In ancient Greek mythology, Empusa was the beautiful daughter of the goddess Hecate and the spirit Mormo. She is credited to be the first vampire-type creature in western mythology. However, similar creatures were common in eastern traditions (e.g., Chinese, Hindu) centuries before Empusa made her first appearance.

According with Greek traditions, Empusa feasted on blood by seducing young men. After climax, her victims would fall deep asleep and she would drink their blood and eat their flesh. Wh...

Undines are the elementals for water, the unseen intelligences that allegedly inhabit this element. They are said to have been here since the beginning of time, and to have created the landscape of reality. Their origins can be traced back to Greek mythology. Many ancient Greek texts cite a clan of nymphs called Oceanides (also referred as Nereids) who claimed the oceans of the world as their home. These beings were the daughters of Titan and his wife Tethys. Their presence in the oceans was leg...

The Echidna was a monster with the upper body of a human woman but with the torso and legs of a serpent, who was the mate of the fearsome hundred-headed monster Typhon.

Her ancestry and origin have been a matter of debate for centuries. In older records, such as the Hesiod’s Theogony (a poem by Hesiod composed c. 700 BC), the sea deities Phorcys and Ceto are appointed as Echidna’s parents. However, in newer narratives, like the account of the mythographer Apollodorus (a compendium of Greek myths...

In Greek mythology, Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe, and grandson of Medusa. He was a fearsome giant who dwelt on the island Erytheia, in the far west of the Mediterranean, in the company of the mythic Hesperides (Nymphs of the West).

Geryon had three bodies, three heads, and –in later accounts— four wings, all together in one body. He owned a herd of man-eating cattle, whose coats were tinged red by the light of sunset, that the Greek hero Herakles had to capture as one of his twel...

The Basilisk as it was describe in Classical Mythology (Greek and Roman) was a small venomous serpent whose throat never touched the ground, moving as if keeping its head up, with a rooster-like crest upon its head. This crest gave it its name, for Basileus is the Greek word for king, and the basilisk was the serpent that wore the crown. Understandably, this walking-tall snake soon became the king of all serpents, gaining supernatural abilities through time and ages.

As written by R. Alexander in...

A particularly odd monster, the Amphisbaena is a two-headed reptilian beast most often depicted as a dragon with a head growing out of the tip of its tail. The origin of the myth, however, speaks of a double-headed snake, both heads identical, with the ability to move both forwards and backwards to confuse its enemies. In fact, the word amphisbaena comes from the Greek words amphis (both ways) and bainein (to move), making reference to the main ability of this beast.

The study of depictions of th...