Sacred-texts  Classical Paganism  Legends & Sagas  Index 
Previous Next       MONSTERS, in the language of mythology, were
beings of unnatural proportions or parts, usually regarded with
terror, as possessing immense strength and ferocity, which they
employed for the injury and annoyance of men. Some of them were
supposed to combine the members of different animals; such were
the Sphinx and Chimaera and to these all the terrible qualities
of wild beasts were attributed, together with human sagacity and
faculties. Others, as the giants, differed from men chiefly in
their size; and in this particular we must recognize a wide
distinction among them. The human giants, if so they may be
called, such as the Cyclops, Antaeus, Orion, and others, must be
supposed not to be altogether disproportioned to human beings,
for they mingled in love and strife with them. But the super-
human giants, who warred with the gods, were of vastly larger
dimensions. Tityus, we are told, when stretched on the plain,
covered nine acres,