A Tangle of Gorgons

When I think of monsters, I think of scary movies and childhood nightmares. Thanks to my vivid imagination, monsters were always hiding underneath my bed, in my closet, or in the room around the corner. And never wanting to be seen in the light of day, they were always hiding in the dark. Not all monsters hide in the dark or lurk in the corners of our imagination though. Some of them rule between the covers of books.

Do you need a monster in your story? Take a look through the list of monsters in this article and see if you can find one that fits what you are looking for. If not, why not create your own monster? Try blending the characteristics of two or more of the known mythological monsters and come up with one of your own creation. Who knows? Maybe your creature will become famous.

In the Bible, the behemoth was an immense creature. Some think it was a hippopotamus, but I don’t see the tail of a hippopotamus swaying like a cedar tree (Job 40:15-24). I think it much more likely that a behemoth was a dinosaur. A spectacle of behemoths is a group of these thick-bodied creatures.

Where would your character run across a behemoth? Would you have to put him in a story that takes place in Biblical times? You could, but you could also put him in a world of your own creation. Or you could place a spectacle of behemoths somewhere in our world.

Bigfoot, otherwise known as Sasquatch, is an apelike creature that may or may not exist. There have been a lot of mistaken identifications and hoaxes concerning this large, hairy, bipedal humanoid. Are they vicious or are they gentle? I do not know, but I would not want to accidentally run into a ruminance of Bigfeet so I could find out.

Your character could be on a camping trip deep in the woods and find himself right in the middle of a ruminanance of Bigfeet when he wakes up. How does he react? Are the Bigfeet friendly or not?

A bogeyman is an imaginary creature used by adults to persuade children to behave. Children are told that the bogeyman will get them if they misbehave. It has no definite appearance, just whatever the adult decides to tell the child. A group of these mythological creatures is called a scamper of bogeymen.

Bogeymen are thought to hide underneath beds or in closets. Why not have your bogeyman hide somewhere different? Maybe he is inside the television. Maybe he is beneath the couch cushions. Or maybe he is in the bathroom. If a scamper of bogeymen inhabit a house, there could be one or more in each room.

A bugbear is a legendary creature. In medieval England, children were told that this creepy bear lurked in the woods, just waiting to scare them. You could compare the bugbear to the bogeyman. The threat of a prominence of bugbears would probably keep a terrified child on good behavior for quite some time.

You could treat bugbears the same way you do bogeymen since they are about the same. Maybe the bugbears would decide to hide in teddy bears. I think that would make them even creepier.

Aboriginal mythology presents to us the bunyip. These mythological creatures hide in swamps, billabongs, riverbeds, creeks, and waterholes. There are many different descriptions of this creature – from a crocodile to a giant starfish to a creature with a face like a dog, a tail like a horse, tusks like a walrus, and flippers – so I’m really not sure what one would look like. These wild-looking creatures are said to dine on both humans and animals. A bedevilment of bunyips would not be the ideal pack of animals to cross when wandering through the Australian outback.

The Australian outback is full of dangerous creatures. Could they each be inhabited by a bunyip? Even though the name “bunyip” makes me think of a bunny, these creatures are not nearly as cute as a bunny. A bedevilment of bunyips could definitely make Australia a hazardous place to be.

Cryptozoology is the study of animals that may or may not be real. One of the animals that a cryptozoologist studies is the chupacabra; when literally translated from Spanish, it means “goat-sucker”. I own a few goats, so I don’t want any chupacabras around my land. It has been described as half-human, half-vampire; it has also been said to have the body of a reptile, an oval head, bulging red eyes, fanged teeth, and a long, darting tongue. Some have described it as a winged monkey with deadly claws and hideous fangs; others say it is a species of kangaroo. A group of these creatures, mythical or not, is called a clubbing of chupacabras.

I wouldn’t want just one character to find himself in the midst of a clubbing of chupacabras, so why not have a large group of men who are throwing a Halloween party run across a group of them?

According to Greek mythology, a cyclops is a member of a race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of the forehead. A group of these giants is called a doubting of cyclops.

I’m sure there are cyclops who are nice as well as cyclops who are not so nice. Why not write a story where most of the characters are cyclops? Set their town in the midst of our world, and have them interact with normal human people.

Statues that are grotesque representations of animals, or sometimes humans, that adorn many buildings are gargoyles. They are supposed to protect a place from evil spirits, but what about real gargoyles? Do they protect or do they threaten? In modern fiction, they are often depicted as horned creatures with talons and they have the ability to turn to stone. Sometimes they are said to eat humans, but not always. A group of these atrocious looking creatures is called an audacity of gargoyles.

An audacity of gargoyles guards a kingdom’s treasures from invaders. But what happens if the loyalty of these gargoyles switches to the rulers of another kingdom? How was this accomplished? What happened?

Chaos and destruction surround giants in mythology. These extremely large and strong humans have been portrayed as violent in children’s stories, for example, Jack and the Beanstalk. Are giants truly this way? I don’t know; I have never had the pleasure or displeasure of meeting one. A group of these large people would be called a percussion of giants.

Have your character stumble upon a world inhabited by giants. How is he treated by this percussion of giants?

Goblins, also known as brownies or gnomes, are normally small in stature. They are often said to possess magical abilities. Even though the horrific-looking orcs from The Lord of the Rings are the size of humans, they are supposed to be goblins. Goblins are presented in more their normal size in other movies, such as The Labyrinth and Harry Potter, and in books, such as Harry Potter and The Princess and the Goblin. A malignity of goblins have the ability to wreak havoc, no matter where they are found.

Could these little creatures be the ones guilty of dirtying all the dishes and messing up the countertops in my perfectly clean kitchen while I am gone? Write a story where goblins really are the ones guilty of messing up someone’s house.

The most famous gorgon, Medusa, comes from Greek mythology. Stheno and Euryale were her two immortal sisters. Medusa was the unlucky one who was not immortal. All three of the sisters had writhing, venomous snakes for hair; just one look at any of them would turn a person to stone. If you were unlucky enough to run into all three of these ugly sisters, you would have run into a tangle of Gorgons.

What if Medusa plotted to steal the immortal lives of either of her sisters? How would she set about doing so?

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