Mythical Creatures of Ancient Greece

Mythical Creatures of Ancient Greece

INTRODUCTION Myths are stories that help people understand important ideas, such as good and evil. Fantastic creatures were important in Greek myths.

CENTAURS Centaurs had the head and chest of a human and the body of a horse. The ancient Greeks thought Centaurs were different from them because Centaurs were animal-like and were driven by their feelings. The story of the Centaurs began with a Greek king named Ixion, who came to live with the gods. Zeus heard that Ixion had fallen in love with his wife. As a test, Zeus made a cloud that looked like his wife.

Ixion fell in love with the cloud because he thought it was the wife of Zeus. The cloud gave birth to the first Centaur. Zeus then made Ixion spin around and around on a wheel forever. Greeks used pictures of myths to show how they felt about events that were happening at the time. For example, the Greeks connected one of their enemies, the Persians, with the Centaurs.

SIRENS Sirens had female human heads and bird bodies. They sang beautiful songs to make sailors crash into their island. Their myth shows that self-control was important to the Greeks. The myth about the Sirens says that they had been human maids to the goddess Persephone (pur-SE-fuh-nee). One day when she was picking flowers, a god took her. The Sirens used their wings to look for Persephone. After they could not find her, they settled on an island.

The songs of the Sirens drew many sailors to their island. Only a few were able to pass them by. One man played music so loud that he could not hear them. Another man was tied to his ship, and his sailors put wax in their ears.