Humans love to tell stories, be they stories about the exaggerated abilities of a hero, or tall tales about terrifying monsters encountered in the wild. Today, myths and stories of monsters still exist, but humanity in general is far less accepting, and a great deal more sceptical.
However, it is still a fascinating journey to go back and look at some of the monsters mentioned in history. More to the point, it is interesting to try and decipher what our ancient ancestors were actually talking about.
The Kraken
The Kraken is one of the most well-known of all the ancient monsters. A sea creature so utterly enormous that each part of its body, when protruding from the water, resembled an island. At least, that is how Bishop Erik Pontoppidan described it.
According to researchers, it is very likely that ancient seafarers caught glimpses of giant squids, and exaggerated the stories to epic proportions. Most telling is that many tales of the Kraken involve great twisting tentacles that slither out of the water, and attempt to drag ships beneath the waves.
Today, of course, the Kraken appears in everything from Hollywood films, to even being the theme of nautical inspired casino slots online Brasil.
Griffin
The classic creature that possessed the head and wings of an eagle, combined with the rear end of a lion. It is believed that the Griffin was first mentioned in the ancient Middle East, before being adopted into Greek literature. By the 14th century, the creature had mostly become accepted as fictional, and began to appear in many fantastical scripts as a highly intelligent, but potentially ferocious creature.
Speculation is that the Griffin was inspired from early encounters with dinosaur fossils. Once again, tall tales turned fossilised bones into a half lion monstrosity.
Manticore
Perhaps one of the most terrifying of all ancient monsters, the Manticore is truly the stuff of nightmares. The creature seems to have appeared first in Greece, mentioned by Ctesias in a book that described India. The creature is mentioned by Ctesias as having the head of a man, though the jaw being riddled with three rows of shark like teeth, the body of a lion, and tail of a scorpion. He explains that its bone chilling call resembles a trumpet.
As far as ancient creatures go, this one is likely just a total fantasy dreamed up by the author as a means to terrify readers.
Basilisk
Last, the Basilisk demonstrates clearly how truth morphs into total fantasy. A book dating back to the first century called Natural History, written by a Roman, Pliny The Elder, describes a deadly, snake-like animal. But, he noted that the creature featured a strange crown, resembled something similar to that seen on a rooster.
By the Middle Ages this had become the serpent monster the Basilisk, with the head of a rooster and wings of a bat, capable of poisoning a man simply by looking at them.
Pliny was, of course, describing a spitting cobra, or other such snake.