by his
Athena, Hermes and Heracles, leading a two-headed Cerberus might, and Heracles was able to free Theseus, but when
out of the underworld, as Persephone looks on. Hydria (c. 550 he tried to raise up Pirithous, the earth quaked and he
500 BC) attributed to the Leagros Group (Louvre CA 2992).[27] let go.[40]
The earliest evidence for the involvement of Theseus and
As early as Homer we learn that Heracles was sent by Pirithous in the Cerberus story, is found on a shield-
Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns, to bring back Cerberus band relief (c. 560 BC) from Olympia, where Theseus
from Hades the king of the underworld.[28] According and Pirithous (named) are seated together on a chair,
18 CHAPTER 5. CERBERUS

arms held out in supplication, while Heracles approaches,
about to draw his sword.[41] The earliest literary men-
tion of the rescue occurs in Euripides, where Heracles
saves Theseus (with no mention of Pirithous).[42] In the
lost play Pirithous, both heroes are rescued,[43] while in
the rationalized account of Philochorus, Heracles was
able to rescue Theseus, but not Pirithous.[44] In one place
Diodorus says Heracles brought back both Theseus and
Pirithous, by the favor of Persephone,[45] while in another
he says that Pirithous remained in Hades, or according to
some writers of myth that neither Theseus, nor Pirit-
hous returned.[46] Both are rescued in Hyginus.[47]
and the Pirithous fragment says that Heracles overcame
the beast by force.[56] However, according to Diodorus,
Persphone welcomed Heracles like a brother and gave
Cerberus in chains to Heracles.[57] Aristophanes, has
Heracles seize Cerberus in a stranglehold and run o,[58]
while Seneca has Heracles again use his lion-skin as
shield, and his wooden club, to subdue Cerberus, after
which a quailing Hades and Persephone, allow Heracles
to lead a chained and submissive Cerberus away.[59] Cer-
berus is often shown being chained, and Ovid tells that
Heracles dragged the three headed Cerberus with chains
of adamant.[60]

5.2.2 Capture 5.2.3 Exit from the underworld

Athena, Heracles, and a two-headed Cerberus, with mane down

his necks and back. Hermes (not shown in the photograph) stands
to the left of Athena. An amphora (c. 575525 BC) from
Kameiros, Rhodes (Louvre A481).[48] Heracles and Cerberus. Oil on canvas, by Peter Paul Rubens
1636, Prado Museum.
There are various versions of how Heracles accomplished
Cerberus capture.[49] According to Apollodorus, Hera- There were several locations which were said to be
cles asked Hades for Cerberus, and Hades told Heracles
the place where Heracles brought up Cerberus from
he would allow him to take Cerberus only if he mastered the underworld.[61] The geographer Strabo (63/64 BC
him without the use of the weapons which he carried,
c. AD 24) reports that according to the myth writ-
and so, using his lion-skin as a shield, Heracles squeezed ers Cerberus was brought up at Tainaron,[62] the same
Cerberus around the head until he submitted.[50]
place where Euripides has Heracles enter the underworld.
In some early sources Cerberus capture seems to involve Seneca has Heracles enter and exit at Tainaron.[63] Apol-
Heracles ghting Hades. Homer has Hades injured by lodorus, although he has Heracles enter at Tainaron, has
an arrow shot by Heracles,[51] while on the early sixth- him exit at Troezen.[64] The geographer Pausanias tells
century BC lost Corinthian cup, Heracles is shown at- us that there was a temple at Troezen with altars to the
tacking Hades with a stone.[52] A scholium to the Iliad gods said to rule under the earth, where it was said that,
passage, explains that Hades had commanded that Hera- in addition to Cerberus being dragged up by Heracles,
cles master Cerberus without shield or Iron. Heracles Semele was supposed to have been brought up out of the
did this, by (as in Apollodorus) using his lion-skin instead underworld by Dionysus.[65]
of his shield, and making stone points for his arrows, but
Another tradition had Cerberus brought up at Hera-
when Hades still opposed him, Heracles shot Hades in clea Pontica (the same place which Xenophon had ear-
anger.[53] Consistent with the no iron requirement, the lier associated with Heracles descent) and the cause
iconographic tradition, from c. 560 BC, often shows Her-of the poisonous plant aconite which grew there in
acles using his wooden club against Cerberus.[54] abundance.[66] Herodorus of Heraclea and Euphorion
Euripides, has Amphitryon ask Heracles: Did you con- said that when Heracles brought Cerberus up from the
quer him in ght, or receive him from the goddess [i.e. underworld at Heraclea, Cerberus vomited bile from
Persephone]? To which, Heracles answers: In ght,[55] which the aconite plant grew up.[67] Ovid, also makes
5.3. PRINCIPAL SOURCES
Cerberus the cause of the poisonous aconite, saying that
on the shores of Scythia, upon leaving the underworld,
as Cerberus was being dragged by Heracles from a cave,
dazzled by the unaccustomed daylight, Cerberus spewed
out a poison-foam, which made the aconite plants
growing there poisonous.[68] Senecas Cerberus too, like
Ovids, reacts violently to his rst sight of daylight. En-
raged, the previously submissive Cerberus struggles furi-
ously, and Heracles and Theseus must together drag Cer-
berus into the light.[69]
Pausanias reports that according to local legend Cerberus
was brought up through a chasm in the earth dedicated
to Clymenus (Hades) next to the sanctuary of Chthonia
at Hermione, and in Euripides Heracles, thought Euripi-
des does not say that Cerberus was brought out there, he
has Cerberus kept for a while in the grove of Chthonia"
at Hermione.[70] Pausanias also mentions that at Mount
Laphystion in Boeotia, that there was a statue of Hera-
cles Charops (with bright eyes), where the Boeotians
said Heracles brought up Cerberus.[71] Other locations
which perhaps were also associated with Cerberus be-
ing brought out of the underworld include, Hierapolis,
Thesprotia, and Emeia near Mycenae.[72]
5.2.4 Presented to Eurystheus, returned to
Hades
In some accounts, after bringing Cerberus up from the
underworld, Heracles paraded the captured Cerberus
through Greece.[73] Euphorion has Heracles lead Cer-
berus through Midea in Argolis, as women and chil-
dren watch in fear,[74] and Diodorus Siculus says of Cer-
berus, that Heracles carried him away to the amazement
of all and exhibited him to men.[75] Seneca has Juno
complain of Heracles highhandedly parading the black
hound through Argive cities[76] and Heracles greeted by
laurel-wreathed crowds, singing his praises.[77]
Then, according to Apollodorus, Heracles showed Cer-
berus to Eurystheus, as commanded, after which he re-
turned Cerberus to the underworld.[78] However, accord-
ing to Hesychius of Alexandria, Cerberus escaped, pre-
sumably returning to the underworld on his own.[79]
5.3 Principal sources
The earliest mentions of Cerberus (c. 8th 7th cen-
tury BC) occur in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and
Hesiod's Theogony.[80] Homer does not name or describe
Cerberus, but simply refers to Heracles being sent by
Eurystheus to fetch the hound of Hades, with Hermes
and Athena as his guides,[81] and that Heracles shot Hades
with an arrow.[82] According to Hesiod, Cerberus was the
ospring of the monsters Echidna and Typhon, was fty-
headed, ate raw esh, and was the brazen-voiced hound
of Hades,[83] who fawns on those that enter the house of
19
Cerberus, with the gluttons in the Third Circle of Hell. William
Blake.
Hades, but eats those who try to leave.[84]
Stesichorus (c. 630 555 BC) apparently wrote a poem
called Cerberus, of which virtually nothing remains.[85]
However the early sixth century BC lost Corinthian cup
from Argos, which showed a single head, and snakes
growing out from many places on his body,[86] was pos-
sibly inuenced by Stesichorus poem.[87] The mid-sixth-
century BC cup from Laconia gives Cerberus three heads
and a snake tail, which eventually becomes the standard
representation.[88]
Pindar (c. 522 c. 443 BC) apparently gave Cerberus
one hundred heads.[89] Bacchylides (5th century BC) also
mentions Heracles bringing Cerberus up from the under-
world, with no further details.[90] Sophocles (c. 495
c. 405 BC), in his Women of Trachis, makes Cerberus
three-headed,[91] and in his Oedipus at Colonus, the Cho-
rus asks that Oedipus be allowed to pass the gates of the
underworld undisturbed by Cerberus, called here the un-
tamable Watcher of Hades.[92] Euripides (c. 480 406
BC) describes Cerberus as three-headed,[93] and three-
bodied,[94] says that Heracles entered the underworld at
Tainaron,[95] has Heracles say that Cerberus was not given
to him by Persephone, but rather he fought and conquered
Cerberus, for I had been lucky enough to witness the
rites of the initiated, an apparent reference to his initi-
ation into the Eleusinian Mysteries,[96] and says that the
capture of Cerberus was the last of Heracles labors.[97]
The lost play Pirthous (attributed to either Euripides or
his late contemporary Critias) has Heracles say that he
came to the underworld at the command of Eurystheus,
who had ordered him to bring back Cerberus alive, not
because he wanted to see Cerberus, but only because Eu-
rystheus thought Heracles would not be able to accom-
plish the task, and that Heracles overcame the beast and
received favour from the gods.[98]
Plato (c. 425 348 BC) refers to Cerberus composite na-
ture, citing Cerberus, along with Scylla and the Chimera,
as an example from ancient fables of a creature com-
posed of many animal forms grown together in one.[99]
Euphorion of Chalcis (3rd century BC) describes Cer-
20
Cerberus and Heracles. Etching by Antonio Tempesta (Italy, Flo-
rence, 15551630). The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
berus as having multiple snake tails, and eyes that ashed,
like sparks from a blacksmiths forge, or the volcaninc
Mount Etna.[100] From Euphorion, also comes the rst
mention of a story which told that at Heraclea Pontica,
where Cerberus was brought out of the underworld, by
Heracles, Cerberus vomited bile from which the poi-
sonous aconite plant grew up.[101]
According to Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC), the cap-
ture of Cerberus was the eleventh of Heracles labors, the
twelfth and last being stealing the Apples of the Hes-
perides.[102] Diodorus says that Heracles thought it best
to rst go to Athens to take part in the Eleusinian Myster-
ies, "Musaeus, the son of Orpheus, being at that time in
charge of the initiatory rites, after which, he entered into
the underworld welcomed like a brother by Persephone",
and receiving the dog Cerberus in chains he carried him
away to the amazement of all and exhibited him to men.
In Virgil's Aeneid (1st century BC), Aeneas and the
Sibyl encounter Cerberus in a cave, where he lay at
vast length, lling the cave from end to end, block-
ing the entrance to the underworld. Cerberus is de-
scribed as triple-throated, with three erce mouths,
multiple large backs, and serpents writhing around his
neck. The Sybyl throws Cerberus a loaf laced with
honey and herbs to induce sleep, enabling Aeneas to
enter the underworld, and so apparently for Virgil
contradicting HesiodCerberus guarded the underworld
against entrance.[103] Later Virgil describes Cerberus, in
his bloody cave, crouching over half-gnawed bones.[104]
In his Georgics, Virgil refers to Cerberus, his triple jaws
agape being tamed by Orpheus playing his lyre.[105]
Horace (65 8 BC) also refers to Cerberus yielding
to Orphesus lyre, here Cerberus has a single dog head,
which like a Furys is fortied by a hundred snakes,
with a triple-tongued mouth oozing fetid breath and
gore.[106]
CHAPTER 5. CERBERUS
Ovid (43 BC AD 17/18) has Cerberus mouth pro-
duce venom,[107] and like Euphorion, makes Cerberus the
cause of the poisonous plant aconite.[108] According to
Ovid, Heracles dragged Cerberus from the underworld,
emerging from a cave where 'tis fabled, the plant grew /
on soil infected by Cerberian teeth, and dazzled by the
daylight, Cerberus spewed out a poison-foam, which
made the aconite plants growing there poisonous.
Cerberus and Heracles. Etching by Antonio Tempesta (Italy, Flo-
rence, 15551630). The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Seneca, in his tragedy Hercules Furens gives a detailed de-
scription of Cerberus and his capture.[109] Senecas Cer-
berus has three heads, a mane of snakes, and a snake tail,
with his three heads being covered in gore, and licked by
the many snakes which surround them, and with hearing
so acute that he can hear even ghosts.[110] Seneca has
Heracles use his lion-skin as shield, and his wooden club,
to beat Cerberus into submission, after which Hades and
Persephone, quailing on their thrones, let Heracles lead a
chained and submissive Cerberus away. But upon leav-
ing the underworld, at his rst sight of daylight, a fright-
ened Cerberus struggles furiously, and Heracles, with the
help of Theseus (who had been held captive by Hades,
but released, at Heracles request) drag Cerberus into the
light.[111] Seneca, like Diodorus, has Heracles parade the
captured Cerberus through Greece.[112]
Apollodorus Cerberus has three dog-heads, a serpent for
a tail, and the heads of many snakes on his back.[113] Ac-
cording to Apollodorus, Heracles twelfth and nal labor
was to bring back Cerberus from Hades. Heracles rst
went to Eumolpus to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mys-
teries. Upon his entering the underworld, all the dead ee
Heracles except for Meleager and the Gorgon Medusa.
Heracles drew his sword against Medusa, but Hermes told
Heracles that the dead are mere empty phantoms. Her-
acles asked Hades (here called Pluto) for Cerberus, and
Hades said that Heracles could take Cerberus provided
he was able to subdue him without using weapons. Hera-
cles found Cerberus at the gates of Acheron, and with his
arms around Cerberus, though being bitten by Cerberus
serpent tail, Heracles squeezed until Cerberus submitted.
Heracles carried Cerberus away, showed him to Eurys-
theus, then returned Cerberus to the underworld.
5.4. ICONOGRAPHY
In an apparently unique version of the story, related by the
sixth-century AD Pseudo-Nonnus, Heracles descended
into Hades to abduct Persephone, and killed Cerberus on
his way back up.[114]
5.4 Iconography
One of the two earliest depictions of the capture of Cerberus
(composed of the last ve gures on the right) shows, from
right to left: Cerberus, with a single dog head and snakes ris-
ing from his body, eeing right, Hermes, with his characteristic
hat (petasos) and caduceus, Heracles, with quiver on his back,
stone in left hand, and bow in right, a goddess, standing in front
of Hades throne, facing Heracles, and Hades, with scepter, ee-
ing left. Drawing of a lost Corinthian cup (c. 590580 BC) from
Argos.
The capture of Cerberus was a popular theme in ancient
Greek and Roman art.[115] The earliest depictions date
from the beginning of the sixth century BC. One of the
two earliest depictions, a Corinthian cup (c. 590580
BC) from Argos (now lost),[116] shows a naked Hera-
cles, with quiver on his back and bow in his right hand,
striding left, accompanied by Hermes. Heracles threat-
ens Hades with a stone, who ees left, while a goddess,
perhaps Persephone or possibly Athena, standing in front
of Hades throne, prevents the attack. Cerberus, with a
single canine head, and snakes rising from his head and
body, ees right. On the far right a column indicates the
entrance to Hades palace. Many of the elements of this
scene: Hermes, Athena, Hades, Persephone, and a col-
umn or portico, are common occurrences in later works.
The other earliest depiction, a relief pithos fragment from
Crete (c. 590570 BC) is thought to show a single lion-
headed Cerberus, with a snake (open-mouthed) over his
back, being led to the right.[117]
A mid sixth century BC Laconian cup, by the Hunt
Painter, adds several new features to the scene which also
become common in later works: three heads, a snake tail,
Cerberus chain and Heracles club. Here Cerberus has
three canine heads, is covered by a shaggy coat of snakes,
and has a tail which ends in a snake head. He is being held
on a chain leash by Heracles who holds his club raised Besides this lion-like mane, and the occasional lion-head,
over head.[118] mentioned above, Cerberus was sometimes shown with
21
In Greek art, the vast majority of depictions of Hera-
cles and Cerberus occur on Attic vases.[119] Although the
lost Corinthian cup shows Cerberus with a single dog
head, and the relief pithos fragment (c. 590570 BC)
apparently shows a single lion-headed Cerberus, in Attic
vase painting, Cerberus usually has two dog heads.[120]
In other art, as in the Laconian cup, Cerberus is usually
three-headed.[121] Occasionally, in Roman art, Cerberus
is shown with a large central lion head, and two smaller
dog heads on either side.[122]
Heracles, with club in his right hand raised over head, and leash
in left hand, drives ahead of him, a two-headed Cerberus, with
mane down his necks and back, and a snake tail. A neck-
amphora (c. 530515) from Vulci (Munich 1493).[123]
As in the Corinthian and Laconian cups (and possibly
the relief pithos fragment), Cerberus is often depicted as
part snake.[124] In Attic vase painting, Cerberus is usu-
ally shown with a snake for a tail, or tail which ends in
the head of a snake.[125] Snakes are also often shown ris-
ing from various parts of his body, including snout, head,
neck, back, ankles, and paws.
Two Attic amphoras from Vulci, one (c. 530515
BC), by the Bucci Painter (Munich 1493),[126] the other
(c. 525510 BC), by the Andokides painter (Louvre
F204),[127] in addition to the usual two heads and snake
tail, show Cerberus with a mane down his necks and
back, another typical Cerberian feature of Attic vase
painting.[128] Andokides amphora also has a small snake
curling up from each of Cerberus two heads.
22 CHAPTER 5. CERBERUS

