Forum:The Monster Encyclopedia

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History
Scylla was a monster that lived on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite its counterpart Charybdis. The two sides of the strait were within an arrow's range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice-versa

History
Charybdis was a sea monster, later rationalised as a whirlpool and considered a shipping hazard in the Strait of Messina.

History
The Queen of Äthiopia, Cassiopeia, once said she would be more beautiful than the Nereids. Angry because of this, Poseidon sent Keto to cause trouble in Äthiopia. To calm Keto it was decided to sacrifice Cassiopeia's daughter Andromeda. She was chained to rocks and had to see as Keto came closer. Before the monster struck, Perseus appeared at the cliff and fell in love with Andromeda with one look. Andromeda told him that she had begged her fiance to rescue her, but cowardly he left. Perseus killed Keto and brought Andromeda to safety. Promptly he asked Andromeda's parents for her hand. Her parents promised him not only Andromeda, but the whole kingdom for they were grateful for the life of their daughter.

There are a few different versions of the way Perseus killed Keto. In one version he showed Keto the head of Medusa, so that Keto turned into stone.

History
Kampê was a jailer for the giants, the Cyclopes, and the Hekatonkheires (a.k.a. the Hundred Handed Ones) during Ouranos' and Kronos' rule, before Zeus freed them and started the First Titan War.

Tactics
Kampê wields two poisonous twin scimitars that will kill you, after you shrivel slowly into dust. This does not kill Cyclopes or Hekatonkheires (Hundred Handed Ones), though it causes them great pain, according to Tyson.

History
Polyphemus was a character in Homer's The Odyssey. When Odysseus stopped at the island of the cyclopes, he saw a cave and thought there might be food in it. He and some of his crew went to investigate. His sailors insisted on taking what was there and leaving, but Odysseus insisted on meeting the 'person' who owned it all, thinking he would present a challenge to them.

At sundown, Polyphemus let his sheep back into the cave before moving a massive stone to cover the door. When Odysseus and his men try offering him some of their food, he instead grabs two of the men, tears them apart, and eats them. He asks Odysseus what his name is, and the clever hero tells him his name is Nobody. Odysseus then gets Polyphemus drunk on wine and puts him to sleep.

While he slept, Odysseus and his remaining men took a large stick and sharpened the end of it (in some versions they charred it too), and stabbed it into Polyphemus' eye. The monster woke with a start and called for his brothers, but all he said was 'Nobody has blinded me!', and so they thought he was merely stating the obvious and left him alone.

Later, when Polyphemus lets his sheep out to graze, he reaches down and feels around them to make sure Odysseus and his men aren't on their backs. However, Odysseus tied himself and his men to the sheep's undersides and were able to escape. As they left the island on their ship, Odysseus bragged to Polyphemus that he had escaped and in his boldness told the cyclops his real name. This allowed Polyphemus to ask to Poseidon to curse Odysseus, which served as yet another setback on his journey home.

Sometime after this, Polyphemus stole the Golden Fleece and hung it on a tree on his island (what happened to the other cyclopes on the island is unknown; it's possible they moved to different islands). Along with making his island a paradise, it lured satyrs there in search of Pan, the wild god, whom Polyphemus would simply eat.

History
In Greek mythology, Sybaris was a dragon that terrorized the Greek city of Delphi. When the Oracle was asked how to stop it, it said to sacrifice a young man. Eventually, a demigod named Eurybaros, son of the river god Axios, was chosen, but he defeated the dragon by hurling it down Mt. Kriphis. A fountain is said to have emerged there and a city is said to be named after her.

History
Greeks of the sixth century B.C, who had established colonies along the coast, located Antaeus in the interior desert of Libya.

