Bestiary
Beasts of the Border
On Roman floors, wild creatures often prowled the borders while heroes held the centre. Here they get panels of their own: eight beings from Greek myth, each with its earliest source, its haunts and whoever brought it down. The pictures are new illustrations made for this site in a mosaic style, not photographs of ancient floors or of objects in museums.
Chimera
- First found in
- Homer, Iliad 6
- Haunts
- The hills of Lycia, in southwestern Anatolia
- Brought down by
- Bellerophon, riding Pegasus
Homer describes her in a single line that artists never stopped quoting: a lion in front, a serpent behind, a she-goat in the middle, breathing fire. Hesiod gives her three heads and places her in Echidna’s brood, though his wording leaves her mother uncertain. She ravaged Lycia until Bellerophon shot her from the back of Pegasus. Her most famous portrait is a bronze, the Chimera of Arezzo, cast by Etruscan craftsmen and now in Florence.
Sphinx
- First found in
- Hesiod, Theogony 326 (as Phix)
- Haunts
- A crag above the road outside Thebes
- Brought down by
- Oedipus, who answered her riddle
Egypt’s sphinx was usually a male guardian; the Greek one was female, winged and hungry. Hesiod calls her Phix, the ruin of the Cadmeans, and sets her in Echidna’s monstrous family. Later writers say Hera sent her to Thebes, where she perched above the road and killed whoever failed her riddle. When Oedipus solved it, she threw herself to her death. Greeks also set sphinxes on graves and columns as watchful guardians, like the tall Naxian Sphinx at Delphi.
Harpies
- First found in
- Homer, Iliad 16; Hesiod, Theogony 265–269
- Haunts
- The storm winds; later the Strophades islands
- Brought down by
- Zetes and Calais, winged sons of the North Wind
Their name means “snatchers”. In Homer they carry people off without a trace, and one, Podarge, bears Achilles’ immortal horses to the West Wind. Hesiod names two, Aello and Ocypete, lovely-haired and as swift as birds. Later poets made them foul bird-women who snatched and spoiled the meals of the blind seer Phineus, until the Argonauts Zetes and Calais chased them across the sea. Iris halted the chase, and the Harpies swore to leave Phineus in peace.
Read its tale
Centaurs
- First found in
- Homer, Iliad 1 and Odyssey 21
- Haunts
- Mount Pelion in Thessaly; Pholoe in Arcadia
- Brought down by
- The Lapiths, Heracles and the huntress Atalanta
Homer calls them shaggy beasts of the mountains and tells how the centaur Eurytion, drunk at a wedding, started the brawl between centaurs and Lapiths. Pindar traces the race to Ixion and a cloud shaped like Hera. Most centaurs are wine-hungry and violent; Chiron, the wise teacher of Achilles and Jason, is the great exception. Atalanta shot two of them, Rhoecus and Hylaeus, and Heracles fought a whole herd near Pholoe.
Read its tale
Pegasus
- First found in
- Hesiod, Theogony 276–286
- Haunts
- The spring of Peirene at Corinth; the halls of Zeus
- Brought down by
- Never defeated; tamed by Bellerophon with Athena’s golden bridle
Pegasus sprang from the neck of Medusa when Perseus cut off her head, together with his brother Chrysaor. Hesiod says he was named for the springs of Ocean and flew up to carry the thunder and lightning of Zeus. Pindar tells how Bellerophon caught him at the spring of Peirene with a golden bridle from Athena, then fell when he tried to ride to Olympus. Corinth stamped the winged horse on its coins for centuries.
Typhon
- First found in
- Homer, Iliad 2; Hesiod, Theogony 820–880
- Haunts
- Beneath Mount Etna, or the land of the Arimi
- Brought down by
- Zeus, with the thunderbolt
The last child of Gaia, born of her union with Tartarus. Hesiod gives him a hundred snake heads with flickering dark tongues and the voices of bulls, lions and yelping pups. Had Zeus not struck at once, Typhon would have ruled gods and mortals. Their battle scorched land and sea before he was hurled into Tartarus. Pindar pins him under Etna. With Echidna he fathered Cerberus, the Hydra and Orthus.
Read its tale
Calydonian Boar
- First found in
- Homer, Iliad 9 (Phoenix’s tale of Meleager)
- Haunts
- The orchards and fields of Calydon in Aetolia
- Brought down by
- Meleager, after Atalanta drew first blood
King Oeneus offered first fruits to every god but Artemis, and she answered with a boar that tore up Calydon’s orchards. Homer tells of the hunt and the war that followed over the hide. Later sources gather heroes from all of Greece and give Atalanta the first wound. Meleager killed the beast, handed her the hide and paid with his life. Pausanias saw its hide, rotted with age, in the temple at Tegea.
Read its tale
Talos
- First found in
- Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4
- Haunts
- The coasts of Crete, which he strode around three times a day
- Brought down by
- Medea’s evil eye, or in some versions the archer Poeas
A man of bronze who guarded Crete, hurling rocks at any ship that came near. Apollonius calls him the last of the bronze race, given by Zeus to Europa as the island’s warden. His one weak spot was a vein near the ankle, covered only by thin skin. When the Argo approached, Medea cast her evil eye on him; he grazed his ankle on a rock and his life ran out like molten lead. Apollodorus records other versions.
Read its tale