other leonine features. A pitcher (c. 530500) shows
Cerberus with mane and claws,[129] while a rst century
BC sardonyx cameo, shows Cerberus with leonine body
and paws.[130] In addition, a limestone relief fragment
from Taranto (c. 320300 BC) shows Cerberus with
three lion-like heads.[131]
During the second quarter of the 5th century BC, the cap- root *ger- to growl (perhaps with the suxes -*m/*b
ture of Cerberus disappears from Attic vase painting.[132]and -*r). However, as Ogden observes, this analysis
And after the early third century BC, the subject become
rare everywhere, until the Roman period. In Roman art,
the capture of Cerberus is usually shown together with
other labors. Heracles and Cerberus are usually alone,
with Heracles leading Cerberus.[133]
5.5 Etymology
sarvar, used as an epithet of one of the dogs of Yama,
from a Proto-Indo-European word *krberos, mean-
ing spotted.[136] Lincoln (1991),[137] among others,
critiques this etymology. Lincoln notes a similarity
between Cerberus and the Norse mythological dog
Garmr, relating both names to a Proto-Indo-European
actually requires Kerberos and Garmr to be derived
from two dierent Indo-European roots (*ker- and
*gher- respectively), and so does not actually establish a
relationship between the two names.
Though probably not Greek, Greek etymologies for Cer-
berus have been oered. An etymology given by Servius
(the late fourth century commentator on Virgil)
but rejected by Ogdenderives Cerberus from the
Greek word creoboros meaning esh-devouring.[138]
Another suggested etymology derives Cerberus from
Ker berethrou, meaning evil of the pit.[139]

5.6 Cerberus rationalized

At least as early as the 6th century BC, some ancient writ-
ers have attempted to explain away various fantastical
features of Greek mythology,[140] included in these are
various rationalized accounts of the Cerberus story.[141]
The earliest such account (late 6th century BC) is that of
Hecataeus of Miletus.[142] In his account Cerberus was
not a dog at all, but rather simply a large poisonous snake,
which lived on Tainaron. The serpent was called the
hound of Hades only because anyone bitten by it died
immediately, and it was this snake that Heracles brought
to Eurystheus. The geographer Pausanias (who preserves
for us Hecataeus version of the story) points out that,
since Homer does not describe Cerberus, Hecataeus ac-
count does not necessarily conict with Homer, since
Homers Hound of Hades may not in fact refer to an
actual dog.[143]
Other rationalized accounts make Cerberus out to be
a normal dog. According to Palaephatus (4th century
BC)[144] Cerberus was one of the two dogs who guarded
the cattle of Geryon, the other being Orthrus. Geryon
lived in a city named Tricranium (in Greek Tricarenia,
Three-Heads),[145] from which name both Cerberus
and Geryon came to be called three-headed. Heracles
killed Orthus, and drove away Geryons cattle, with Cer-
berus following along behind. Molossus, a Mycenaen, of-
fered to buy Cerberus from Eurystheus (presumably hav-
ing received the dog, along with the cattle, from Hera-
Cerberus and Hades/Serapis. Heraklion Archaeological Mu- cles). But when Eurystheus refused, Molossus stole the
seum, Crete, Greece.[134] dog and penned him up in a cave in Tainaron. Eurys-
theus commanded Heracles to nd Cerberus and bring
The etymology of Cerberus name is uncertain. him back. After searching the entire Peloponnesus, Her-
Ogden[135] refers to attempts to establish an Indo- acles found where it was said Cerberus was being held,
European etymology as not yet successful. It has went down into the cave, and brought up Cerberus, after
been claimed to be related to the Sanskrit word which it was said: Heracles descended through the cave
5.8. CONSTELLATION 23

into Hades and brought up Cerberus. rapher repeats (nearly word for word) what Fulgentius
In the rationalized account of Philochorus, in which Her- had to say about Cerberus,[151] while the Third Vatican
acles rescues Theseus, Perithous is eaten by Cerberus.[146] Mythographer, in another very similar passage to Fu-
In this version of the story, Aidoneus (i.e., Hades) is gentius, says (more specically than Fugentius), that for
the mortal king of the Molossians, with a wife named the philosophers Cerberus represented hatred, his three
Persephone, a daughter named Kore (another name for heads symbolizing the three kinds of human hatred: nat-
the goddess Persephone) and a large mortal dog named ural, causal, and casual (i.e. accidental).[152]
Cerberus, with whom all suiters of his daughter were re-The Second and Third Vatican Mythographers, note
quired to ght. After having stolen Helen, to be Theseus
that the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades each
wife, Theseus and Perithous, attempt to abduct Kore, forhave tripartite insignia, associating Hades three headed
Perithous, but Aidoneus catches the two heroes, impris- Cerberus, with Zeus' three-forked thunderbolt, and
ons Theseus, and feeds Perithous to Cerberus. Later, Poseidon's three-pronged trident, while the Third Vati-
while a guest of Aidoneus, Heracles asks Aidoneus to re-can Mythographer adds that some philosophers think of
lease Theseus, as a favor, which Aidoneus grants. Cerberus as the tripartite earth: Asia, Africa, and Eu-
A 2nd century AD Greek known as Heraclitus the para- rope. This[153] earth, swallowing up bodies, sends souls to
doxographer (not to be confused with the 5th century BC Tartarus.
Greek philosopher Heraclitus) claimed that Cerberus Virgil described Cerberus as ravenous (fame ra-
had two pups that were never away from their father, bida),[154] and a rapacious Cerberus became proverbial.
which made Cerberus appear to be three-headed.[147] Thus Cerberus came to symbolize avarice,[155] and so, for
example, in Dante's Inferno, Cerberus is placed in the
Third Circle of Hell, guarding over the gluttons, where
5.7 Cerberus allegorized he rends the spirits, ays and quarters them,[156] and
Dante (perhaps echoing Servius association of Cerbeus
with earth) has his guide Virgil take up handfuls of earth
and throw them into Cerberus rapacious gullets.[157]