He would challenge all passers-by to wrestling matches, kill them, and collect their skulls, so that he might one day build out of them a temple to his father Poseidon. He was indefatigably strong as long as he remained in contact with the ground (his mother earth), but once lifted into the air he became as weak as other men. Hercules, figuring that he could not beat Antaeus by throwing him to the ground as he would regain his strength and be fortified, discovered the secret of his power and, holding Antaeus aloft, crushed him in a bear-hug. The story of Antaeus has been used as a symbol of the spiritual strength which accrues when one rests one's faith on the immediate fact of things. The struggle between Antaeus and Heracles is a favorite subject in ancient and Renaissance sculpture.

Strengths
Antaeus was one of the greatest warriors of his time who specialized in unarmed combat, and was only defeated by Hercules. Being the son of the lord of the seas and mother earth he was a very powerful being. He had superhuman strength, speed, endurance, and stamina. His greatest power was that with every injury he received he would heal at an accelerated rate due do being a son of Gaea and can only be defeated by being killed in midair.

History
Arachne was a great mortal weaver who boasted that her skill was greater than that of Athena, goddess of wisdom, weaving, and strategy. Arachne refused to acknowledge that her knowledge came, in part at least, from the goddess. Offended by Arachne's arrogance, Athena set a contest between the two weavers. The goddess was so envious of the magnificent tapestry and the mortal weaver's success, and perhaps offended by the girl's choice of subjects (the loves and transgressions of the gods), that she destroyed the tapestry and loom and slashed the girl's face. “Not even Pallas nor blue-fevered Envy Could damn Arachne's work. The goddess raged at the girl's success, struck through her loom, tore down the scenes of wayward joys in heaven.″ Ultimately, the goddess turned Arachne into a spider. Arachne simply means "spider" in Greek. In another version of the myth, Arachne lost the weaving contest. She then hanged herself out of embarrassment. Later on, Athena finds Arachne's body and takes pity on her, before resurrecting her as a spider. Both these legends explain why spiders can weave webs.

Weaknesses
Hubris

History
Medusa, the most beautiful of the Gorgon sisters, and the only mortal one, offended Athena by having relations with Poseidon in one of Athena's sacred temples. Chrysaor and Pegasus were said to be born from the drops of Medusa's blood which fell in the sea; others say that they sprang from Medusa's neck as Perseus beheaded her, a "higher" birth (such as the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus).

Chrysaor, married to Callirrhoe, daughter of Oceanus, and was father to the triple-headed Geryon, but Geryon was killed by the great strength of Hercules at Erytheis beside his own shambling cattle on that day when Heracles drove the cattle toward Tiryns, when he crossed the stream of Oceanos and had killed Orthus and the oxherd Eurytion out in the gloomy meadow beyond Oceanos.

Strengths
Swordsmanship: Chrysaor is excellent with a blade, has he has had eons of practice. He has been using a sword even before the Romans named Imperial Gold. He is described as being a good a swordsman as Ares, even managing to disarm Percy twice in only a matter of minutes.

Tactics
Piracy: Chrysaor has been sailing the Mediterranean Sea for a very long time. He is an amazing pirate and has a crew to back up his abilities. After the Seven defeat Chrysaor and his crew, Hazel says she can sense over six million dollars worth of gold aboard Chrysaor's ship

History
As part of his twelve labors, Hercules had to capture the Erymanthian Boar. He subdued the beast by driving it into a snowbank and then tying it in chains. In the primitive highlands of Arcadia, where the old practices lingered, the Erymanthian Boar was a giant fear-inspiring creature of the wilds that lived on Erymanthos.

Strengths
It has the ability to travel vast distances in a relatively short amount of time. It has immense strength. It has a connection to the god Pan.

History
The Clazmonian Sow was one of the monsters whose mother was Echidna, who was called mother of monsters. Others relate that Phaea was a woman, a robber full of cruelty and lust, that lived in Crommyon, and had the name of Sow given her from the foulness of her life and manners, and afterwards was killed by Theseus.

Weaknesses
None known( although it has only ever been defeated by sons of Poseidon in the past)

History
The When the Titan Kronos castrated his father, Uranus, and threw what was left into the sea, the Erinyes emerged from the drops of blood, while Aphrodite was born from the sea foam. According to a variant account, they issued from an even more primordial level—from Nyx, 'Night'. For the Orphism are Hades and Persephone the parents of the Erinyes.

