[GotAK] Great Mythical Beasts

[Gentled Ben]

Welcome! Who hasn't wished to see a unicorn, a dragon, a sea serpent, or a griffon? In this thread, we will be discussing creatures of legend, lore, and mythology. We'll talk about our favorites and discuss what makes them great--why they fire our imaginations, why they are still popular centuries after we've become fairly certain that there are no dragons or unicorns lurking in the bushes, where the ideas for these beasts might have originated (for example, it's a popular notion that the mermaid was derived from the manatee), and whatever else crosses our minds, as I have done little to no preparation for this discussion. We will just wing it, like dragons...

 

I can think of no better opening than this:

 

 

[Gentled Ben]

As you can probably guess, dragons are my favorite mythical beast. I have numerous dragon figurines in my home, I was born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon, and I have a dragon (I believe technically, a wyvern) tattoo: 

 

 

I love the way they look, both regal and sort of creepy. I love their wisdom and cleverness, and their ferocity and seeming invincibility. I think it would be terrifying to meet one, but to have one as a friend or a partner, such as in Dragonheart, would be exceedingly cool. What are some of your favorite mythical beasts, and why?

 

 

Edited May 20, 2018 by Gentled Ben

[Mashiara Sedai]

Gotta love dragons!  I think they're my favorite too!

 

I generally enjoy the trope of all-powerful, mythical creatures that seem aloof and threatening, but they're just misunderstood.  I also love the idea of dragon shape-shifters!

 

Sea serpents are cool too!  I think Nessie is a good example of a cute sea serpent (or is she classified as a dinosaur?).

[Ryrin]

Centaurs

 

 

Mermaids

 

[Mashiara Sedai]

Centaurs are cool!  I think I'd like to use them in a story.  That would be so interesting!

 

And mermaids are amazing, too.  I love how intricate they can get.  Some novels/TV shows really play with the anatomy and explain how they could live in such an environment.

[Kaylee]

Mermaids and Pegasus are cool. 

[JamesBrown]

[Mashiara Sedai]

15 minutes ago, Kaylee said:

Mermaids and Pegasus are cool. 

Oh!  Pegasus is neat!

 

14 minutes ago, JamesBrown said:

I think all options but #3 work. The point of pants is to cover up naughty bits, right?  #3 wouldn't do that.

[Ryrin]

1 hour ago, JamesBrown said:

 

[Ryrin]

Unicorns

 

          

[JamesBrown]

9 hours ago, Mashiara Sedai said:

Oh!  Pegasus is neat!

 

I think all options but #3 work. The point of pants is to cover up naughty bits, right?  #3 wouldn't do that.

 

But...but they all look ridiculous!

[Kaylee]

 

 

[Kaylee]

 

[Kaylee]

[Kaylee]

 

[Kaylee]

[Gentled Ben]

18 hours ago, Mashiara Sedai said:

Oh!  Pegasus is neat!

 

I think all options but #3 work. The point of pants is to cover up naughty bits, right?  #3 wouldn't do that.

 

On the other hand, his arms aren't long enough to put any other pair of pants besides #3 on, and since he can't reach back there anyway, #3 is the only pair that will allow him to relieve himself. Unless of course, the back is just open on the pants, and that defeats the whole purpose. Maybe this is why we never see them wearing pants?

 

These are wonderful pictures and wonderful choices!

 

Unicorns and dragons (or at least one dragon) are mentioned in The Bible. Are there other mythological beasts mentioned in the scriptures of other religions? 

[Elgee]

On 5/21/2018 at 10:11 PM, Gentled Ben said:

 

Unicorns and dragons (or at least one dragon) are mentioned in The Bible. Are there other mythological beasts mentioned in the scriptures of other religions? 

 

They are? I can't remember that! Shows how much I paid attention in Sunday school ... lol

[JamesBrown]

34 occurrences of 'dragon' in the King James Version.

 

Some are obviously metaphor, but others...

 

9 occurrences of 'unicorn'

[Elgee]

Reading that now, I think there's some really bad translating going on. Or possibly mushrooms.

[Illian Tear]

[Gentled Ben]

Cthulu for the win!

 

So I guess what I'm getting at is questioning the root of some of these creatures. Dinosaurs are the usual knee-jerk explanation for dragons, but I think that's lazy and inaccurate. Giant fossilized bones could be the bones of any giant creature; I don't think the average person would determine that the bones belonged to a huge lizard, and presumes that lots of fairly intact fossils of large dinosaurs were available all over the place, as dragons are a common mythological creature in many cultures. We see the Coatl in the Americas, and we see different-but-similar types of dragons in Europe and Asia. 

 

Why did all these different cultures all imagine dragons? What was the basis for this? At some point, have people actually seen real dragons, or was there really an Atlantis, and did it have a dragon as its symbol or god or something? Is it just a natural response of the human psyche to imagine a giant serpent?

[Gentled Ben]

7 hours ago, JamesBrown said:

34 occurrences of 'dragon' in the King James Version.

 

Some are obviously metaphor, but others...

 

9 occurrences of 'unicorn'

In some of those translations, it looks like what we would call sea serpents are being referred to as dragons. Again, on the origin topic, how did sea serpents come about? Why giant snakes or dragons living under water? Whales do not look like serpents, and those are the largest beasts that sailors were likely to ever come across. Are there, or were there, prehistoric fish still living in the oceans that people might have seen? I know they caught some ancient fish that was believed to be extinct for millions of years in the Philippines a long time ago, and Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, looks a lot like some sort of plesiosaurus, so is that what the sea serpent is based upon? What do you think?

[Ryrin]

7 hours ago, Gentled Ben said:

Cthulu for the win!

 

So I guess what I'm getting at is questioning the root of some of these creatures. Dinosaurs are the usual knee-jerk explanation for dragons, but I think that's lazy and inaccurate. Giant fossilized bones could be the bones of any giant creature; I don't think the average person would determine that the bones belonged to a huge lizard, and presumes that lots of fairly intact fossils of large dinosaurs were available all over the place, as dragons are a common mythological creature in many cultures. We see the Coatl in the Americas, and we see different-but-similar types of dragons in Europe and Asia. 

 

Why did all these different cultures all imagine dragons? What was the basis for this? At some point, have people actually seen real dragons, or was there really an Atlantis, and did it have a dragon as its symbol or god or something? Is it just a natural response of the human psyche to imagine a giant serpent?

 

Yeah, possibly more to it than imagination.

 

How about the chupacabra?

 

Bigfoot?

 

 

Edited May 24, 2018 by Ryrin

[Gentled Ben]

Is the chupacabra cross-cultural? I know that Bigfoot is (Sasquatch, Yeti).