Virgil feeding Cerberus earth, in the Third Circle of Hell. Illus-

tration from Dantes Inferno by Gustave Dor.
Cerberus constellation
Servius, a medieval commentator on Virgil's Aeneid, de-
rived Cerberus name from the Greek word creoboros
meaning esh-devouring (see above), and held that Cer-
berus symbolized the corpse-consuming earth, with Her- 5.8 Constellation
acles triumph over Cerberus representing his victory over
earthly desires.[148] Later the mythographer Fulgentius, In the constellation Cerberus introduced by Johannes
allegorizes Cerberus three heads as representing the Hevelius in 1687, Cerberus is drawn as a three-headed
three origins of human strife: nature, cause, and acci- snake, held in Hercules hand (previously these stars had
dent, and (drawing on the same esh-devouring etymol- been depicted as a branch of the tree on which grew the
ogy as Servius) as symbolizing the three agesinfancy, Apples of the Hesperides).[158]
youth, old age, at which death enters the world.[149]
The later Vatican Mythographers repeat and expand upon
the traditions of Servius and Fulgentius. All three Vatican 5.9 See also
Mythographers repeat Servius derivation of Cerberus
name from creoboros.[150] The Second Vatican Mythog- Dormarch part of the Cwn Annwn
24
Orthrus
5.10 Notes
[1] LIMC Herakles 2616 (Smallwood, pp. 92, 98); Ogden
2013b, p. 63; Ogden 2013a, p. 105; Gantz, p. 22; Perseus
Louvre E 701 (Vase).
[2] Cerberus. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 16 July 2009.
[3] Hesiod, Theogony 300314, Acusilaus, fragment 6 (Free-
man, p. 15), Hyginus, Fabulae Preface, 151, and Quintus
Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica (or Fall of Troy) 6.260268
(pp. 272275) all have Cerberus as the ospring of
Typhon and Echidna, while Bacchylides, Ode 5.5662,
Sophocles, Women of Trachis 10971099, Callimachus,
fragment 515 Pfeier (Trypanis, pp. 258259), and
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.500501, 7.406409 all have
Cerberus as the ospring of Echidna without naming a
father.
[4] Hesiod, Theogony 309324 (although it is not certain
whom Hesiod meant as the mother of the Chimera:
Echidna, the Hydra, or Ceto); Apollodorus, 2.5.10, 2.3.1;
Hyginus, Fabulae Preface.
[5] Gantz p. 22; Ogden 2013a, p. 105, with n. 182; Hesiod,
Theogony 311312; Pindar, fragment F249a/b SM, from
a lost Pindar poem on Heracles in the underworld, accord-
ing to a scholia on the Iliad.
[6] Ogden 2013a, pp. 105106, with n. 183; Sophocles,
Women of Trachis 2225 (three-bodied), 10971099;
Euripides, Heracles 610611, 12761278; Virgil, Aeneid
6.417421 (triple-throated, three erce mouths),
Georgics 4.483 (triple jaws); Ovid, Metamorphoses
4.449451 (three-visaged mouths, triple-barking),
9.185 (triple form), 10.2122 (three necks), 10.65
66 (triple necks), Heroides 9.9394 (pp. 114115)
(three-fold); Seneca, Agamemnon 859862 (pp. 198
199) (triple chains), Hercules Furens 6062 (pp. 52
53) (triple necks), 782784 (pp. 110111); Statius,
Silvae 2.1.183184 (I pp. 9091) (triple jaws), 3.3.27
(I pp. 168169) (threefold), Thebaid, 2.31 (I pp.
396397), (threefold), 2.53 (I pp. 398399) (tri-
formed); Propertius, Elegies 3.5.44 (pp. 234237)
(three throats), 3.18.23 (pp. 284285) (three heads)
Apollodorus, 2.5.12 (three heads of dogs).
[7] West, David, p. 108; Ogden 2013a, p. 107; Horace, Odes
3.11.1720 (West, David, pp. 101103) (a hundred
snakes triple-tongued), Odes 2.13.3336 (hundred-
headed), Odes 2.19.2932 (triple tongue).
[8] Apollodorus, 2.5.12; Tzetzes, Chiliades 2.36.389392
(Greek: Kiessling, pp. 5556; English translation:
Berkowitz, p. 48); Frazers note 1 to Apollodorus, 2.5.12.
[9] LIMC Herakles 2554 (Smallwood, pp. 87, 98); Schefold
1992, pp. 130131, g. 152; Beazley Archive 200011;
Perseus Louvre F 204 (Vase).
CHAPTER 5. CERBERUS
[10] Smallwood, p. 87; Gantz, p. 22; Ogden 2013a, p. 106.
According to Gantz, Presumably the frequent variant of
two heads arose from logistical problems in draftman-
ship, and Ogden wonders if such images salute or es-
tablish a tradition of a two-headed Cerberus, or are we to
imagine a third head concealed behind the two that can
be seen?" For one-headed Cerberus, see LIMC Herakles
2553, 2570, 2576, 2591, 2621.
[11] LIMC Herakles 2553 (Smallwood, pp. 87, 9798); Gantz,
p. 22; Ogden 2013a, p. 106, with n. 184. A relief pithos
fragment (c. 590570 BC) LIMC Herakles 2621 (Small-
wood, p. 92), seems to show a single lion-headed Cer-
berus, with snake (open-mouthed) over his back.
[12] LIMC Herakles 2605 (Smallwood, p. 91); Schefold 1992,
p. 129; Gantz, p. 22; Ogden 2013a, p. 106, with n. 185.
[13] Ogden 2013b, p. 63.
[14] Hecataeus of Miletus, fr. *27 a Fowler (Fowler 2001, p.
136) (apud Pausanias, 3.25.45), (cf. FGrH 1 F27); Og-
den 2013a, p. 107.
[15] Plato Republic 588c.
[16] Euphorian, fragment 71 Lightfoot (Lightfoot, pp. 300
303; Ogden 2013b, pp. 6970); Ogden 2013a, p. 107.
[17] Euphorion, fragment 41a Lightfoot, (Lightfoot, pp. 272
275 = Herodorus fragment 31 Fowler).
[18] Virgil, Aeneid 6.419,
[19] Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.500501.
[20] Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.2224
[21] Ovid, Heroides 9.9394 (pp. 114115).
[22] Seneca, Hercules Furens 785812 (pp. 112113). See
also Lucan, Pharsalia 6.664665, which has Cerberus
heads bristling with snakes; and Apollodorus, 2.5.12
whose Cerberus is snake-tailed and has on his back the
heads of all sorts of snakes.
[23] Euripides Heracles 2225.
[24] Virgil, Aeneid 6.422.
[25] Hesiod, Theogony 311.
[26] Seneca, Hercules Furens 788791 (pp. 112113).
[27] LIMC Herakles 2599ad; Beazley Archive 302005. Re-
produced from Baumeisters Denkmler des klassichen Al-
terthums, volume I., gure 730 (text on p. 663).
[28] Homer, Iliad 8.367368; compare with Odyssey 11.620
626. Heracles is also given the task by Eurystheus in
Hecataeus of Miletus, fr. *27 a Fowler (Fowler 2001,
p. 136) (apud Pausanias, 3.25.45), (cf. FGrH 1 F27),
Euripides, Heracles 12761278, Pirithous TrGF 43 F1
lines 1014 (Ogden 2013b, pp. 6970; Collard and
Cropp, pp. 646647); Euphorian, fragment 71 Light-
foot (Lightfoot, pp. 300303; Ogden 2013b, pp. 6970);
Diodorus Siculus, 4.25.1; Hyginus, Fabulae 32.
5.10. NOTES
[29] Apollodorus, 2.5.12. So also in Euphorian, fragment 71
Lightfoot 13 (Lightfoot, pp. 300303; Ogden 2013b,
pp. 6970), and Tzetzes, Chiliades 2.36.388410 (Greek:
Kiessling, pp. 5556; English translation: Berkowitz, p.
48). Euripides, Heracles 2225, calls this labor the last.
However according to Diodorus Siculus, 4.25.2 this labor
was the eleventh and next to last, the twelfth being stealig
the Apples of the Hesperides.
[30] Pirthous TrGF 43 F1 lines 1014 (Ogden 2013b, p. 70;
Collard and Cropp, pp. 646647); Ogden 2013a, p. 113.
[31] Euripides Heracles 612613; Papadopoulou, p. 163.
[32] Diodorus Siculus, 4.25.12.
[33] Apollodorus, 2.5.12; so also, Tzetzes, Chiliades 2.36.394
(Greek: Kiessling, pp. 5556; English translation:
Berkowitz, p. 48). Apollodorus adds that, since it was un-
lawful for foreigners to be initiated, Heracles was adopted
by Pylius, and that before Heracles could be initiated, he
rst had to be cleansed of the slaughter of the centaurs";
see also Frazers note 2 to Apollodorus, 2.5.12.
[34] Homer, Odyssey 11.620626; compare with Pausanias,
8.18.3. Apollodorus, 2.5.1 also has Hermes aiding Hera-
cles in the underworld.
[35] Ogden 2013a, p. 110; Fowler 2013, p. 305 with n. 159.
An entrance at Tainaron is mentioned as early as Pindar,
Pythian 4.44.
[36] Hecataeus of Miletus, fr. *27 a Fowler (Fowler 2001,
p. 136) (apud Pausanias, 3.25.45), (cf. FGrH 1 F27);
Euripides, Heracles 2225; Seneca, Hercules Furens 662
696 (pp. 102105); Apollodorus, 2.5.1, so also, Tzetzes,
Chiliades 2.36.395 (Greek: Kiessling, pp. 5556; English
translation: Berkowitz, p. 48).
[37] Xenophon of Athens, Anabasis 6.2.2.
[38] Ogden 2013a, p. 108.
[39] Gantz, pp. 291295.
[40] Apollodorus, 2.5.12, E.1.24; compare with Tzetzes,
Chiliades 2.36.396410, 4.31.911916 (Greek:
Kiessling, pp. 5556, 153; English translation:
Berkowitz, pp. 48, 138).
[41] LIMC Herakles 3519; Gantz, p. 292; Schelfold 1966, pp.
6869 g. 24.
[42] Euripides Heracles 11691170., :12211222; Gantz, p.
293.
[43] Gantz, P. 293; Collard and Cropp, p. 637; Pirithous TrGF
43 F1 Hypothesis (Collard and Cropp, pp. 640641).
[44] Philochorus, FGrH 328 F18a, b, c; Harding, pp. 6770;
Ogden 2013b, p. 73; Ogden 2013a, p. 109 (Philochorus
F18a = Plutarch, Theseus 35.1, compare with 31.14).
[45] Diodorus Siculus, 4.26.1.
[46] Diodorus Siculus, 4.63.4; Gantz, pp. 294295.
[47] Hyginus, Fabulae 79.
25
[48] Beazley Archive 10772.
[49] Ogden 2013a, pp. 110112.
[50] Apollodorus, 2.5.1; compare with Tzetzes, Chiliades
2.36.400401 (Greek: Kiessling, pp. 5556; English
translation: Berkowitz, p. 48) which says that Heracles
mastered Cerberus Covered only by his lion skin and
breast piece / Apart from the rest of his weapons, just as
Pluton [i.e. Hades] said.
[51] Homer, Iliad 5.395397; Ogden 2013a, pp. 110111.
Panyassis F26 West (West, M. L., (pp. 212213) has
Elean Hades being shot by Heracles. Compare with
Seneca, Hercules Furens 4851 (pp. 5253), where Her-
acles brings back spoils of triumph over that conquered
king subdued Dis.
[52] Smallwood, pp. 9697; Ogden 2013a, p. 111.
[53] Schol. Homer Iliad 5.395397 (Ogden 2013b, p. 66);
Ogden 2013a, p. 112.
[54] Ogden 2013a, p. 111.
[55] Euripides Heracles 610613; Ogden 2013b, pp. 6970.
This question is echoed in Seneca, Hercules Furens 760
761 (pp. 110111), where Amphitryon asks Is it spoil
[Heracles] brings, or a willing gift from his uncle.
[56] Pirithous TrGF 43 F1 Hypothesis (Collard and Cropp, pp.
640641).
[57] Diodorus Siculus, 4.26.1.
[58] Aristophanes, Frogs 465469; Ogden 2013b, pp. 6566.
[59] Seneca, Hercules Furens 797812 (pp. 112113).
[60] Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.409413.
[61] Ogden 2013a, pp. 107108, 112113.
[62] Strabo, 8.5.1.
[63] Seneca, Hercules Furens 663 (pp. 102105) (entrance),
813 (pp. 112113) (exit). Senecas account may reect a
much older tradition rationalized by Hecataeus of Miletus,
fr. *27 a Fowler (Fowler 2001, p. 136) (apud Pausanias,
3.25.45), (cf. FGrH 1 F27), see Ogden 2013a, p. 112.
[64] Apollodorus, 2.5.12. Tzetzes, Chiliades 2.36.404 (Greek:
Kiessling, pp. 5556; English translation: Berkowitz, p.
48) also has Cerberus brought up at Troezen.
[65] Pausanias, 2.31.2.
[66] Ogden 2013a, pp. 107108, 112; Ogden 2013b, pp.
6869; Fowler 2013, pp. 305 .; Herodorus frag-
ment 31 Fowler (= Euphorion fragment 41a Lightfoot);
Euphorion, fragment 41 Lightfoot (Lightfoot, pp. 272
275); Diodorus Siculus, 14.31.3; Ovid, Metamorphoses
7.406419; Pomponius Mela, 1.92; Pliny, Natural His-
tory 27.4; Schol. Nicander alexipharmaca 13b; Dionysius
Periegetes, 788792; Eustathius, Commentary on Diony-
sius Periegetes 788792; First Vatican Mythographer,
1.57 (Ogden 2013b, pp. 7374; Pepin, p. 36). For
aconite in the vicinity of Heraclea, see also Theophrastus,
Historia Plantarum 9.16.4 pp. 298299; Strabo, 12.3.7;
26
Pliny, Natural History 6.4; Arrian, FGrH 156 F76a apud
Eustathius of Thessalonica, Commentary on Dionysius
Periegetes 788792.
[67] Schol. Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 2.353 (Ogden
2013b, p. 68); compare with Euphorion, fragment 41a
Lightfoot, (Lightfoot, pp. 272275 = Herodorus fragment
31 Fowler).
[68] Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.413419, which has Ceberus
brought up from the underworld through a cave on the
shores of Scythia, where, 'tis fabled, the [aconite] plant
grew on soil infected by Cerberian teeth.
[69] Seneca, Hercules Furens 797821 (pp. 112115); see also
Agamemnon, 859862 (pp. 198199), which has Cer-
berus fearing the colour of the unknown light.
[70] Pausanias, 2.35.10; Euripides, Heracles 615 (Ogden
2013b, pp. 6970).
[71] Pausanias, 9.34.5.
[72] Ogden 2013a, pp. 112113.
[73] Ogden 2013a, p. 113; Ogden 2013b, pp. 6971.
[74] Euphorian, fragment 71 Lightfoot 1415 (Lightfoot, pp.
300303; Ogden 2013b, pp. 6970).
[75] Diodorus Siculus, 4.26.1.
[76] Seneca, Hercules Furens 4662 (pp. 5253).
[77] Seneca, Hercules Furens 827829 (pp. 114115).
[78] Apollodorus, 2.5.12.
[79] Hesychius of Alexandria s.v. eleutheron hydor (Ogden [106] Horace, Odes 3.11.1320; West, David, pp. 101103;
2013b, pp. 6971); Ogden 2013a, p. 114.
[80] For a discussion of sources see Ogden 2013a, pp. 104
114; Ogden 2013b, pp. 6374; Gantz, pp. 2223.
[81] Homer, Iliad 8.367368, Odyssey 11.620626.
[82] Homer, Iliad 5.395397.
[83] Hesiod, Theogony 300312.
[84] Hesiod, Theogony 767774; Ogden 2013b, pp. 65.
[85] Bowra, p. 94; Ogden 2013a, p. 105 n. 182.
[86] Gantz, p. 22; Ogden 2013a, p. 106, with n. 184; LIMC
Herakles 2553.
[87] Bowra, p. 120.
[88] Gantz, p. 22; Ogden 2013a, p. 106, with n. 185; LIMC
Herakles 2605; Schefold 1992, p. 129; Pipili, g. 8.
[89] Pindar fragment F249a/b SM, from a lost Pindar poem on
Heracles in the underworld, according to a scholia on the
Iliad, Gantz p. 22; Ogden 2013a, p. 105, with n. 182.
[90] Bacchylides, Ode 5.5662.
[91] Sophocles, Women of Trachis 10971099.
[92] Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 15681578; Markanto-
natos, pp. 129130.
CHAPTER 5. CERBERUS
[93] Euripides Heracles 12761278.
[94] Euripides Heracles 2225.
[95] Euripides Heracles 2225.
[96] Euripides Heracles 612613; Papadopoulou, p. 163; Og-
den 2013b, pp. 6970.
[97] Euripides Heracles 2225.
[98] Pirithous TrGF 43 F1 Hypothesis (Collard and Cropp, pp.
640641). For the question of authorship see Gantz, p.
293; Collard and Cropp, pp. 629635, p. 636.
[99] Plato Republic 588c.
[100] Euphorian, fragment 71 Lightfoot (Lightfoot, pp. 300
303; Ogden 2013b, pp. 6970); Ogden 2013a, p. 107.
[101] Schol. Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 2.353 (Ogden
2013b, p. 68); compare with Euphorion, fragment 41a
Lightfoot (Lightfoot, pp. 272275).
[102] Diodorus Siculus, 4.25.1, 26.12; Ogden 2013b, p. 66.
[103] Virgil, Aeneid 6.417425; Ogden 2013b, p. 71; Ogden
2013a, p, 109; Ogden 2013b, p. 69. Compare with
Apuleius, Metamorphoses 6.19 (pp. 284285), where fol-
lowing Virgil, exiting (as well as entering) the underworld
is accomplished by giving Cerberus a mead-soaked barley
cake.
[104] Virgil, Aeneid 8.296297.
[105] Virgil, Georgics 4.483.
Ogden 2013a, p. 108. Compare with Odes 2.13.3336
(hundred-headed, referring perhaps to the one hundred
snakes), Odes 2.19.2932 (triple tongue).
[107] Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.500501.
[108] Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.406 .; Ogden 2013a, p. 108.
[109] Seneca, Hercules Furens 782821 (pp. 110115); Ogden
2013b, pp. 6668.
[110] Seneca, Hercules Furens 782791 (pp. 110113).
[111] Seneca, Hercules Furens 797821 (pp. 112115); see also
Agamemnon, 859862 (pp. 198199), which has Cer-
berus fearing the colour of the unknown light.
[112] Seneca, Hercules Furens 4662 (pp. 5253).
[113] Apollodorus, 2.5.12; Ogden 2013b, pp. 6465.
[114] Pseudo-Nonnus, 4.51 (Nimmo Smith, p. 37); Ogden
2013a, p. 114.
[115] Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC),
Herakles 16971761 (Boardman, pp. 516), 25532675
(Smallwood, pp. 85100); Schefold 1992, pp. 129132.
[116] LIMC Herakles 2553 (Smallwood, pp. 87, 9798);
Schefold 1966, p. 68 g. 23; Schefold 1992, p. 129;
Ogden 2013a, pp. 106, 111; Gantz, p. 22.
 5.10. NOTES 27