History recognized three:

Alecto, "The Angry" Megaera, "The Grudging" Tisiphone, "The Avenger" In the story of Canto VIII of the Inferno they confront the poets at the gates of the city of Dis. The heads of the Erinyes, whom the two poets met in Canto IV, were wreathed with serpents and their eyes dripped with blood, rendering their appearance rather horrific. Sometimes they had the wings of a bat or bird, and the body of a dog. Since the Greeks were afraid of saying their names they are called by different euphemisms.

Strengths
The Furies are among the fastest reformers in existence. Taking only seven to twelve days to reform.

Tactics
They attack with fiery whips

History
Agrius and his brother were the illigitimate spawn of a woman whom Aphrodite commanded must marry. The woman herself chose not to and fled to Artemis, but Aphrodite put a trance on the woman to make her fall in love with a bear and thus she was cursed with monstrous children as well as the hatred of both the gods.They were the illegitimate spawn of a woman whom Aphrodite commanded must marry but chose not to, instead fleeing to Artemis. Artemis allowed the woman to join the ranks of her Hunters, but Aphrodite put her in a trance and made her fall in love with a bear thus resulting in her monstrous children and the hatred of both the gods. After falling in love with the bear, Artemis, in disgust, threw her out of the ranks of her Hunters.

During the time of Percy Jackson's second year at Camp Half-Blood, the Bear Twins had found employment in Luke Castellan who had aligned himself with Kronos.

History
Procrustes, (also known as Prokoptas, Damastes, or Crusty) was a rogue smith and bandit from Attica. Procrustes was a son of Poseidon with a stronghold on Mount Korydallos, on the sacred way between Athens and Eleusis. There, he had an iron bed in which he invited every passer-by to spend the night, and he killed everyone by stretching them if they were too short and chopping off the extras if they were too tall. Procrustes continued his reign of terror until he was captured by Theseus, traveling to Athens along the sacred way, who "fitted" Procrustes to his own bed.

History
In ancient myths, the Chimera was killed by Bellerphon on Pegasus when Bellerphon jammed a lead ball into its mouth. The ball melted, killing it with lead poison and suffocation. The original Chimera died long ago at the hands of the hero Bellerophon, though lesser Chimera still prowl the labyrinth of Crete.

Strengths
It can breathe fire. Its snake-headed tail has venomous fangs and excretes a venom that is acidic. It has human intelligence. It is immensely strong.

History
Echidna was described by Hesiod as a female monster spawned in a cave, who mothered, with her mate Typhon, almost every major and minor horrible monster in the Greek myths. Echidna was usually considered an offspring of Tartarus and Gaea, or of Ceto and Phorcys (according to Hesiod) or of Chrysaor and the naiad Callirhoe, or Peiras and Styx (according to Pausanias, who did not know who Peiras was aside from her father). Echidna was a dracaenae, with the face and torso of a beautiful woman (depicted as winged in archaic vase-paintings) and the body of a serpent, sometimes having two serpent's tails. She is also sometimes described as Karl Kerenyi noted an archaic vase-painting with a pair of echidnas performing sacred rites in a vineyard, while on the opposite side of the vessel, goats were attacking the vines: thus chthonic Echidnae are presented as protectors of the vineyard.

The site of her cave Homer calls "Arima, couch of Typhon." When she and her mate attacked the Olympians, Zeus beat them back and punished Typhon by sealing him under Mount Etna. However, Zeus allowed Echidna and her children to live as a challenge to future heroes. She was an immortal and ageless nymph to Hesiod (Theogony above), but was killed where she slept by Argus, the hundred-eyed giant.

