Top Ten 03/12/2011 Legendary Creatures
10. Kirin (Qilin)
Although it looks fearsome, the Kirin only punishes the wicked. It can walk on grass yet not trample the blades and it can also walk on water. As it is a peaceful creature, its diet does not include flesh. It takes great care when it walks never to tread on any living thing, and it is said to appear only in areas ruled by a wise and benevolent leader (some say even if this area is only a house). It is normally gentle but can become fierce if a pure person is threatened by a sinner, spouting flames from its mouth and exercising other fearsome powers that vary from story to story.
9. Phoenix
A phoenix is a mythical bird that is a fire spirit with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self.
8. Minotaur
In Greek Mythology, the Minotaur, as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Ovid, “part man and part bull”. He dwelt at the center of the Cretan Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction built for King Minos of Crete and designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus who were ordered to build it to hold the Minotaur. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus.
7. Satyr
Satyrs acquired their goat-like aspect through later Roman, conflation with Faunus, a carefree Italic nature spirit of similar characteristics and identified with the Greek god Pan. Hence satyrs are most commonly described in Latin literature as having the upper half of a man and the lower half of a goat, with a goat’s tail in place of the Greek tradition of horse-tailed satyrs; therefore, satyrs became nearly identical with fauns. Mature satyrs are often depicted in Roman art with goat’s horns, while juveniles are often shown with bony nubs on their foreheads.
6. Wyvern
A wyvern or wivern is a legendary winged reptilian creature with a dragon’s head, the hindquarters of a snake or lizard with two legs or none, and a barbed tail. The wyvern was often found in medieval heraldry.
5. Cockatrice
A cockatrice is a legendary creature, essentially a wyvern (a two-legged dragon) with a rooster’s head. The cockatrice, which no one ever saw, was born by accident at the end of the twelfth century and died in the middle of the seventeenth, a victim of the new science. Its reputed magical abilities include turning people to stone or killing them by either looking at them — “the death-darting eye of Cockatrice” — touching them, or sometimes breathing on them. Like the head of Medusa, the cockatrice’s powers of petrification were thought still effective after death.
4. Orochi
Orochi, translated as the Eight-Forked Serpent in English, is a legendary 8-headed and 8-tailed Japanese dragon that was slain by the Shinto storm-god Susanoo.
3. Valkyrie
Valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decide who will die in battle. The Valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain. Valkyries also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals, where they are sometimes described as the daughters of royalty
2. Succubus
Succubus (plural succubi) is a female demon appearing in dreams who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse. The male counterpart is the incubus. Religious traditions hold that repeated intercourse with a succubus may result in the deterioration of health or even death.In modern fictional representations, a succubus may or may not appear in dreams and is often depicted as a highly attractive seductress or enchantress, in contrast to the past succubi were generally depicted as frightening and demonic.
1. Cthulhu
Cthulhu is the high priest to the Great Old Ones. He also is one of the central figures of the Lovecraft Mythos. It is often cited for the extreme descriptions given of its hideous appearance, its gargantuan size, and the abject terror that it evokes. Cthulhu is described as “yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature…. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings. Represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind.”
Cthulhu is depicted as having a worldwide doomsday cult centered in Arabia, with followers in regions as far-flung as Greenland and Louisiana. There are leaders of the cult “in the mountains of China” who are said to be immortal. Cthulhu is described by some of these cultists as the “great priest” of “the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky.
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