mythical being

Noun
  1. An imaginary being of myth or fable (synset 109507794)
    is a type of: imaginary being, imaginary creature - a creature of the imagination; a person that exists only in legends or myths or fiction
    subtypes:
    • halcyon - a mythical bird said to breed at the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea and to have the power of calming the winds and waves
    • mythical creature, mythical monster - a monster renowned in folklore and myth
    • phoenix - a legendary Arabian bird said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new phoenix; according to most versions only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years
    • houri - (Islam) one of the dark-eyed virgins of perfect beauty believed to live with the blessed in Paradise
    • amazon - (Greek mythology) one of a nation of women warriors of Scythia (who burned off the right breast in order to use a bow and arrow more effectively)
    • gog and magog - biblical names of the enemies of God's people who wage war against God at the end of the world
    • golem - (Jewish folklore) an artificially created human being that is given life by supernatural means
    • hero - (classical mythology) a being of great strength and courage celebrated for bold exploits; often the offspring of a mortal and a god
    specific instances:
    • augeas - (Greek mythology) the mythical Greek king who for 30 years did not clean his stables which contained his vast herd of cattle
    • alcyone, halcyon - (Greek mythology) a woman who was turned into a kingfisher
    • arjuna - (Hindu mythology) the warrior prince in the Bhagavad-Gita to whom Krishna explains the nature of being and of God and how humans can come to know God
    • scylla - (Greek mythology) a sea nymph transformed into a sea monster who lived on one side of a narrow strait; drowned and devoured sailors who tried to escape Charybdis (a whirlpool) on the other side of the strait
    • stentor - the mythical Greek warrior with an unusually loud voice who died after losing a shouting contest with Hermes
    • dardanus - (Greek mythology) founder of Troy
    • ganymede - (Greek mythology) a Trojan boy who was so beautiful that Zeus carried him away to serve as cupbearer to the gods
    • hyperborean - (Greek mythology) one of a people that the ancient Greeks believed lived in a warm and sunny land north of the source of the north wind
    • niobe - (Greek mythology) the daughter of Tantalus whose boasting about her children provoked Apollo and Artemis to slay them all; Niobe was turned to stone while bewailing her loss
    • perseus - (Greek mythology) the son of Zeus who slew Medusa (with the help of Athena and Hermes) and rescued Andromeda from a sea monster
    • andromeda - (Greek mythology) an Ethiopian princess and daughter of Cassiopeia; she was fastened to a rock and exposed to a sea monster that was sent by Poseidon, but she was rescued by Perseus and became his wife
    • cepheus - (Greek mythology) king of Ethiopia and husband of Cassiopeia
    • cassiopeia - (Greek mythology) the wife of Cepheus and mother of Andromeda
    • midas - (Greek legend) the greedy king of Phrygia who Dionysus gave the power to turn everything he touched into gold
    • sisyphus - (Greek legend) a king in ancient Greece who offended Zeus and whose punishment was to roll a huge boulder to the top of a steep hill; each time the boulder neared the top it rolled back down and Sisyphus was forced to start again
    • narcissus - (Greek mythology) a beautiful young man who fell in love with his own reflection
    • nibelung - (German mythology) a companion or follower of Siegfried
    • bellerophon - (Greek mythology) a mythical hero of Corinth who performed miracles on the winged horse Pegasus (especially killing the monster Chimera)
    • paris - (Greek mythology) the prince of Troy who abducted Helen from her husband Menelaus and provoked the Trojan War
    • patroclus - (Greek mythology) a friend of Achilles who was killed in the Trojan War; his death led Achilles to return to the fight after his quarrel with Agamemnon
    • pegasus - (Greek mythology) the immortal winged horse that sprang from the blood of the slain Medusa; was tamed by Bellerophon with the help of a bridle given him by Athena; as the flying horse of the Muses it is a symbol of highflying imagination
