Top 8 Special Animals in Greek Mythology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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