Talk:List of Greek mythological creatures

Brief Descriptions

Is it alright to have brief descriptions on this page, possibly on how they looked, so that researchers can look at this page and know what they are looking for? Gryphon Hall 06:48, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

and it's ok on saying there names but what about a picture?!?

Merger

This article is short and it seems like it would be appropriate as a section of yea thats wat they sar List of Greek mythological figures. AOB 18:35, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Spectre

Just wanted to point out that Spectre doesn't go anywhere very useful --TimNelson (talk) 12:03, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Missing Entries

I am not an expert on the subject, but I noticed that there is no entry Nike. This forces the question, what else is missing? This list is clearly incomplete. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.131.196.200 (talk) 19:30, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Surely the Titans are monsters as well? Zinzan32 (talk) 19:51, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Griffins were a creature of Greek mythology as well, I believe. Daaanieeel 15:42 9 July 2012 (+8 GMT) —Preceding undated comment added 07:43, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

I guess this depends on how loosely or strictly we construe "Mythology". Griffins are abundant in Greek art, folklore and the fanciful, fabulous accounts of Greek and medieval geographers; but they don't appear, as far as I know, in any Greek myth. Haploidavey (talk) 10:01, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

Griffins are mentioned by Thomas Bulfinch on page 125 (the Greek mythology section) of *Bulfinch's Mythology*. They are said to have lived in Scythia. Chillowack (talk) 20:29, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

The admirable (and long dead) Bullfinch aimed at the popular readership of his day. He didn't discriminate between legend and myth, so everything - from King Arthur to Osiris - was grist to his mill. That doesn't mean we should do the same. It seem possible that some of the less appropriate entries here were added by editors who'd read "Bullfinch's Mythology" and similar works, and were unaware of the distinction between myth and legend. Haploidavey (talk) 13:18, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

List content and scope

This is a high-traffic list. It's on my watchlist, but I've not taken a critical look until now. I find some of its header-categories rather baffling. What exactly makes a "monster"? Some of those listed are divine or semi-divine human-animal "hybrids"(?). Some of the listed "creatures" probably qualify as embodied demons or spirits. Some of the linked entries have no mythology. Several are legendary tribes, humanoids and creatures found only in ancient geographies, and later medieval works drawn from them. A list of "mythological" anything should respect the term's specialised meaning. What exactly do we mean by "creatures"? Are Giants of the Titanomachy creatures? And should we take it that anything featured in the List of Greek mythological figures should not have an entry here? Haploidavey (talk) 11:53, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

Terrible writing

This list needs a revision and correction of redaction, "women" is used several times as the singular noun, and the overall writing in some parts is childish and pidgin-like. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.184.18.191 (talk) 00:40, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

It's Heracles, not Hercules

This is a Greek article. We should go with the Greek names. I'm going to change all instances of Hercules to Heracles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mophedd (talk • contribs) 06:30, 21 June 2014 (UTC)

Recommendation to remove all name-specific creatures.

I feel that these name-specific figures belonging to a race of monsters needs to be under their specific wiki pages rather than throwing name-specific figures haphazardly in the list. I recommended they be moved under their belonging race of beings rather than be listed on this page. This list of creatures should only talk about what generally exists in greek mythology, and when they clicked on giants then they get a list of giants.

Why are some goddesses and mortal women listed here?

How are sorceresses considered "creatures"? Circe and Pasiphae are goddesses, and Medea is a mortal woman. They're not monsters. The Erinyes are goddesses too, if ugly. --Deiadameian (talk) 16:44, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

@Deiadameian: You should feel free to remove any figures which you do not qualify as "creatures". I agree with the removal of all the ones you've questioned above. Paul August ☎ 18:02, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

One Issue

Heirophant, the creature of requiem of morning, day, dawn and night. By land, By sea Damphry

- Where exactly did this come from? Sources would be nice. 74.124.162.10 (talk) 23:13, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

I couldn't find any relevant search results, so I've removed it. Squeakachu (talk) 23:24, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

Removal of Daemons & other possible changes

While some have monstrous behavior and some few monster-like qualities which would indicate a Kakodaimon, but that does not mean they're a primal monstrous creature in the ancient greek point of view, these beings are still human-like spirits that serve between mortals & gods and some blur the line to having god-like behavior.

Though if these Daemons must stay, but it needs to be organized better of the ones that would be a Kakodaimon. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2026-21346-49 (talk) 16:27, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

I noticed things like Decerto and Sphinx. While true the female Sphinx is partly greek, but should be in its own category as a cross-culture invention and influence, so people are not thinking the Sphinx was purely a greek invention.

I also noticed a few mistakes, Empousa are not exactly "demons", but they're more accurately like a Phasmata (ghosts). While there was indeed human type of ghosts, but there was also monstrous ones like the Lamiae (but not Lamia herself, important distinction) and Empousa. Its very similar to what the Japanese do with yokai which are almost mostly are ghosts, specters, etc though there is yurei which is more true to the human kind of ghosts. The idea of ghosts seemed to be somewhat different than how modern ghosts are today, and I think that something be considered for other mythologies if they treated ghosts differently as well.

Also I noticed other beings in here are being listed as Demons too, I believe whoever wrote this was coming from a modern lense of their appearance and behavior. It also should be noted Daimon and Demon mean completely different things and more based on their religion/mythology of where the word came from.

I could try to fix this wikipedia page, but I'm not professionally qualified. ~2026-21346-49 (talk) 16:04, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Yes, "daemons" (to whatever degree that's a valid category of figures) should not be listed here. I've removed those figures. I've also fixed the description provided for Empusa. The broader problem here is that there's no clear definition of what constitutes a "creature" in Greek mythology, meaning that which figures we should include and how they should be organised will require some careful thought. If you want to fix this page up a bit, please go for it. It needs all the help that it can get. I wouldn't worry about not being professionally qualified: most people here aren't. If doing so interests you, a good place to start would be to look through The Oxford Handbook of Monsters in Classical Myth; its table of contents might be a good starting place for thinking about how this list should be structured, for example. – Michael Aurel (talk) 12:30, 8 April 2026 (UTC)