Monsters, Ghosts, & Mysteries

In Greek mythology, a creature half human and half horse, wild and lawless. Chiron, the mentor of the hero Heracles and tutor of the god of medicine Asclepius, was an exception. Their home was said to be on Mount Pelion, Thessaly.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Supernatural beings of Arabic folklore and Islamic tradition, spirits of fire whose favorite abode is the desert.

Mythical reptilian beast, often portrayed with wings and breathing fire.

A race of supernatural beings in Germanic and Norse folklore. In Britain, over the centuries, they came to be almost synonymous with the diminutive fairies of native British folklore, until J.R.R. Tolkien’s depiction of them in Lord of the Rings helped to restore a concept of them which was much closer to the original Germanic one.

In folklore, one of a variety of supernatural beings endowed with the powers of magic and enchantment.

In The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters
Satyrs, as well as fauns with which they are associated, are Greek and Latin, respectively, demigods with male human torsos and heads and animal legs.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
In folklore, a small, mischievous spirit of the earth or mountain. The males are bearded, wear tunics and hoods, and often conceal treasure in their underground dwellings.

A general term for a small, dark, ugly and mischievous or evil fairy.

In Jewish folklore, a figure of a human being brought to life by supernatural means.

In The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters
In the most widespread tradition derived from Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BCE), the Gorgons consist of three winged supernatural female creatures, powerful and monstrous.

Mythical monster, the supposed guardian of hidden treasure, with the body, tail, and hind legs of a lion, and the head, forelegs, and wings of an eagle, though in classical times all four legs were those of a lion.

A mythic water snake inhabiting the marshes of Lerna, south of Argos in Greece.

A small demonic spirit, thought to be mischievous rather than genuinely evil.

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
A fabulous sea monster supposedly seen off the coast of Norway and probably based on the sighting of a gigantic cuttlefish. It was first described by Pontoppidan in his History of Norway (1752). It was said to be capable of dragging down the largest ships and when submerging to suck down a vessel by the whirlpool it created.

The name of a monster of the waters, any huge sea creature or large ship.

A mythical sea-creature with the upper body of a woman and the tail of a fish.

A mythical monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man, born of Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, and the white bull that Poseidon sent to Minos.

In The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters
Within the context of the Old and New Testaments, monsters function as warnings, omens, or demonstrations of the consequences of transgressing cultural and religious boundaries.

Pegasus (Pegasos, 'water-spirit'), in Greek myth, was the winged stallion which grew from the blood spurting from Medusa's neck after she was beheaded by Perseus.

One of the mythical monsters, half-woman and half-bird, said by Greek poets to entice seamen by the sweetness of their song to such a degree that the listeners forgot all and died of hunger.

Mythological creature, depicted in Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek art as a lion with a human head.

The name given to a famous mythical bird and also to allegedly real-life counterparts spied in the skies over North America.

From The Macmillan Encyclopedia
In Scandinavian folklore, originally a gigantic ogre-like creature imagined as guarding treasure, inhabiting a castle, and stalking through the forest only at night since they are destroyed or turned to stone if they see the sun.

A fabulous beast resembling a horse, but with one long spiral horn growing from its forehead; often used as a symbol of strength and purity and in heraldry. Travelers throughout the centuries have made claims of sightings of the fabulous unicorn and have given conflicting descriptions of this beast. There have been accounts of unicorns in China, Mongolia, the Middle East, Egypt, North Africa, India, Japan, Europe and America.

In contemporary popular culture, vampires are fictitious immortal creatures of the night who sustain themselves by drinking the blood of the living. These undead creatures might be the unsettled souls of criminals or suicide victims. They may have been victims of other vampires, as those who are attacked by vampires are fated to become vampires themselves.

A 'man-wolf' (Old English wer, 'man'), i.e. a man who, according to ancient superstition, was turned, or could at will turn himself, into a wolf (the loupgarou of France). It had the appetite of a wolf and roamed about at night devouring infants and sometimes exhuming corpses. Its skin was proof against shot or steel, unless the weapon had been blessed in a chapel dedicated to Saint Hubert.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A canine cryptid from South America known only from a single controversial pelt and one skull.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The name given to a sea serpent said to live in Cadboro Bay, Canada.

From The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings
Originally spelt without the ‘s’ but nowadays most commonly spelt with it, the chupacabras (‘goatsucker’) is little short of a cryptozoological phenomenon, let alone a mere enigma.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Former cryptid thought to be the inspiration for the fabled kraken.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
During January 1909, over a hundred people across southern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania in the USA claimed to have seen a bizarre winged creature, sometimes said to have horns, that became known as the Jersey devil.

On the afternoon of 14 April 1933, Mr. and Mrs. John Mackay became the first two eyewitnesses of a mysterious entity soon to become known world-wide as Nessie, the Loch Ness monster.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A mysterious bat-like humanoid, alleged sightings of which are particularly associated with the US town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Reported sightings were famously seen to be connected with other strange occurrences in the area, and later taken to be an omen of the Silver Bridge disaster.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
An alleged African winged snake, said to emit a light from its head.

From The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters
Ogopogo is one of several lake monsters that have occasionally figured in film and literature.

A very large, bipedal man-beast, which is North America’s most famous cryptid.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Spring-Heeled Jack was the popular name of a mysterious male phantom who supposedly haunted many parts of England between 1837 and 1904. Numerous crimes and assaults (particularly against young women) were reputedly perpetrated by Spring-Heeled Jack, although most of his victims seem to have suffered shock rather than serious injury. That Spring-Heeled Jack was no ordinary mortal was shown by his reputed ability to jump great distances, breathe blue flames and appear and disappear seemingly without trace.

The name given to the famous 'abominable snowman' said to inhabit the Himalayan mountain range, but which may describe more than one cryptid.

The term ‘cryptozoology’ is derived from the Greek roots kryptos (‘hidden’), zoon (‘animal’) and logos (‘discourse’ or ‘study’), and therefore translates literally as ‘the study of hidden animals’. It is generally defined as the study of unexpected animals whose existence or identity is currently undetermined by science.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The official term for all cryptozoological animals.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Pioneering figure in cryptozoology, the author of several classic books on this subject, who became known as the ‘Father of Cryptozoology’.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A society formed to document and evaluate evidence of ‘mystery animals’.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A diverse array of hairy humanoid cryptids reported from many regions of the world.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Creatures of an already-known species that are sighted in an unexpected geographical location.