A Book of Creatures

Our imagination has always been our greatest ally, and our worst enemy. In the face of the unknown, we populated it with creatures of all shapes and sizes, from minuscule spirits to gigantic cosmic monsters. These entities have shared our world ever since we earned the capacity to wonder.

Their stories are told here.

 

WARNING: May contain sex, violence, and divine retribution.

31 Comments

  4. Happened upon this site while doing research of my own, and I must say, it is a true delight. Great illustrations and text, and a wonderful selection of creatures that stay off the typical beaten path.

    Keep the entries coming, and I’ll continue to check in faithfully (even through the downtime due to life getting in the way and all that jazz). Great, great stuff! A real inspiration. 🙂

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  6. Ok this might be dumb but I’m still not 100% sure. Are these actual cultural creatures, from legends and folklore? Or are they just your own creations derived from your imagination/books? I’ve never heard of any of these (but obviously I can’t know everything). Anyway, fascinating site. Glad I stumbled upon it.

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  16. love this website! however, there’s a huge difference between Romani culture and Romanian culture. Romani are travelers that left India sometime around 500 BCE (if i remember correctly). Romanians are, obviously, from Romania.

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  17. Hello there! I wanted to point out that the Lamiai/Empusa entry you have done might actually have a error. John Keats was actually not the originator of the Lamia Serpent Hybrid form since you suggested it was misleading.

    In fact it might have been accurate; it goes back to Dio Chrysostom who was a Greek Orator that describes the Lamiai/Empusa to having a Serpentine body and has been generally accepted as the common consensus of the Libyan Myth.

    However Lamia herself (Singular) was indeed more akin to a Sea Monster and had little to do with the Lamiai/Empusa Night Spirits though very loosely related as far as my studies have gone on this.

    Example –
    Libyan myth

    A second example is a colony of man-eating monsters in Libya, described by Dio Chrysostom. These monsters had a woman’s torso, the lower extremities of a snake, and beastly hands. The idea that these creatures were lamiai seems to originate with Alex Scobie (1977), and accepted by other commentators.

    I hope this helps!

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  18. I wanted to add another thing; there is definitely a lot of confusion surrounding Lamia herself (not the pluralized version), she has been given many different forms over the centuries and her earliest appearance suggest something scaly (Drakaina).

    Lamia is one of those subjects that is incredibly difficult to tackle unless you really dig deep.

    The Lamiai/Empusa seem to have more of a idea though even were changed constantly.

    I think its funny that Lamia is attributed to have shapeshifting abilities, so maybe Lamia and the Lamiai/Empusa’s true forms is not known to us petty mortals haha.

    But it seems generally agreed to be serpentine in nature in some early works.

    Alright I’ll stop bugging ya, I love your website by the way!

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