History Characters / ClassicalMythologyMonsters

* TokenGoodTeammate: Probably the only one of Typhon and Echidna's offspring who is never claimed to be malicious or evil.

* SatelliteCharacter: Polyphemos's brothers really only exist so Polyphemos has non divine allies that he can attempt to call for backup and his brothers never receive any actual characterization in any myths.

* WithFriendsLikeThese: When Zeus killed Apollo's son Asclepius Apollo wanted revenge but could not directly injure Zeus. Some writers have him kill the cyclopes who forged the lightning bolt while others, noting that the sons of Gaia are immortal, have him kill the four sons instead. In some versions, the three had helped to make Apollo's bow beforehand.

* HappilyMarried: Weirdly yes. She and Typhon have a very productive marriage by Greek deity standards--he never cheats on her, all her children are his, and they support one another in their respective endeavors. [[SealedEvilInACan Even if one is sealed under Mt Etna]].

* WalkingWasteland: It was the reason Lerna's swamps were so lifeless. This ferociously anti-life quality also extended to its toxic blood post-mortem. Heracles dipped his arrows in the blood, and he used them as his go-to way of killing enemies from that point onward.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Bellerophon killed her by using her own fire breath against her. He tied a lump of lead to the front of his spear and thrust it into her lion mouth. Her fire breath melted the lead, which became stuck in her throat and suffocated her.

* RapeAsBackstory: Ovid's take on Medusa, though this appears to be his own invention (Ovid was banished by Emperor Agustus for adultery, and as consequence had a very dim view of authority figures like gods) as the Greeks generally saw the gorgons as being monsters from the start.

* SadlyMythtaken: The Gorgons did not have magic eye lazers they could use to turn people into stone, like many modern depictions spin it, rather the Gorgons were said to have an appearance so repulsive and/or horrifying that anybody who looked directly into their faces would turn to stone (or, more rarely, die) out of shock. Why using a mirrored shield would prevent people from turning into stone if said appearance was so frightening is anybody's guess.

* SadlyMythtaken: The Gorgons did not have magic eye lazers they could use to turn people into stone, like many modern depictions spin it, rather the Gorgons were said to have an appearance so repulsive and/or horrifying that anybody who looked directly into their faces would turn to stone (or, more rarely, die) out of shock.
* SatelliteCharacter: Little is known about Stheno and Eurayle other than being Medusa's sisters.

[[Characters/ClassicalMythologyProtogenoi Protogenoi]] | [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyTitans Titans]] | [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyOlympians Olympians]] | [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyMinorDeities Minor Deities]] | '''Monsters''' | [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyMortalsAndDemigods Mortals and Demigods]]]]-]]]

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: Ovid's version of the myth where Medusa is a transformed human leaves it unanswered ''why'' Medusa has monster sisters, much less immortal ones, if she was transformed by Athena in response to something that happened specifically to ''her''. Earlier sources don't have this problem as the sisters were simply born as gorgons, and as seen with the differently powered demigods sharing the same godly parent, powers were inherited basically randomly.

A set of three sisters: Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. Most people only know the story of Medusa, who is most well known for having snakes for hair and a visage that turned mortals to stone. In the original Greek myths and works based on them (like Hesiod's ''Theogony'') she and her sisters were born either hideous or as beautiful yet still monstrous, but the Roman myths (and specifically in Ovid's ''Metamorphosis'') had that all three were born beautiful and Medusa, a priestess of Athena who was raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple, was [[MisplacedRetribution turned into a monster as punishment]].

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: The Roman versions of the myths where Athena turns Medusa, a normal human, into the monster we know don't explain why her sisters were cursed as well, neither why they became immortal while their sister didn't. This discrepancy is absent from the earlier recountings, as they were simply born monsters, and as seen with the differently powered demigods sharing the same godly parent, powers were inherited basically randomly.

** The story remained that way largely unchanged until Ovid came along and changed the narrative completely by claiming Medusa was instead a human priestess who was assaulted by Poseidon in Athena's temple and Athena, in a moment of pettiness, turned her into a monster to punish her for something she didn't even do (and possibly did the same to her sisters just out of spite). Over the course of several thousand years, the Gorgons had gone from nameless, generic monsters, to antagonists of a hero's journey and finally to tragic victims of a cruel, uncaring pantheon.

** The older Greek versions say that the Gorgons were monsters from the very beginning, as the daughters of {{Sea Monster}}s Phorcys and Ceto.
** Another Greek version says they were once beautiful, but she started sleeping with Poseidon despite having a vow of chastity and even doing the deed in Athena's temple, right on the altar. Because of this, she was cursed with the monstrous form so ugly that everybody who looked at her would turn into stone.
** The later Roman versions say that they were beautiful maidens, then Medusa was raped by Poseidon and turned into a monster by Athena [[ValuesDissonance as punishment]]. Some versions say that Medusa was (one of) Poseidon's (many) lover(s) and not a rape victim.

* RapeAsBackstory: Medusa, in the Roman myths where she was raped by Poseidon, usually in Athena's temple. The other version either have her be a monster from birth, or, in the ones were she starts out as beautiful, she willingly slept with him and knowingly broke her vows to Athena. The myth of Medusa being raped was invented by the poet Ovid who hated Emperor Augustus for banishing him because he committed adultery.

* VillainByDefault: Even in the myths where Medusa is a monster from birth, the myths don't usually clarify whether or not she ''actually'' did anything wrong. She's just a monster and monsters need to be killed. Possibly justified on some level, as Polydectes had ''no intention'' of making Perseus a hero and mainly sent him to take on Medusa as a wild goose suicide mission, while Athena mainly helped him as a FetchQuest for Medusa's head, so she could incorporate her petrifying visage onto her Aegis.

