Mythical Creatures Everyone has heard of a unicorn…right? Or a dragon? But did you know that there are lots of other mythical creatures that all have their own interesting story and special skills? Have you heard for example of the Phoenix? Or the Hydra? This Power point will explain everything you needed to know about a whole range of mythical beasts. Are you ready to read about the creatures…both good and bad? Warning….some of it’s a bit gross!

Mythical means ‘made up’ so although some of the animals in the stories sound a bit scary they don’t actually exist. Many of the beasts

were made up to teach people a lesson through a story.

Unicorns Unicorns are one of the often named mythical creatures and are used as a symbol of purity and grace. Some people think Unicorns were invented by the Ancient Greeks. Many Ancient Greeks thought unicorns were real and would travel to far away lands in search of them.

To identify a unicorn you had to look for a horse or goat with a single long horn on its head. Many people have said to have found one but all had created a fake unicorn using a narwhal tusk.

Dragons Dragons, as we know, come in many shapes and sizes but they are the only mythical creature that could once have existed in some shape or form. They wouldn’t have looked exactly like we expect but because there are animals similar to a dragon around today (kimono dragons) some scientists think that there may once have been animals similar to dragons on earth.

Dragons come from the Chinese culture and can be identified by usually having large wings, scaly skin and some sort of special power such as breathing ice or fire. There are lots of stories involving dragons…can you name one?

Phoenix A Phoenix is mythical bird that is born out of fire and has, in many stories throughout history, rescued people from harm. A Phoenix is immortal due to its ability to die and be reborn from an egg as long as the egg is placed within a fire. Due to the element of fire being important to a Phoenix some pictures actually show the Phoenix on fire.

A Phoenix can be recognised by large, brightly coloured wings that are usually an orange, yellow or magenta colour. The birds are usually about the size of an ostrich. There are many stories about the Phoenix saving many people by giving them one of his magical feathers. It is also said to have helped the Greek god of the sun, Helios whose chariot pulled the sun across the sky everyday giving us day and night.

Hydra Hydra is an immortal Greek monster who had 9 heads and the body of a giant snake. According to the Greek myth, the Hydra is the child of Typhon (a human) and Echidna (half human, half snake!). You can recognise a Hydra because if you cut off one of its heads 2 will grow back in its place! Even more weirdly than that Hydra’s teeth could apparently make skeletons walk and talk again!

A Hydra was also known to have poisonous blood and spit deadly acid but neither of these prevented Hercules from killing the Hydra as one of his 12 labours. (You can find the whole gruesome story online!) Hercules realised that to stop the heads growing back after being chopped off he needed to cauterise the stumps with fire…..gross right? Then he could chop off the Hydra’s immortal head and the beast was finally vanquished.

The Minotaur Also a Greek mythical beast, the Minotaur was a half human, half bull creature who lived in a maze under a castle. Being super strong and as large as a bus, even though many people tried, it was almost impossible to kill. In the myth it is said that the Minotaur was trapped under the castle and kept there by feeding it human sacrifices! In some really horrid versions of the story these sacrifices were children. (Thank goodness we know this story is not true!) Eventually the Minotaur was slain by the hero Theseus who had a special sword. Unlike the other heroes who had tried to slay the beast and got lost in the maze under the castle, Theseus was given a magic ball of string to help find his way back to the entrance after he had killed the Minotaur.