Tactics
Attacks with fangs, tail, and claws

History
Thousands of years ago, after the First Olympian War, Gaea was enraged at the defeat of the Titans (her children), and of how they were locked away in Tartarus. She attempted revenge by sending her last and most powerful child, the great monster Typhon to destroy the gods. Typhon alone is the greatest foe the gods ever faced, even mightier than the Titans themselves.

Having never anticipated such a rival, the gods were quickly forced on the defensive and they eventually went into hiding. Athena however stood her ground and convinced Zeus to fight by calling him a coward. This convinced Zeus and he went into battle with his lightning. Zeus struck Typhon square in the chest with the Master Bolt at point blank range, greatly weakening him. The gods were then able to trap him under Mount Etna, where his raw power itself causes lava to ignite from the mountain top in the form of a volcano. After the defeat of her most powerful child, Gaea admitted defeat and fell back to sleep and allowed the gods to rule Olympus without interference.

Strengths
Typhon is one of the most powerful beings in all of Greek mythology. He rivals the combined powers of most, if not all the major Olympian gods. The full extent of his power is unknown. He can create storms of tremendous power including tornadoes, storms and possibly hurricanes. He has unbelievable physical strength and durability surpassing that of any individual god. He was able to fight most of the major gods to a near standstill, withstanding all of their attacks throughout including multiple attacks from the Master Bolt, numerous lesser thunderbolts, the arrows of Apollo and Artemis, and numerous other attacks. He was strong enough to hit Hephaestus with enough force to create a new lake and smash Dionysus deep into a mountain. He presumably has the standard powers of a god, but surpassing that of any other

Weaknesses
Typhon has no known weaknesses.

History
Geryon is the son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe and is the grandson of Medusa. He was a fearsome giant who dwelt on the island Erytheia of the mythic Hesperides in the far west of the Mediterranean. A more literal-minded later generation of Greeks associated the region with Tartessos in southern Iberia.

Strengths
Being a monster, Geryon is very hard to kill unless facing Celestial Bronze, Imperial Gold, or Stygian Iron. Even with these metals, his ability to regenerate allows him to tire out his opposition instead of fighting them head on. Because Geryon has three torsos, he also has three hearts which means he can not be defeated unless all three of his hearts are destroyed at the same time. Destroying one or even two at a time will weaken Geryon, but he will reform within moments. However without this ability, he isn't very strong and can be easily defeated.

Weaknesses
It will take about a hundred years for him to reform.

History
Ladon was the serpentine dragon that twined and twisted around the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides, and guarded the golden apples. He was beaten by Hercules, who successfully stole one of these apples. The following day, the Argonauts, who were on their return journey from Colchis, passed by and heard the lament of "shining" Aigle, one of the Hesperides, and viewed the still-twitching Ladon.

Ladon was given several different parents depending on the myth, each of which placed him at an archaic level in Greek myth: the offspring of "Ceto, joined in heated passion with Phorcys" or of Typhon, who was himself serpent-like from the waist down, and Echidna or of Gaea herself, or in her Olympian manifestation, Hera: "The Dragon which guarded the golden apples was the brother of the Nemean lion" asserted Ptolemy Hephaestion. In one version Hercules did not kill Ladon. The creature is associated with the constellation Draco. Also, in some stories, the dragon was said to have a hundred heads.

Tactics
Attacks with teeth and poison

History
The nemean lion was one of task that need to complete by Heracles. When Hercules got to Nemea and began tracking the terrible lion, he soon discovered his arrows were useless against the beast. Hercules picked up his club and went after the lion. Following it to a cave which had two entrances, Hercules blocked one of the doorways, then approached the fierce lion through the other. Grasping the lion in his mighty arms, and ignoring its powerful claws, he held it tightly until he'd choked it to death. The Nemean Lion takes several years to reform.

Strengths
This lion has an impenetrable coat, that deflects all attacks, it is a bulletproof and swordproof pelt. The great size of this beast only increases the power of his claws.

Tactics
Attacks with its razor sharp claws

Weaknesses
This monster is only vulnerable in his eyes and mouth. It is not recommended to attempt to suffocate it like Hercules.