* MultipleChoicePast: It is commonly remembered as one of Typhon and Echidna's children, but in Hesiod's account, it was the offspring of [[BrotherSisterIncest Chimera and Orthrus]].

* BarbarianTribe: Cyclopes fathered by Poseidon were rather barbaric. Polyphemos even had a taste for humans.

* BitchInSheepsClothing

* MagicMusic

* KarmicDeath: See ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine.

* ArchEnemy: Birthed by Gaia specifically to be this for Zeus.

* TrulySingleParent: Possibly the Crommyonian Sow, seeing as no mention is made of the Calydonian Boar's father. [[ShippingGoggles Unless the Erymanthian Boar up there had something to do with it...]]

* HiddenDepths: He seems to have good (or at least amicable) relationship with his mother Pasiphae and was named after Minos's stepfather - which, considering Minos's attitude towards him, make it likely it is Pasiphae's idea. He also seemed to have enjoyed some normalcy during his infant years (even being breastfed by his mother), and some painting and vases made by cultures less antagonistic toward Minoan Crete depicts him and his mother in a loving context.
* HumanoidAbomination: Part of the reason he eats people is because his existence is a defiance of natural law.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: He is rarely called Asterion.
* OurMinotaursAreDifferent: The TropeMaker!
* ToServeMan: He had a ravenous appetite for human flesh, leading to Minos having him caged in the Labyrinth and satiating him by trapping young foreign prisoners in there. This portion of the myth may actually have had ''some'' distant inspiration in reality - excavations of Knossos have found the bones of children with signs that they were butchered similarly to sheep or goats, leading to theories of ritual cannibalism having occurred.

* AdaptationalBadass: Early accounts implied that the Caucasian Eagle was either merely a regular eagle that Zeus sent after Prometheus or one of Zeus' divine pets. Later myths would claim the eagle was a fearsome AnimalisticAbomination sired by Typhon and Echidna.

* NemeanSkinning: TropeNamer, having been skinned by Herakles using its own claws.

* WalkingWasteland: It was the reason Lerna's swamps were so lifeless. This ferociously anti-life quality also extended to its toxic blood post-mortem.

* ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine: After Heracles finished his eight labour, they were eaten by wild animals.

One of Typhon and Echidna's children, the chimera was part lion, part goat and part snake, or dragon. Its body was that of a lion, the snake or dragon head was its tail, and a goat head just popped out of its spine in the middle of its back. It breathed fire too. It lived in Lycia in Asia Minor. It was eventually slain by Bellerophon with the help of Pegasus.

* AnimalGenderBender: She's a female, but most myths say that her lion head had the mane of a male lion.

* BrotherSisterIncest: In some versions, she mated with her brother [[{{Hellhound}} Orthrus]] to produce the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion.
* ClassicalChimera: The oldest descriptions have her as essentially a fire-breathing goat with a lion head and a serpent's tail; later artwork shows her with two heads, goat and lion, in the front, a leonine body, and a fully snake for a tail. The bit about her being a child of Echidna and Typhon first shows up in the ''Literature/{{Theogony}}''. It's generally believed that the chimera got its name from Mount Chimaera, a volcano close to Lycia which was most known for its unexplained and constant fires.

* MultipleHeadCase: Her most popular depiction has three heads. A lion in the front, a live snake in the back for a tail, and a goat head coming out of the middle.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: She's sometimes described as having a dragon's tail instead of a snake. More thematically, Bellerophon slaying the Chimera is the visual inspiration for a lot of later European dragon slaying motifs, including most of those of St. George and the dragon. She may even be the reason why dragons drifted from breathing posion to fire in European mythology.
* SamusIsAGirl: Despite the Chimera having the head of a male lion, she's one of Typhon's daughters.

* BrotherSisterIncest: In Hesiod's ''Literature/{{Theogony}}'', Orthrus mated with his sister the Chimera to produce the Nemean Lion and the Sphinx. Later versions say that all four were the children of Typhon and Echidna.

* TheUnfought: Ladon was so mighty that not even Hercules dared challenge him. This is averted in some versions, however; according to those, Hercules shoots and kills Ladon with his arrows dipped in Hydra blood.

* HiddenDepths: He seems to have good (or at least amicable) relationship with his mother Pasiphae and was named after Minos's stepfather - which, considering Minos's attitude towards, him make it likely it is Pasiphae's idea. He also seemed to have enjoyed some normalcy during his infant years (even being breastfed by his mother), and some painting and vases made by cultures less antagonistic toward Minoan Crete depicts him and his mother in a loving context.

* ToServeMan: It had a ravenous appetite for human flesh, leading to Minos having it caged in the Labyrinth and satiating it with forcing young prisoners into its domain. This portion of the myth may actually have had ''some'' distant inspiration in reality - excavations of Knossos have found the bones of children with signs that they were butchered similarly to sheep or goats, leading to theories of ritual cannibalism having occurred.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: In some versions of the story, baby Asterion was a victim of parental abuse and neglect by his stepfather Minos, which created his bloodthirsty nature. Being locked in a lonely prison didn't help.

A type of monster with the upper body of a beautiful woman but with twin serpent tails in place of legs. When Hercules was trying to bring in the cattle of Geryon, he unknowingly moored himself near ones territory. She then stole the cattle and would only give them back to him on one condition: he had to sleep with her and give her sons. Hercules obliged and gave her three.

* HappilyMarried: None of the myths portray he and Echidna as anything other than this.