[117] LIMC Herakles 2621 (Smallwood, pp. 92, 97); Ogden [138] Servius on Virgil, Aeneid 6.395; Ogden 2013a, p. 190;
2013a, p. 108. Cerberus is perhaps being led by Her-
acles, but only the left arm is preserved. According to
Smallwood, the identication as Heracles and Cerberus
is suggested by Dunbabin, taken as certain by Schfer
(p. 92), and too little of the fragment is preserved for a
secure identication.
[118] LIMC Herakles 2605 (Smallwood, p. 91); Schefold 1992,
pp. 129130; Pipili, p. 5, g. 8; Gantz, p. 22; Ogden
2013a, p. 106, 111 with n. 185, p. 111 with n. 230.
[119] Schefold 1992, p. 98.
compare with Fulgentius, Mythologies 1.6 (Whitbread, pp.
5152); First Vatican Mythographer, 1.57 (Ogden 2013b,
pp. 7374; Pepin, p. 36); Second Vatican Mythogra-
pher, 13 (Pepin, 106), 173 (Pepin, p. 171); Third Vatican
Mythographer, 13.4 (Pepin, p. 324). According to Og-
den, 2013b, p. 74, "creoboros is a genuine Greek word and
does indeed mean 'esh-devouring', but it has no part to
play in the genuine etymology of Cerberuss name, which
remains obscure.
[139] Room, p. 88.
[140] Stern, p. 7; Ogden 2013a, p. 183.

[120] Schefold 1992, p. 129; Smallwood, p. 87. Exceptions [141] Ogden 2013a, pp. 184185.
include: LIMC Heracles 2570, 2576 (one head).
[142] Hecataeus of Miletus, fr. *27 a Fowler (Fowler 2001,
[121] Smallwood, pp. 87, 93. Exceptions include: LIMC Her- p. 136) (apud Pausanias, 3.25.45), (cf. FGrH 1 F27);
akles 2553, 2591, 2621 (one head), 2579 (two heads). Hawes, p. 8; Hopman, p. 182; Ogden 2013a, p. 107;
Ogden 2013b, pp. 7273.
[122] LIMC Herakles 2640, 2642, 2656, 2666, Smallwood, p. [143] Pausanias, 3.25.6.
93.
[144] Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Tales 39 (Stern, pp. 71
[123] LIMC Herakles 2604 (Smallwood, p. 91); Beazley 72).
Archive 301639.
[145] Ogden 2013a, p. 187.
[124] Smallwood, p. 87; Ogden 2013b p. 63. Examples in- [146] Philochorus, FGrH 328 F18a (= Plutarch, Theseus 35.1),
clude: LIMC Herakles 25534, 2560, 2571, 2579, 2581, F18b, F18c; Harding, pp. 6870; Ogden 2013b, p. 73;
2586, 2588, 2595, 2600, 26036, 261011, 2616, 2621, Ogden 2013a, p. 109; Gantz, p. 295; Collard and Cropp,
2628). p. 637. Compare with Plutarch, Theseus 31.14; Tzetzes,
Chiliades 2.36.388411 (Greek: Kiessling, pp. 5556;
[125] Smallwood, p. 87. English translation: Berkowitz, p. 48), 4.31.911916
(Kiessling, p. 153; Berkowitz, p. 138).
[126] LIMC Herakles 2604 (Smallwood, p. 91); Beazley
Archive 301639. [147] Ogden 2013b, p. 73.

[148] Servius on Virgil, Aeneid 6.395; Ogden 2013a, p. 190.

