OJCL Torch Winter 2019 | Page 23

Medusa is a woman who had snakes for hair that petrified anyone who she looked at. Athena turned her hair into snakes as punishment for a relationship with Poseidon. When she was killed, Pegasus jumped out from her neck. Definitely a weird birth, but not one of the weirdest in Greek mythology (looking at you, Dionysus, popping out of Zeus' thigh). The sphinx had the upper body of a woman, the lower body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. She would kill anyone who could not answer her riddle, so she killed a lot of people. Her riddle was "what has four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?" The answer is man, and the sphinx killed herself when Oedipus answered the riddle. Sphinx The sirens lured sailors to their deaths by singing so beautifully that the sailors would jump into the ocean. Sailors who wanted to avoid this fate would have to tie themselves to the mast of the ship and try to block out the songs. Sirens There are many more amazing monsters beyond this list, so I encourage you to do some reading on classical monsters!