Mythical Creatures - Monsters From Greek Mythology

By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide

The sphinx is mostly familiar from surviving monuments from ancient Egypt, but it also shows up in Greek myth in the city of Thebes, in the story of Oedipus. This sphinx, a daughter of Typhon and Echidna, had the head and chest of a woman, bird wings, lion claws, and a dog's body. She asked passers-by to solve a riddle. If they failed, she destroyed or devoured them. Oedipus got past the sphinx by answering her question. Presumably that destroyed her (or she threw herself from a cliff), and that is why she doesn't re-appear in Greek mythology.

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• Cyclops
• Cerberus
• Sphinx - the Mysterious Riddler
• Medusa
• Harpies
• Minotaur
• Nemean Lion
• Lernaean Hydra

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