[127] LIMC Herakles 2554 (Smallwood, pp. 87, 98); Schefold
For others who followed Servius in interpreting Cerberus
1992, pp. 130131, g. 152; Beazley Archive 200011;
as symbolizing the corruption of esh, in both the literal
Perseus Louvre F 204 (Vase).
and moral senses, see Brumble, pp. 6869.
[128] Smallwood, pp. 8, 91. [149] Fulgentius, Mythologies 1.6 (Whitbread, pp. 5152); Og-
den 2013a, p. 190.
[129] LIMC Herakles 2610 (Smallwood, p. 91); Buitron,
Worcester MA 1935.59; Beazley Archive 351415. [150] First Vatican Mythographer, 1.57 (Ogden 2013b, pp.
7374; Pepin, p. 36); Second Vatican Mythographer,
[130] LIMC Herakles 2628 (Smallwood, p. 93). 173 (Pepin, p. 171); Third Vatican Mythographer, 13.4
(Pepin, p. 324).
[131] LIMC Herakles 2618 (Smallwood, p. 92).
[151] Second Vatican Mythographer, 13 (Pepin, p. 106).
[132] Smallwood, p. 98. [152] Third Vatican Mythographer 6.22 (Pepin, p. 171).

[133] Smallwood, p. 99. [153] Second Vatican Mythographer, 13 (Pepin, p. 106); Third
Vatican Mythographer 6.22 (Pepin, p. 171). For others
[134] LIMC Kerberos 66; Woodford, p. 29. who associated Cerberus three heads with the three con-
tinents see Brumble, p. 69.
[135] Ogden 2013a, p. 105.
[154] Virgil, Aeneid 6.421.
[136] Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q. (2006). Chapter 25.10: [155] Wilson-Okamura, p. 169; Brumble, p. 69.
Death and the Otherworld. Oxford Introduction to Proto-
Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Ox- [156] Dante, Inferno 6.1318
ford, GBR: Oxford University Press. p. 439. ISBN 978- [157] Dante, Inferno 6.2527; Lansing, p. 154.
0-19-928791-8. OCLC 139999117.
[158] Ian Ridpaths 'Star Tales". Ianridpath.com. Retrieved 7
[137] Lincoln, pp. 9697. July 2012.
28
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Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an En-
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F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard
University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd.
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Apuleius, Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass), Vol-
ume I: Books 16. Edited and translated by J.
Arthur Hanson. Loeb Classical Library No. 44.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.
Online version at Harvard University Press.
Aristophanes, Frogs, Matthew Dillon, Ed., Perseus
Digital Library, Tufts University, 1995. Online ver-
sion at the Perseus Digital Library.
Bacchylides, Odes, translated by Diane Arnson
Svarlien. 1991. Online version at the Perseus Digi-
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Bloomeld, Maurice, Cerberus, the Dog of Hades:
The History of an Idea, Open Court publishing
Company, 1905. Online version at Google Books
Bowra, C. M., Greek Lyric Poetry: From Alcman to
Simonides, Clarendon Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-19-
814329-1.
Diodorus Siculus, Diodorus Siculus: The Library of
History. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Twelve vol-
umes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press; London: William Heine-
mann, Ltd. 1989.
Euripides. Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus. Other
Fragments. Edited and translated by Christopher
Collard, Martin Cropp. Loeb Classical Library No.
506. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
2009.
Euripides, Heracles, translated by E. P. Coleridge
in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney
J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 1. New
York. Random House. 1938. Online version at the
Perseus Digital Library.
Fowler, R. L. (2001), Early Greek Mythography:
Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-19-814740-4.* Free-
man, Kathleen, Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philoso-
phers: A Complete Translation of the Fragments in
Diels, Fragmente Der Vorsokratiker, Harvard Uni-
versity Press, 1983. ISBN 978-0-674-03501-0.
Fowler, R. L. (2013), Early Greek Mythography:
Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press,
2013. ISBN 978-0-19-814741-1.
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Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Lit-
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5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol.
2).
Harding, Phillip, The Story of Athens: The Frag-
ments of the Local Chronicles of Attika, Routledge,
2007. ISBN 978-1-134-30447-9.
Hawes, Greta, Rationalizing Myth in Antiquity, OUP
Oxford, 2014. ISBN 9780191653407.
Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and
Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G.
Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University
Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by
A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge,
MA, Harvard University Press; London, William
Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the
Perseus Digital Library.
Homer; The Odyssey with an English Translation by
A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge,
MA, Harvard University Press; London, William
Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the
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Hopman, Marianne Govers, Scylla: Myth,
Metaphor, Paradox, Cambridge University Press,
2013. ISBN 978-1-139-85185-5.
Horace, The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace.
John Conington. trans. London. George Bell and
Sons. 1882. Online version at the Perseus Digital
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Hyginus, Gaius Julius, The Myths of Hyginus.
Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence:
University of Kansas Press, 1960.
Lansing, Richard (editor), The Dante Encyclopedia,
Routledge, 2010. ISBN 9781136849725.
Lightfoot, J. L. Hellenistic Collection: Philitas.
Alexander of Aetolia. Hermesianax. Euphorion.
Parthenius. Edited and translated by J. L. Light-
foot. Loeb Classical Library No. 508. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-
674-99636-6. Online version at Harvard University
Press.
Lincoln, Bruce (1991). Death, War, and Sacrice:
Studies in Ideology and Practice. Chicago: Univer-
sity of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-48199-9.
Lucan, Pharsalia, Sir Edward Ridley. London.
Longmans, Green, and Co. 1905. Online version
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Markantonatos, Andreas, Tragic Narrative: A Nar-
ratological Study of Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus,
Walter de Gruyter, 2002. ISBN 978-3-11-089588-
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Nimmo Smith, Jennifer, A Christians Guide to
Greek Culture: The Pseudo-nonnus Commentaries
on Sermons 4, 5, 39 and 43. Liverpool University
Press, 2001. ISBN 9780853239178.
Ogden, Daniel (2013a), Drakn: Dragon Myth and
Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Oxford
University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-19-955732-5.
Ogden, Daniel (2013b), Dragons, Serpents, and
Slayers in the Classical and early Christian Worlds:
A sourcebook, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-
0-19-992509-4.
Ovid. Heroides. Amores. Translated by Grant
Showerman. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Clas-
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version at Harvard University Press.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Brookes More. Boston.
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Tragedy, Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN
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Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an
English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and
H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge,
MA, Harvard University Press; London, William
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Pepin, Ronald E., The Vatican Mythogra-
phers, Fordham University Press, 2008. ISBN
9780823228928
Pindar, Odes, Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. Online
version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Pipili, Maria, Laconian Iconography of the Sixth
Century B.C., Oxford University, 1987.
Plato, Republic Books 610, Translated by Paul
Shorey, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press;
London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969. Online
version at the Perseus Digital Library
Plutarch. Lives, Volume I: Theseus and Romulus.
Lycurgus and Numa. Solon and Publicola. Trans-
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Propertius Elegies Edited and translated by G. P.
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Quintus Smyrnaeus, Quintus Smyrnaeus: The Fall
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Schefold, Karl (1966), Myth and Legend in Early
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100.
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30 CHAPTER 5. CERBERUS

Trypanis, C. A., Gelzer, Thomas; Whitman, Cedric,

CALLIMACHUS, MUSAEUS, Aetia, Iambi, Hecale
and Other Fragments. Hero and Leander, Harvard
University Press, 1975. ISBN 978-0-674-99463-8.
Tzetzes, Chiliades, editor Gottlieb Kiessling, F.C.G.
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Virgil, Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics Of Vergil. J.
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3. Carleton L. Brownson. Harvard University Press,
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5.12 External links

This article incorporates text from a publication now
in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).
"Cerberus". Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cam-
bridge University Press.

Theoi Project: Kerberos

Media related to Cerberus at Wikimedia Commons

Chapter 6

Changeling

For other uses, see Changeling (disambiguation).
an aspect of family survival in pre-industrial Europe. A
peasant familys subsistence frequently depended upon
the productive labor of each member, and it was dicult
to provide for a person who was a permanent drain on the
familys scarce resources. The fact that the changelings
ravenous appetite is so frequently mentioned indicates
that the parents of these unfortunate children saw in their
continuing existence a threat to the sustenance of the en-
tire family. Changeling tales support other historical ev-
idence in suggesting that infanticide was not infrequently
the solution selected.[3]

Der Wechselbalg by Henry Fuseli, 1781

A changeling is a creature found in folklore and folk

religion. A changeling child was believed to be a fairy
child that had been left in place of a human child stolen
by the fairies. The theme of the swapped child is com-
mon in medieval literature and reects concern over in-
fants thought to be aicted with unexplained diseases,
disorders, or developmental disabilities.

6.1 Description
A human child might be taken due to many factors: to
act as a servant, the love of a human child, or malice.[1] The devil steals a baby and leaves a changeling behind, early
Most often it was thought that fairies exchanged the chil- 15th century, detail of The legend of St. Stephen by Martino di
dren. In rare cases, the very elderly of the Fairy people Bartolomeo
would be exchanged in the place of a human baby, and
then the old fairy could live in comfort, being coddled by
its human parents.[2] Simple charms, such as an inverted
coat or open iron scissors left where the child sleeps, were 6.2 Purpose of a changeling
thought to ward them o; other measures included a con-
stant watch over the child. [3] One belief is that trolls thought that it was more re-
D. L. Ashliman points out that changeling tales illustrate spectable to be raised by humans and that they wanted to

31
32 CHAPTER 6. CHANGELING

give their own children a human upbringing. Some peo-
ple believed that trolls would take unbaptized children.
Once children had been baptized and therefore become
part of the Church, the trolls could not take them.
Beauty in human children and young women, particularly
blond hair, was said to attract the fairies.[4]
confusing the changeling by cooking or brewing in
eggshells. This nonsense is forcing the changeling to
speak, revealing its true age.[9]
trying to burn the changeling in the oven[11]
hitting[11] or whipping[10] the changeling

In Scottish folklore, the children might be replacements Sometimes the changeling has to be fed with a womans
for fairy children in the tithe to Hell;[5] this is best known milk before replacing the children.[10]
from the ballad of Tam Lin.[6] According to common
Scottish myths, a child born with a caul (head helmet) In German folklore, several possible parents are known
across his or her face is a changeling, and of fey birth. for changelings. Those are:
Other folklore[2] say that human milk is necessary for the devil[9]
fairy children to survive. In these cases either the new-
born human child would be switched with a fairy baby to a female dwarf[11]
be suckled by the human mother, or the human mother
a water spirit[12]
would be taken back to the fairy world to breastfeed the
fairy babies. It is also thought that human midwives were a Roggenmuhme/Roggenmutter (Rye Aunt"/"Rye
necessary to bring fairy babies into the world. Mother, a demonic woman living in cornelds and
Some stories tell of changelings who forget they are not stealing human children)[13]
human and proceed to live a human life. Changelings
which do not forget, however, in some stories return to
6.3.3 Ireland
their fairy family, possibly leaving the human family with-
out warning. The human child that was taken may often
In Ireland, looking at a baby with envy over looking the
stay with the fairy family forever.
baby was dangerous, as it endangered the baby, who
Some folklorists believe that fairies were memories of was then in the fairies power.[14] So too was admiring or
inhabitants of various regions in Europe who had been envying a woman or man dangerous, unless the person
driven into hiding by invaders. They held that changelings added a blessing; the able-bodied and beautiful were in
had actually occurred; the hiding people would exchange particular danger. Women were especially in danger in
their own sickly children for the healthy children of the liminal states: being a new bride, or a new mother.[15]
invaders.[7]
Putting a changeling in a re would cause it to jump up the
chimney and return the human child, but at least one tale
recounts a mother with a changeling nding that a fairy
6.3 Changelings in folklore woman came to her home with the human child, saying
the other fairies had done the exchange, and she wanted
her own baby.[14] The tale of surprising a changeling into
6.3.1 Cornwall speech by brewing eggshells is also told in Ireland, as
in Wales.[16]
The Mn-an-Tol stones in Cornwall are supposed to have Belief in changelings endured in parts of Ireland until as
a fairy or pixie guardian who can make miraculous cures. late as 1895, when Bridget Cleary was killed by her hus-
In one case a changeling baby was put through the stone band who believed her to be a changeling.
in order for the mother to get the real child back. Evil
pixies had changed her child and the ancient stones were Changelings, in some instances, were regarded not as sub-
able to reverse their evil spell.[8] stituted fairy children but instead old fairies brought to the
human world to die.
The modern Irish girls name, Siofra, means an elvish
6.3.2 Germany or changeling child, it derives from Sobhra() meaning
fairy(/fairies). The Aos s, siabhra (commonly anglicised
[17][18]
In respect of popular superstitions, Martin Luther was as sheevra), may be prone to evil and mischief.
a product of his times and believed that a changeling However an Ulster folk song [19]
also uses sheevra simply
[3]
was a child of the devil without a human soul. In Ger- to mean spirit or fairy.
many, the changeling is known as Wechselbalg,[9] Wech-
selkind,[10] Kielkropf or Dickkopf (the last both hinting at
6.3.4 The Isle of Man
the huge necks and heads of changelings).[9]
Several methods are known in Germany to identify a The Isle of Man had a wide collection of myths and su-
changeling and to replace it with the real child: perstitions concerning fairies, and there are numerous
6.3. CHANGELINGS IN FOLKLORE 33