    • sarpedon - (Greek mythology) a son of Zeus who became king of Lycia; fought on behalf of the Trojans in the Trojan War and was killed by Patroclus
    • siegfried - (German mythology) mythical German warrior hero of the Nibelungenlied who takes possession of the accursed treasure of the Nibelungs by slaying the dragon that guards it and awakens Brynhild and is eventually killed; Sigurd is the Norse counterpart
    • sigurd - (Norse mythology) mythical Norse warrior hero who gains an accursed hoard of gold and was killed by Brynhild; Siegfried is the German counterpart
    • enkidu - legendary friend of Gilgamish
    • gilgamish - legendary Sumerian king and hero of Sumerian and Babylonian epics
    • sita - wife of the Hindu god Rama; regarded as an ideal of womanhood
    • hero - (Greek mythology) priestess of Aphrodite who killed herself when her lover Leander drowned while trying to swim the Hellespont to see her
    • leander - (Greek mythology) a youth beloved of Hero who drowned in a storm in the Hellespont on one of his nightly visits to see her
    • pygmalion - (Greek mythology) a king who created a statue of a woman and fell in love with it; Aphrodite brought the sculpture to life as Galatea
    • galatea - (Greek mythology) a maiden who was first a sculpture created by Pygmalion and was brought to life by Aphrodite in answer to Pygmalion's prayers
    • romulus - (Roman mythology) founder of Rome; suckled with his twin brother Remus by a wolf after their parents (Mars and Rhea Silvia) abandoned them; Romulus killed Remus in an argument over the building of Rome
    • remus - (Roman mythology) the twin brother of Romulus
    • daedal, daedalus - (Greek mythology) an Athenian inventor who built the labyrinth of Minos; to escape the labyrinth he fashioned wings for himself and his son Icarus
    • icarus - (Greek mythology) son of Daedalus; while escaping from Crete with his father (using the wings Daedalus had made) he flew too close to the sun and the wax melted and he fell into the Aegean and drowned
    • procrustes - (Greek mythology) a mythical giant who was a thief and murderer; he would capture people and tie them to an iron bed, stretching them or hacking off their legs to make them fit; was killed by Theseus
    • eurydice - (Greek mythology) the wife of Orpheus
    • orion - (Greek mythology) a giant Boeotian hunter who pursued the Pleiades and was eventually slain by Artemis; was then placed in the sky as a constellation
    • orpheus - (Greek mythology) a great musician; when his wife Eurydice died he went to Hades to get her back but failed
    • psyche - (Greek mythology) a beautiful princess loved by Cupid who visited her at night and told her she must not try to see him; became the personification of the soul
    • alcides, heracles, herakles, hercules - (classical mythology) a hero noted for his strength; performed 12 immense labors to gain immortality
    • pandora - (Greek mythology) the first woman; created by Hephaestus on orders from Zeus who presented her to Epimetheus along with a box filled with evils
    • fenrir - (Norse mythology) an enormous wolf that was fathered by Loki and that killed Odin
    • volund - (Norse mythology) a wonderful smith; identified with Anglo-Saxon Wayland and Teutonic Wieland
    • ygdrasil, yggdrasil - (Norse mythology) a huge ash tree whose roots and branches hold the earth and Heaven and Hell together
    • ymir - (Norse mythology) the primeval giant slain by Odin and his brothers and from whose body they created the world: the sea from his blood; the earth from his flesh; the mountains from his bones; the sky from his skull
    • wayland, wayland the smith, wieland - (European mythology) a supernatural smith and king of the elves; identified with Norse Volund
    • ajax - a mythical Greek hero; a warrior who fought against Troy in the Iliad
    • valkyrie - (Norse mythology) one of the maidens of Odin who chose heroes to be slain in battle and conducted them to Valhalla
    • jason - (Greek mythology) the husband of Medea and leader of the Argonauts who sailed in quest of the Golden Fleece
    • medea - (Greek mythology) a princess of Colchis who aided Jason in taking the Golden Fleece from her father
