Greek mythology gave us creatures nightmarish in appearance and deed, the villains of famous epics that had a profound influence on western culture. Their iconic imagery remains present in the great stories of today.

Not only were the creations of Greek mythology a gift to storytellers that drew on them for inspiration, they also provide insight into the mentality of people from antiquity. Ancient societies made them the antithesis of their values, the projection of their fears, and a reflection of what they considered the greatest threat to the Status Quo.

These monsters served a symbolic as well as narrative purpose, requiring the hero to conquer some aspect of himself before he could conquer the beast. Only then could he prove himself worthy of love, whether it be a father’s love, the love of the damsel in distress or of the people he hoped to rule. Though Hollywood adaptations of Greek myths would have us believe they all had happy endings, in truth the real problems only occurred after the hero had slain the beast, saved the girl and won the kingdom. In most cases he would struggle to cope with the resulting fame and power, and ultimately become a more dangerous monster then the beast he slew could ever have been.

That’s because Greek myths were not fables for children, they were serious drama intended to examine the human condition, and they sought to warn audiences that – as Nietzsche would put it centuries later, “he who fights with monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster”.

Some of the most famous examples of Greek mythological beasts include:

The Medusa:

A woman with serpents springing from her scalp in place of hair, whose gaze turned all to stone. Perseus - son of Zeus, set out to slay the creature, and with the aid of a mirror shield gifted to him by Athena, turned Medusa’s deadly gaze upon herself before beheading her.

In earlier versions of the myth, Medusa and her fellow Gorgon sisters were born monstrous in appearance. In later versions she was a beautiful maiden cursed by the goddess Athena, and even after receiving the curse she did not necessarily become “ugly”, just terrifying to behold. In fact, some versions describe her as possessing a “terrible beauty”.

This seems contradictory, but paradox is rampant in the Medusa myth. Her blood could bring powerful healing or be a vile poison. Her appearance was both beautiful and terrifying. But the greatest paradox of all is that Athena punished the victim for the crime. She cursed Medusa for the sacrilege of being forcibly taken by Poseidon within a temple dedicated to the goddess, though in some versions Medusa had already earned Athena’s ire by boasting herself more beautiful, and in others she lay with Poseidon willingly.

Some see the myth as evidence of ancient Greek misogyny, with a powerful woman portrayed as a threat to the Status Quo. Others believe it simply portrays its antagonist as a victim of circumstance and the world as a place where victims perpetually suffer and perpetrators go unpunished. Some even go so far as to make Medusa the representation of Nietzschean nihilism – all avoided her gaze because to look upon her was to see the grim reality that the world was devoid of meaning.

Either way, Perseus decapitates her and stuffs her head in a sack. On the way through Africa blood drips from the severed head and becomes serpents, and after rescuing Ethiopian princess Andromeda from the Kraken and winning her hand in marriage, Perseus is betrayed by her parents at the wedding and forced to reveal the Gorgan’s head, transforming all the guests to stone. Upon arriving home he does the same to his mother’s troublesome suitor Polydectes and his followers. In the end Medusa’s head probably claimed more lives in Perseus’ hand then it ever did whilst still on her body.

The Hydra:

Herakles’ second labour was to slay the Lernaean Hydra, a beast with multiple snake-like heads. Many before him had tried and failed, for each time they managed to remove one of the deadly heads, two more would grow in its place. But Herakles realized that fire was the key, burning the stump of each decapitated head to prevent regrowth.

This is the classic case of a hero who’s relied mostly on pure brawn being forced to use his brain. Herakles faced many fearsome foes, but the Hydra is one of his most famous adversaries because the idea of a foe that only gets stronger with each blow dealt is so poignant.

People often compare guerrilla organizations to the Hydra – remove one leader and more emerge to take his place. Though Herakles found a way, the battle would be futile for anyone but the hero whose very purpose is to accomplish the impossible. That said, Herakles would take a vial of the Hydra’s venomous blood with him to use as poison for his arrows, and that venom would eventually bring about his own undoing.

The Minotaur:

King Minos of Crete offended the god Poseidon with his hubris, and the monstrous child borne by his wife – a creature with a the body of a man and the head of a bull - was his punishment. He imprisoned the beast within a dark labyrinth beneath his palace at Knossos, and every seven years forced the subjugated city-state of Athens to send fourteen of their best and brightest youths as sacrifices to sate it’s hunger.

Until heroic Athenian prince Theseus volunteered himself as one of the fourteen youths, intent on freeing his city from the tribute. With the aid of Minos’ daughter Ariadne and the genius Daedalus, he is able to slay the deadly beast and escape the even deadlier maze.

The image of Theseus creeping through the labyrinth - the bones of the Minotaur’s victims crunching underfoot and the sounds of the beast echoing down the dark hallways - is not only good drama but also symbolic of a journey into the depths of the human mind. He wasn’t just any Greek hero after all, he was the national hero of the Athenians and thus a reflection of their values. They considered themselves more sophisticated then other Greeks and so made their champion a more cunning version of Herakles. Who better then an intellectual Athenian to slay a representation of primitive animal instinct such as the Minotaur?

Of course, the question is whether the Minotaur was imprisoned in the labyrinth because he was a monster, or was a monster because he was imprisoned in the labyrinth. And since Theseus would later abandon Ariadne on an island, kill his own son Hippolytus, help a friend named Pirithous abduct Helen when she was still a child and end up dying in exile, the other question is whether he truly succeeded in slaying the beast in the darkness.

The Chimera:

The Chimera was a giant beast with three ferocious heads – one of a lion, one of a goat and one of a snake. It terrorized the land with its fiery breath, until the hero Bellerophon tamed the winged horse Pegasus and rode him to battle, soaring above the Chimera and defeating it using a spear tipped with lead.

Pegasus was the means for both his victory and downfall. Bellerophon eventually grew so arrogant that he resolved to ride to Mount Olympus and challenge the gods, but they caused the winged steed to throw his rider, who tumbled back down to Earth where his injuries rendered him blind and lame for the rest of his days.

The Sphinx:

Some monsters tested a hero’s mettle, some their cunning, and some a mix of both. The Sphinx was a beast from foreign lands that took residence near Thebes and challenged those seeking passage to answer a riddle. Failure to answer correctly meant death.

Oedipus came to meet its challenge. Upon hearing his correct answer, the Sphinx threw itself upon the ground and splintered into pieces. Oedipus had proven the superiority of Greek intellect over that of this foreign influence.

Unfortunately his intellect couldn’t prevent him from being outsmarted by the prophecy that claimed he would slay his own father and marry his own mother, as his desperate attempts to avert this fate would only cause him to unknowingly fulfill it. Ultimately the Sphinx would have the last laugh, as Oedipus failed to solve the greatest riddle of all, that of his own destiny.