folk tales that have been collected concerning supposed At Byerholm near Newcastleton in Liddesdale sometime
changelings. Sophia Morrison, in her Manx Fairy Tales during the early 19th century, a dwarf called Robert El-
(David Nutt, London, 1911) includes the tale of The liot or Little Hobbie o' The Castleton as he was known, was
Fairy Child of Close ny Lheiy, a tale of a child suppos- reputed to be a changeling. When taunted by other boys
edly swapped by the fairies for a loud and unruly fairy he would not hesitate to draw his gully (a large knife) and
child. The English poet and topographer George Wal- dispatch them, however being that he was woefully short
dron, who lived in the Isle of Man during the early 18th in the legs they usually out-ran him and escaped. He was
century, cites a tale of a reputed changeling that was courageous however and when he heard that his neigh-
shown to him, possibly a child with an inherited genetic bour, the six-foot three-inch (191 cm) William Scott of
disorder : Kirndean, a sturdy and strong borderer, had slandered his
name, he invited the man to his house, took him up the
Nothing under heaven could have a more beautiful face;
but though between ve and six years old, and seemingly stairs and challenged him to a duel. Scott beat a hasty
retreat.[21]
healthy, he was so far from being able to walk, or stand,
that he could not so much as move any one joint; his limbs Child ballad 40, The Queen of Elfans Nourice, depicts
were vastly long for his age, but smaller than an infants of the abduction of a new mother, drawing on the folklore
six months; his complexion was perfectly delicate, and he of the changelings. Although it is fragmentary, it contains
had the nest hair in the world; he never spoke, nor cried, the mothers grief and the Queen of Eland's promise to
ate scarcely anything, and was very seldom seen to smile, return her to her own child if she will nurse the queens
but if any one called him a fairy-elf, he would frown and child until it can walk.[22]
x his eyes so earnestly on those who said it, as if he would
look them through. His mother, or at least his supposed
mother, being very poor, frequently went out a-charing, 6.3.6 Poland
and left him a whole day together. The neighbours, out of
curiosity, have often looked in at the window to see how The Slavic spirit that exchanges the babies (making them
he behaved when alone, which, whenever they did, they into odmiece) in the cradle is Mamuna or Boginki.[23]
were sure to nd him laughing and in the utmost delight.
This made them judge that he was not without company
more pleasing to him than any mortals could be; and what 6.3.7 Scandinavia
made this conjecture seem the more reasonable was, that
if he were left ever so dirty, the woman at her return saw Since most beings from Scandinavian folklore are said to
him with a clean face, and his hair combed with the ut- be afraid of iron, Scandinavian parents often placed an
most exactness and nicety. iron item such as a pair of scissors or a knife on top of
an unbaptized infants cradle. It was believed that if a hu-
man child was taken in spite of such measures, the par-
6.3.5 Lowland Scotland and Northern ents could force the return of the child by treating the
England changeling cruelly, using methods such as whipping or
even inserting it in a heated oven. In at least one case, a
In the Anglo-Scottish border region it was believed that woman was taken to court for having killed her child in
an oven.[24]
elves (or fairies) lived in Elf Hills (or Fairy Hills).
Along with this belief in supernatural beings was the view In one Swedish changeling tale,[25] the human mother is
that they could spirit away children, and even adults, and advised to brutalize the changeling so that the trolls will
take them back to their own world (see Elfhame).[20][21] return her son, but she refuses, unable to mistreat an inno-
Often, it was thought, a baby would be snatched and re- cent child despite knowing its nature. When her husband
placed with a simulation of the baby, usually a male adult demands she abandon the changeling, she refuses, and he
elf, to be suckled by the mother.[20] The real baby would leaves her whereupon he meets their son in the forest,
be treated well by the elves and would grow up to be one wandering free. The son explains that since his mother
of them, where as the changeling baby would be discon- had never been cruel to the changeling, so the troll mother
tented and wearisome.[21] Many herbs, salves and seeds had never been cruel to him, and when she sacriced what
could be used for discovering the fairy-folk and ward o was dearest to her, her husband, they had realized they
their designs.[21] had no power over her and released him.
In one tale a mother suspected that her baby had been The tale is notably retold by Helena Nyblom as Bort-
taken and replaced with a changeling, a view that was bytingarna[26] in the 1913 book Bland tomtar och troll.[27]
proven to be correct one day when a neighbour ran into (which is depicted by the image), a princess is kidnapped
the house shouting Come here and ye'll se a sight! Yon- by trolls and replaced with their own ospring against the
ders the Fairy Hill a' alowe. To which the elf got up wishes of the troll mother. The changelings grow up with
saying "Waes me! What'll come o' me wife and bairns?" their new parents, but both nd it hard to adapt: the hu-
and made his way out of the chimney.[20] man girl is disgusted by her future bridegroom, a troll
34
Painting by John Bauer of two trolls with a human child they
have raised
prince, whereas the troll girl is bored by her life and by swore that she was merely attempting to drive the fairy
her dull human future groom. Upset with the conditions out of him, and the jury acquitted her of murder.[29]
of their lives, they both go astray in the forest, passing
each other without noticing it. The princess comes to the
castle whereupon the queen immediately recognizes her,
and the troll girl nds a troll woman who is cursing loudly
as she works. The troll girl bursts out that the troll woman
is much more fun than any other person she has ever seen,
and her mother happily sees that her true daughter has
returned. Both the human girl and the troll girl marry
happily the very same day.
6.3.8 Spain
In Asturias (North Spain) there is a legend about the
Xana, a sort of nymph who used to live near rivers,
fountains and lakes, sometimes helping travellers on their
journeys. The Xanas were conceived as little female
fairies with supernatural beauty. They could deliver ba-
bies, xaninos, that were sometimes swapped with hu-
man babies in order to be baptized. The legend says that
in order to distinguish a xanino from a human baby,
some pots and egg shells should be put close to the re-
place; a xanino would say: I was born one hundred years
ago, and since then I have not seen so many egg shells near
the re!".
6.3.9 Wales
In Wales the changeling child (plentyn cael (sing.), plant
cael (pl.)) initially resembles the human it substitutes,
but gradually grows uglier in appearance and behaviour:
ill-featured, malformed, ill-tempered, given to screaming
and biting. It may be of less than usual intelligence, but
again is identied by its more than childlike wisdom and
CHAPTER 6. CHANGELING
cunning.
The common means employed to identify a changeling
is to cook a family meal in an eggshell. The child will
exclaim, I have seen the acorn before the oak, but I never
saw the likes of this, and vanish, only to be replaced by
the original human child. Alternatively, or following this
identication, it is supposedly necessary to mistreat the
child by placing it in a hot oven, by holding it in a shovel
over a hot re, or by bathing it in a solution of foxglove.[28]
6.4 Changelings in the historical
record
Children were identied as changelings by the supersti-
tious, and were therefore often abused or murdered.
Two 19th century cases reected the belief in
changelings. In 1826, Anne Roche bathed Michael
Leahy, a four-year-old boy unable to speak or stand,
three times in the Flesk; he drowned the third time. She
In the 1890s in Ireland, Bridget Cleary was killed by
several people, including her husband and cousins, af-
ter a short bout of illness (probably pneumonia). Local
storyteller Jack Dunne accused Bridget of being a fairy
changeling. It is debatable whether her husband, Michael,
actually believed her to be a fairy many believe he con-
cocted a fairy defence after he murdered his wife in a
t of rage. The killers were convicted of manslaughter
rather than murder, as even after the death they claimed
that they were convinced they had killed a changeling, not
Bridget Cleary.[30]
6.5 Changelings in other countries
The ogbanje (pronounced similar to oh-BWAN-jeh) is
a term meaning child who comes and goes among the
Igbo people of eastern Nigeria. When a woman would
have numerous children either stillborn or die early in in-
fancy, the traditional belief was that it was a malicious
spirit that was being reincarnated over and over again to
torment the aicted mother. One of the most commonly
prescribed methods for ridding ones self of an ogbanje
was to nd its iyi-uwa, a buried object that ties the evil
spirit to the mortal world, and destroy it. An abiku
was a rough analogue to the ogbanje among the related
Yoruba peoples to the west of Igboland.
Many scholars now believe that ogbanje stories were
attempting to explain children with sickle-cell anemia,
which is endemic to West Africa and aicts around one-
quarter of the population. Even today, and especially in
areas of Africa lacking medical resources, infant death is
common for children born with severe sickle-cell anemia.
6.6. CHANGELINGS IN THE MODERN WORLD 35

The similarity between the European changeling and the nest.

Igbo ogbanje is striking enough that Igbos themselves of-
ten translate the word into English as changeling.
6.6.3 Popular culture
Aswangs, a kind of ghoul from Filipino folklore, are also
sometimes said to leave behind duplicates of their vic- In music:
tims made of plant matter. Like the stocks of European
fairy folklore, the Aswangs plant duplicates soon appear
to sicken and die. The Changeling is the rst song on the album L.A.
Woman by The Doors.