    • laertes - (Greek mythology) the father of Odysseus
    • odysseus - (Greek mythology) a famous mythical Greek hero; his return to Ithaca after the siege of Troy was described in the Odyssey
    • ulysses - (Roman mythology) Roman spelling for Odysseus
    • penelope - (Greek mythology) the wife of Odysseus and a symbol of devotion and fidelity; for 10 years while Odysseus fought the Trojan War she resisted numerous suitors until Odysseus returned and killed them
    • theseus - (Greek mythology) a hero and king of Athens who was noted for his many great deeds: killed Procrustes and the Minotaur and defeated the Amazons and united Attica
    • tantalus - (Greek mythology) a wicked king and son of Zeus; condemned in Hades to stand in water that receded when he tried to drink and beneath fruit that receded when he reached for it
    • achilles - a mythical Greek hero of the Iliad; a foremost Greek warrior at the siege of Troy; when he was a baby his mother tried to make him immortal by bathing him in a magical river but the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable--his `Achilles' heel'
    • aeneas - a mythical Greek warrior who was a leader on the Trojan side of the Trojan War; hero of the Aeneid
    • atreus - (Greek mythology) the king of Mycenae and father of Agamemnon and of Menelaus
    • agamemnon - (Greek mythology) the king who lead the Greeks against Troy in the Trojan War
    • menelaus - (Greek mythology) the king of Sparta at the time of the Trojan War; brother of Agamemnon; husband of Helen
    • iphigenia - (Greek mythology) the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon; Agamemnon was obliged to offer her as a sacrifice to Artemis when the Greek fleet was becalmed on its way to Troy; Artemis rescued her and she later became a priestess
    • clytemnestra - (Greek mythology) wife of Agamemnon who had him murdered when he returned from the Trojan War
    • aegisthus - (Greek mythology) the seducer of Clytemnestra and murderer of Agamemnon who usurped the throne of Mycenae until Agamemnon's son Orestes returned home and killed him
    • orestes - (Greek mythology) the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; his sister Electra persuaded him to avenge Agamemnon's death by killing Clytemnestra and Aegisthus
    • antigone - (Greek mythology) the daughter of King Oedipus who disobeyed her father and was condemned to death
    • creon - (Greek mythology) the brother of Jocasta and uncle of Antigone who became king of Thebes after the fall of Oedipus
    • jocasta - (Greek mythology) queen of Thebes who unknowingly married her own son Oedipus
    • electra - (Greek mythology) the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; persuaded her brother (Orestes) to avenge Agamemnon's death by helping her to kill Clytemnestra and her lover (Aegisthus)
    • laocoon - (Greek mythology) the priest of Apollo who warned the Trojans to beware of Greeks bearing gifts when they wanted to accept the Trojan Horse; a god who favored the Greeks (Poseidon or Athena) sent snakes who coiled around Laocoon and his two twin sons killing them
    • laius - (Greek mythology) king of Thebes who was unwittingly killed by his son Oedipus
    • myrmidon - (Greek mythology) a member of the warriors who followed Achilles on the expedition against Troy
    • king oedipus, oedipus, oedipus rex - (Greek mythology) a tragic king of Thebes who unknowingly killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta; the subject of the drama `Oedipus Rex' by Sophocles
    • tiresias - (Greek mythology) the blind prophet of Thebes who revealed to Oedipus that Oedipus had murdered his father and married his mother
    • peleus - a king of the Myrmidons and father of Achilles
    • hector - (Greek mythology) a mythical Trojan who was killed by Achilles during the Trojan War
    • helen, helen of troy - (Greek mythology) the beautiful daughter of Zeus and Leda who was abducted by Paris; the Greek army sailed to Troy to get her back which resulted in the Trojan War
    • leda - (Greek mythology) a queen of Sparta who was raped by Zeus who had taken the form of a swan; Helen of Troy was conceived in the rape of Leda
    • priam - (Greek mythology) the last king of Troy; father of Hector and Paris and Cassandra

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