Changeling is the only single released from the

6.6 Changelings in the modern 1979 album "Real to Real Cacophony" by Simple
world Minds.

Heather Dale's song Changeling Child tells the tale

6.6.1 Neurological dierences
of a childless woman who, desperate to have a baby
of her own, begs one of the fairies. She gets her
The reality behind many changeling legends was often the
wish, but in a sad twist nds the fairies granted her
birth of deformed or developmentally disabled children.
wish literallythey gave her a baby, and a baby the
Among the diseases or disabilities with symptoms that
child will forever remain.
match the description of changelings in various legends
are spina bida, cystic brosis, PKU, progeria, Down syn-
drome, homocystinuria, Williams syndrome, Hurler syn- Changeling is the rst song on the 1999 album The
drome, Hunter syndrome, regressive autism, Prader-Willi Other Ending by independent Los Angeles band The
Syndrome, and cerebral palsy. The greater incidence of Dagons.
birth defects in boys correlates to the belief that male in-
fants were more likely to be taken.[31] Changeling / Transmission 1 is the fourth
track on DJ Shadow's 1996 debut album
As noted, it has been hypothesized that the changeling
Endtroducing......
legend may have developed, or at least been used, to ex-
plain the peculiarities of children who did not develop
normally, probably including all sorts of developmental In television:
delays and abnormalities. In particular, it has been sug-
gested that children with autism would be likely to be la- In Supernatural, the Winchesters have faced
beled as changelings or elf-children due to their strange, changelings posing as real children.
sometimes inexplicable behavior. For example, this as-
sociation might explain why fairies are often described In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the term
as having an obsessive impulse to count things like hand- is used to dene a race of shape-shifting, equine in-
fuls of spilled seeds. This has found a place in autistic sectoids that feed o love.
culture. Some autistic adults have come to identify with
changelings (or other replacements, such as aliens) for
In literature:
this reason and their own feeling of being in a world
where they do not belong and of practically not being the
same species as the other people around them.[32] (Com- Isaac Asimov's short story "Kid Stu" (1953) fea-
pare the pseudoscientic New Age concept of indigo chil- tures a member of a telepathic insect race which is
dren.) the source of all the little folk stories. Accord-
ing to the creature, his people really like milk, and
a number of them have indeed been rumored to use
their powers in order to disguise themselves as in-
6.6.2 In nature
fants and drink it as fresh as possible.
Parasitic cuckoo birds regularly practice brood para-
sitism, or non-reciprocal ospring-swapping. Rather than Zilpha Keatley Snyder's young adult novel The
raising their young on their own, they will lay their egg Changeling (1970) features a girl named Ivy who is
in anothers nest, leaving the burden on the unsuspecting convinced she is actually a fairy child.
parents which are of another species altogether. More
often than not, the cuckoo chick hatches sooner than In Gregory Maguire's novel Confessions of an Ugly
its stepsiblings and grows faster, eventually hogging Stepsister (1999), Clara van den Meer believes that
most nourishment brought in and may actually evict the water-spirits kidnapped her and turned her into a
young of the host species by pushing them o their own changeling.
36
Keith Donohue's novel The Stolen Child (2006) is
about a group of changelings who live in a forest in
western Pennsylvania.
Changelings play a role in Frances Hardinge's novel
Cuckoo Song (2014), in which the main character is
believed to be a changeling and is thrown into a re.
Changelings play a major role in Foxglove Summer
(2014), the fth novel in the Rivers of London series
by Ben Aaronovitch. As with other forms of magic
and myth featured in these books, the phenomenon
of fairies kidnapping human children and replacing
them with changelings is depicted as actual, present-
day practice.
The Good People (2016), by Hannah Kent, is based
on the story of 19th-century changeling Michael
Leahy.
The Changeling (2017), by Victor LaValle, is a
retelling of the changeling fairy tale set in New York
City.
In lm:
In 1980, The Changeling was released, featuring the
story of a man who took on the identity of a mur-
dered boy and the man who discovers this when he
begins living in the house where the murder took
place.
Angelina Jolie starred in Changeling (2008), in
which she portrays a mother whose son is kidnapped
and replaced with another boy.
In the 2015 anthology horror lm, A Christmas Hor-
ror Story, one of the stories involves a couple who
mistakes a changeling for their own son and brings
it back home with them.
In games:
In Star Wars for the Family Computer, Luke ghts
four changelings assuming the appearance of Darth
Vader. When attacked once, they reveal their true
forms, such as a scorpion, a shark, a pterodactyl, and
a Wampa.
In Magic: The Gathering, the term is used to dene
a creature that has every single creature type within
the game. It also has a card named Crib Swap, which
reects the switcheroo aspect.
Both the original and rebooted World of Dark-
ness settings by White Wolf Games included one
CHAPTER 6. CHANGELING
game line titled focused on changelings: Changeling:
The Dreaming in the original World of Darkness,
and Changeling: The Lost in the New World of
Darkness. In both games, player characters were
changelings, though the approaches diered be-
tween the two games: in the rst, characters were fae
souls reborn into human bodies, a practice begun by
the fae to protect themselves as magic vanished from
the world. The latter game focused on the folklore
concerning mortals kidnapped by faeries and subse-
quently returned to the mortal world.
In StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the changeling is a
zerg spy produced by the overseer. The Changeling
spawns as a Zerg-looking unit, but upon seeing an
enemy unit or building it will automatically trans-
form into the basic unit of that enemys race. Once
disguised, the Changeling takes on the enemys own
color and will no longer be automatically attacked
by the enemys units, allowing it to inltrate enemy
territory unsuspected.[33]
6.7 See also
Abiku
Brood parasite
Capgras delusion
Fairy
Imbunche
Korrigan
Otherkin
Spriggan
6.8 References
[1] Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgob-
lins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures
Changelings (Pantheon Books, 1976) p. 71. ISBN 0-
394-73467-X
[2] Briggs (1979)
[3] Ashliman, D. L., Changelings, 1997. Frenken shows
historical pictures of the topic (newborn and the devil):
Frenken, Ralph, 2011, Gefesselte Kinder: Geschichte
und Psychologie des Wickelns. Wissenschaftlicher Ver-
lag Bachmann. Badenweiler. p. 146, 218 f, 266, 293.
[4] Briggs (1976) Golden Hair, p. 194
[5] Silver (1999) p. 74
[6] Francis James Child, ballad 39a Tam Lin, The English
and Scottish Popular Ballads
6.9. EXTERNAL LINKS 37

[7] Silver (1999) p. 73 [30] Silver (1999) p. 64-65

[8] Wentz, W. Y. Evans (1911). The Fairy-Faith in Celtic
Countries. Reprinted 1981. Pub. Colin Smythe. ISBN
0-901072-51-6 P. 179.
[9] Jacob Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie. Wiesbaden 2007, p.
364.
[10] Jacob Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie. Wiesbaden 2007, p.
1039.
[31] Silver (1999) p. 75
[32] Du, Kim. The Role of Changeling Lore in Autistic
Culture". Presentation at the 1999 Autreat conference of
Autism Network International.
[33] Changeling (Legacy of the Void) - Liquipedia - The Star-
Craft II Encyclopedia. wiki.teamliquid.net. Retrieved
2016-10-27.

[11] Ludwig Bechstein: Deutsches Sagenbuch. Meersburg,

Leipzig 1930, p. 142 f.
6.9 External links
[12] Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm: Deutsche Sagen. Ham-
burg 2014, p. 126 f. "Changeling". Encyclopdia Britannica. 5 (11th
[13] Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm: Deutsche Sagen. Ham- ed.). 1911.
burg 2014, p. 134 f.
D. L. Ashlimans Changelings page at University of
[14] W. B. Yeats, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, in Pittsburgh
A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore (1986), p.
47, New York : Gramercy Books, ISBN 0-517-48904-X
ani.ac

[15] Silver (1999) p. 167

[16] Yeats (1986) p. 48-50

[17] MacKillop, James (2004) Dictionary of Celtic Mythology

[18] Joyce, P.W. A Social History of Ancient Ireland, Vol. 1,

p. 271

[19] The Gartan Mothers Lullaby published 1904 in The

Songs of Uladh, lyrics by Seosamh MacCathmhaoil
(Joseph Campbell)

[20] Folklore of Northumbria by Fran and Geo Doel, The

History Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7524-4890-9. Pages.
1727.

[21] The Borderers Table Book: Or, Gatherings of the Local

History and Romance of the English and Scottish Border
by Moses Aaron Richardson, Printed for the author, 1846.
Page.133-134.

[22] Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular

Ballads, v 1, p 358-9, Dover Publications, New York 1965

[23] Wielka Ksiga Demonw Polskich. Leksykon i antologia

demonologii ludowej. Lubimyczyta.pl. Retrieved 2016-
02-08.

[24] Klintberg, Bengt af; Svenska Folksgner (1939) ISBN 91-

7297-581-4

[25] The tale is notably retold by Selma Lagerlf as

Bortbytingen in her 1915 book Troll och mnniskor.

[26] http://hem.passagen.se/kurtglim/del1i/

[27] http://www.johnbauersmuseum.nu/visa_saga.php?saga=
5

[28] Wirt Sikes. British Goblins: The Realm of Faerie. Felin-

fach: Llanerch, 1991.

[29] Silver (1999) p. 62

Chapter 7

Chimera (mythology)

"Chimera of Arezzo": an Etruscan bronze

The Chimera on a red-gure Apulian plate, c. 350340 BC

(Muse du Louvre) a goat in the middle,[3] and snorting out the breath
of the terrible ame of bright re.[4] Elsewhere in
The Chimera (/kmr/ or /kamr/, also Chimaera the Iliad, Homer attributes the rearing of Chimera to
(Chimra); Greek: , Chmaira she-goat) Amisodorus.[5] Hesiod's Theogony follows the Homeric
was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous re- description: he makes the Chimera the issue of Echidna:
breathing hybrid creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, com- She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging
posed of the parts of more than one animal. It is usually re, a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who
depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion; in her hinder-
its back, and a tail that might end with a snake's head,[1] part, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth
and was one of the ospring of Typhon and Echidna and a fearful blast of blazing re. Her did Pegasus and no-
a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean ble Bellerophon slay.[6] The author of the Bibliotheca
Hydra. concurs:[7] descriptions agree that she breathed re. The
Chimera is generally considered to have been female
The term chimera has come to describe any mythical or (see the quotation from Hesiod above) despite the mane
ctional animal with parts taken from various animals, or adorning her head, the inclusion of a close mane often
to describe anything composed of very disparate parts, or was depicted on lionesses, but the ears always were vis-
perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling. ible (that does not occur with depictions of male lions).
The seeing of a Chimera was an omen for disaster. Sighting the Chimera was an omen of storms, shipwrecks,
and natural disasters (particularly volcanoes).
While there are dierent genealogies, in one version the
7.1 Description Chimera mated with her brother Orthrus and was the
mother of the Sphinx and the Nemean lion (others have
Homers brief description in the Iliad is the earli- Orthrus and their mother, Echidna, mating; most at-
[2]

est surviving literary reference: a thing of immor- tribute all to Typhon and Echidna).
tal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, The Chimera nally was defeated by Bellerophon with

38
7.1. DESCRIPTION
Gold reel, possibly an ear-stud, with winged Pegasus (outer band)
and the Chimera (inner band), Magna Graecia or Etruria, fourth
century BC (Louvre)
the help of Pegasus, at the command of King Iobates of
Lycia, after terrorising Lycia and nearby lands. Since
Pegasus could y, Bellerophon shot the Chimera from
the air, safe from her heads and breath.[8] A scholiast
to Homer adds that he nished her o by equipping his
spear with a lump of lead that melted when exposed to
the Chimeras ery breath and consequently killed her,
an image drawn from metalworking.[9]
Robert Graves suggests,[10] The Chimera was, appar-
ently, a calendar-symbol of the tripartite year, of which
the seasonal emblems were lion, goat, and serpent.
Pebble mosaic depicting Bellerophon killing the Chimera, from
Rhodes archaeological museum
The Chimera was situated in foreign Lycia,[11] but her
representation in the arts was wholly Greek.[12] An au-
tonomous tradition, one that did not rely on the written
word, was represented in the visual repertory of the Greek
vase-painters. The Chimera rst appears at an early stage
in the repertory of the proto-Corinthian pottery-painters,
providing some of the earliest identiable mythologi-
cal scenes that may be recognized in Greek art. The
39
Corinthian type is xed, after some early hesitation, in
the 670s BC; the variations in the pictorial representations
suggests multiple origins to Marilyn Low Schmitt.[13] The
fascination with the monstrous devolved by the end of
the seventh century into a decorative Chimera-motif in
Corinth,[14] while the motif of Bellerophon on Pegasus
took on a separate existence alone. A separate Attic tra-
dition, where the goats breathe re and the animals rear
is serpent-like, begins with such condence that Marilyn
Low Schmitt is convinced there must be unrecognized
or undiscovered local precursors.[15] Two vase-painters
employed the motif so consistently they are given the
pseudonyms the Bellerophon Painter and the Chimaera
Painter.
Chimera depicted on an Attic vase
A re-breathing lioness was one of the earliest of solar
and war deities in Ancient Egypt (representations from
3000 years prior to the Greek) and inuences are feasible.
The lioness represented the war goddess and protector of
both cultures that would unite as Ancient Egypt. Sekhmet
was one of the dominant deities in upper Egypt and Bast
in lower Egypt. As divine mother, and more especially as
protector, for Lower Egypt, Bast became strongly associ-
ated with Wadjet, the patron goddess of Lower Egypt.
In Etruscan civilization, the Chimera appears in the
Orientalizing period that precedes Etruscan Archaic art;
that is to say, very early indeed. The Chimera appears in
Etruscan wall-paintings of the fourth century BC.
40 CHAPTER 7. CHIMERA (MYTHOLOGY)

7.1.1 Similar creatures methane thought to be of metamorphic origin. The res

of these were landmarks in ancient times and used for
In Medieval art, although the Chimera of antiquity was navigation by sailors.
forgotten, chimerical gures appear as embodiments of
the deceptive, even satanic forces of raw nature. Pro-
vided with a human face and a scaly tail, as in Dante's
vision of Geryon in Inferno xvii.717, 2527, hybrid
monsters, more akin to the Manticore of Plinys Natu-
ral History (viii.90), provided iconic representations of
hypocrisy and fraud well into the seventeenth century,
through an emblemmatic representation in Cesare Ripa's
Iconologia.[16]

7.2 Classical sources

The myths of the Chimera may be found in the
Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus (book 1), the Iliad
(book 16) by Homer, the Fabulae 57 and 151 by Hyginus,
the Metamorphoses (book VI 339 by Ovid; IX 648), and
the Theogony 319 by Hesiod.
Virgil, in the Aeneid (book 5) employs Chimaera for the
name of gigantic ship of Gyas in the ship-race, with
possible allegorical signicance in contemporary Roman
politics.[17] Neo-Hittite Chimera from Karkemish, at the Museum of Anato-
lian Civilizations

7.3 Hypothesis about origin The Neo-Hittite Chimera from Carchemish, dated to
850750 BC, which is now housed in the Museum of
Anatolian Civilizations, is believed to be a basis for the
Greek legend. It diers, however, from the Greek ver-
sion in that a winged body of a lioness also has a human
head rising from her shoulders.

7.4 Use for Chinese mythological

creatures
Some western scholars of Chinese art, starting with
Victor Segalen, use the word chimera generically to re-
fer to winged leonine or mixed species quadrupeds, such
as bixie, tianlu, and even qilin.[18]

The eternal res of Chimera in Lycia, modern-day Turkey,

where the myth takes place 7.5 Popular culture
Main article: Mount Chimaera Main article: Chimera in popular culture

Pliny the Elder cited Ctesias and quoted Photius identify-

ing the Chimera with an area of permanent gas vents that
still may be found by hikers on the Lycian Way in south- 7.6 See also
west Turkey. Called in Turkish, Yanarta (aming rock),
the area contains some two dozen vents in the ground, Anz (older reading: Z), Mesopotamian monster
grouped in two patches on the hillside above the Tem-
ple of Hephaestus approximately 3 km north of ral, Chimaera, genus of sh named after the mythical
near ancient Olympos, in Lycia. The vents emit burning creature
7.8. REFERENCES 41

Grin or grion, lion-bird hybrid [14] Later coins struck at Sicyon, near Corinth, bear the
chimera-motif. (Schmitt 1966:344 note.
Lamassu, Assyrian deity, bull/lion-eagle-human hy-
brid [15] Schmitt 1966.

Nue, Japanese legendary creature
Pegasus, winged stallion in Greek mythology
Pixiu or Pi Yao, Chinese mythical creature
[16] John F. Mott, An Exemplary Humanist Hybrid:
Vasaris 'Fraude' with Reference to Bronzinos 'Sphinx'"
Renaissance Quarterly 49.2 (Summer 1996), pp. 303
333, traces the chimeric image of Fraud backward from
Bronzino.

Sphinx, mythical creature with lions body and hu- [17] W.S.M. Nicoll, Chasing Chimaeras The Classical Quar-
man head terly New Series, 35.1 (1985), pp. 134139.

Simurgh, Iranian mythical ying creature [18] Barry Till (1980), Some Observations on Stone Winged
Chimeras at Ancient Chinese Tomb Sites, Artibus Asiae,
Ziz, giant grin-like bird in Jewish mythology 42 (4): 261281, JSTOR 3250032

Hybrid creatures in mythology

List of hybrid creatures in mythology 7.8 References
Graves, Robert, (1955) 1960. The Greek Myths
7.7 Notes (Baltimore: Penguin), section 75.b, pp 25256

Kerenyi, Karl, 1959. The Heroes of the Greeks.

[1] Peck, Chimaera.
(London and New York:Thames and Hudson)
[2] Homer, Iliad 6.179182
Peck, Harry Thurston, 1898. Harpers Dictionary of
[3] The creature was a goat; a young goat that had seen Classical Antiquities: Chimaera
but one winter was called chimaira in Greek. (Kerenyi
1959:82).

[4] In Richmond Lattimore's translation. 7.9 External links

[5] Homer, Iliad, 16.328329
Theoi Project: Khimaira
[6] Hesiod Theogony 319325 in Hugh Evelyn-White's trans-
lation. "Chimaera". Encyclopdia Britannica. 6 (11th ed.).
1911. p. 164.
[7] Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.3.1: it had the fore
part of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and its third head, the
middle one, was that of a goat, through which it belched
re. And it devastated the country and harried the cattle;
for it was a single creature with the power of three beasts.
It is said, too, that this Chimera was bred by Amisodarus,
as Homer also arms,3 and that it was begotten by Ty-
phon on Echidna, as Hesiod relates.

[8] Pindar: Olympian Odes, 13.8490; Pseudo-Apollodorus,

Bibliotheca 2.3.2; Hesiod, Theogony 319 .

[9] Graves, section 75, note

[10] Graves 1960:sect.34.2.

[11] Homer, Iliad 16.328329, links her breeding to the Trojan

ally Amisodarus of Lycia, as a plague for humans.

[12] Anne Roes The Representation of the Chimaera The

Journal of Hellenic Studies 54.1 (1934), pp. 2125, ad-
duces Ancient Near Eastern conventions of winged ani-
mals who wings end in animal heads.

[13] This outline of Chimera motifs follows Marilyn Low

Schmitt, Bellerophon and the Chimaera in Archaic
Greek Art American Journal of Archaeology 70.4 (Oc-
tober 1966), pp. 341347.
42 CHAPTER 7. CHIMERA (MYTHOLOGY)

7.10 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.10.1 Text
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File:1911_Lophius_piscatorius.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/1911_Lophius_piscatorius.png Li-
cense: Public domain Contributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons. Original artist: The original uploader was Punarbhava at
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lic domain Contributors: Stdelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main, http://www.staedelmuseum.de/sm/index.php?StoryID=1028&
ObjectID=1169&websiteLang=en Original artist: Martino di Bartolomeo
File:Achilleus_Lyra.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Achilleus_Lyra.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: www.focus.de Original artist: upload by muesse
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License: Public domain Contributors: Reproduced in numerous books, websites, journals, etc. Original artist: Un-
known<a href='https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718' title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:Q4233718' src='https:
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tors: ? Original artist: ?
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cense: Public domain Contributors: Web Gallery of Art: <a href='http://www.wga.hu/art/b/botticel/5allegor/32birth.jpg' data-x-
rel='nofollow'><img alt='Inkscape.svg' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Inkscape.svg/20px-Inkscape.
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ru: . . 9: . .1. .: +, 1998. . 206.
46 CHAPTER 7. CHIMERA (MYTHOLOGY)

ru-lat: Entsiklopediya dlia detey. T. 9: Russkaya literatura. Ch.1. M.: Avanta+, 1998. S. 206.

en: Childrens encyclopedia. Vol. 9: Russian literature. Part 1. Moscow: Avanta+, 1998. P. 206. Original artist: Anonymous folk artist
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Plon
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Kerberos_Louvre_A481.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2007-06-06 Original
artist: Unknown<a href='https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718' title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:Q4233718'
src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png' width='20'
height='11' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-le-width='1050'
data-le-height='590' /></a>
File:Herakles_Kerberos_Louvre_F204.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Herakles_Kerberos_
Louvre_F204.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2007-06-15 Original artist: Andokides Painter
7.10. TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES 47

File:Herakles_Kerberos_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_1493.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/

Herakles_Kerberos_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_1493.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: User:Bibi Saint-Pol, Own work,
2007-02-09 Original artist: Bucci Painter
File:Hercules_and_Cerberus_LACMA_65.37.151.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Hercules_
and_Cerberus_LACMA_65.37.151.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:
Image: http://collections.lacma.org/sites/default/files/remote_images/piction/ma-31724610-O3.jpg Original artist: Wilhelm Janson (Hol-
land, Amsterdam), Antonio Tempesta (Italy, Florence, 1555-1630)
File:Hercules_and_Cerberus_LACMA_65.37.17.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Hercules_and_
Cerberus_LACMA_65.37.17.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:
Image: http://collections.lacma.org/sites/default/files/remote_images/piction/ma-31736133-O3.jpg Original artist: Nicolo Van Aelst
(Flanders, 1527-1612), Antonio Tempesta (Italy, Florence, 1555-1630)
File:Hev_11_fig_H_hercules_et_cerberus.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Hev_11_fig_H_
hercules_et_cerberus.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.atlascoelestis.com/hev%2060.htm Original artist: Johannes
Hevelius
File:Huldra{}s_Nymphs.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Huldra%27s_Nymphs.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: Guerber, H. A. (Hlne Adeline) (1909). Myths of the Norsemen from the Eddas and Sagas. London : Harrap. This il-
lustration facing page 58. Digitized by the Internet Archive and available from http://www.archive.org/details/mythsofthenorsem00gueruoft
Some simple image processing by User:Haukurth Original artist: Bernard Evans Ward
File:Inferno_Canto_6_lines_24-26.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Inferno_Canto_6_lines_24-26.
jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:John_Bauer_-_The_Princess_and_the_Trolls_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/d/d9/John_Bauer_-_The_Princess_and_the_Trolls_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:
3wHHQpiWp8BkMw at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level Original artist: John Bauer
File:Lev-Beh-Ziz.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Lev-Beh-Ziz.jpg License: Public domain Contrib-
utors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Museum_of_Anatolian_Civilizations080.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Museum_of_
Anatolian_Civilizations080.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Self-photographed Original artist: Georges Jansoone (JoJan)
File:Pegasus_reel_Louvre_Bj1887.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Pegasus_reel_Louvre_Bj1887.
jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Marie-Lan Nguyen
File:Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_Hercules_and_Cerberus,_1636.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/
Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_Hercules_and_Cerberus%2C_1636.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: Peter Paul Rubens
File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007
File:Sandro_Botticelli_063.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Sandro_Botticelli_063.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by
DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Sandro Botticelli
File:Sebastiano_Ricci_045.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Sebastiano_Ricci_045.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by
DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Sebastiano Ricci
File:Skyphos_aus_Argos.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Skyphos_aus_Argos.JPG License: Pub-
lic domain Contributors: Archologische Zeitung (1843), this page Original artist: Deutsches Archologisches Institut
File:Symbol_neutral_vote.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/Symbol_neutral_vote.svg License: Public do-
main Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg License:
CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Wolf_of_Chazes.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Wolf_of_Chazes.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: Unnamed French Periodical Original artist: Unknown<a href='https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718'
title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:Q4233718' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/
Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png' width='20' height='11' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/
Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-le-width='1050' data-le-height='590' /></a>
File:Woman_&_La_Bete.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Woman_%26_La_Bete.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: French Periodical (unnamed) Original artist: Unknown<a href='https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718'
title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:Q4233718' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/
Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png' width='20' height='11' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/
Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-le-width='1050' data-le-height='590' /></a>

7.10.3 Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0