The three
Gorgon sisters—Medusa,
Stheno, and
Euryale—were children of the ancient marine deities
Phorcys (or Phorkys) and his sister
Ceto (or Keto), chthonic monsters from an
archaic world. Their genealogy is shared with other sisters, the
Graeae, as in
Aeschylus's
Prometheus Bound who places both trinities of sisters far off "on Kisthene's dreadful plain":
Near them their sisters three, the Gorgons, winged
With snakes for hair— hated of mortal man—
While ancient Greek vase-painters and relief carvers imagined Medusa and her sisters as beings born of monstrous form, sculptors and vase-painters of the fifth century began to envisage her as being beautiful as well as terrifying. In an ode written in 490 BC
Pindar already speaks of "fair-cheeked Medusa".
In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet
Ovid (
Metamorphoses 4.770), Medusa was originally a ravishingly beautiful maiden, "the jealous aspiration of many suitors," priestess in Athena's temple, but when she and the "Lord of the Sea"
Poseidon lay together in
Athena's temple, the enraged Athena transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. In Ovid's telling, Perseus describes Medusa's punishment by Minerva (Athena) as just and well-deserved.
#6 the bogeyman:
"The Boogeyman" is a short story by
Stephen King, first published in the March 1973 issue of the magazine
Cavalier, and later collected in King's 1978 collection
Night Shift.
Plot summary
The majority of the story occurs in the office of Dr. Harper, a
psychiatrist, where a man named Lester Billings talks to the doctor about the "murders" of his three young children. Billings seems
paranoid and possibly
schizophrenic as he describes the circumstances of the death of his children. His first two children died mysteriously of apparently unrelated causes (diagnosed as
crib death and
convulsions, respectively) when left alone in their bedrooms. The only commonalities were that the children cried "
Boogeyman!" before being left alone, and the
closet door was open slightly after finding their
corpses, even though Billings was certain the door was shut.
Billings' wife Rita became
pregnant approximately a year after their second child's death, at which time the family was living in a different house far away from the location of the original deaths. Their first year in the new house was without incident, but not long after, Rita left to care for her mother who had become ill. Billings and his son were left alone in the house.
It soon became apparent that whatever had killed the first two children had managed to track down Billings and his family, lingering in the closets for a brief time. Finally one night, the child cried "Boogeyman" while being put to bed, and an hour later, the child began to scream. Billings ran into the son's room and found a demon killing the boy. Billings, terrified, fled to a local 24-hour
diner. He returned home at dawn to find the boy on the floor with a
broken neck and the closet door open slightly. Billings lied to the police, arguing that the death must have been accidental.
As Billings finishes his story and starts to leave, Harper recommends he make an appointment with the nurse for further discussion. Returning to the office after finding the lobby deserted, Billings finds Harper taking off a
mask to reveal that he is in actuality the Boogeyman that had killed his children.
#5 the gremlin:
Although their origin is found in myths among airmen, claiming that the gremlins were responsible for sabotaging aircraft, John W. Hazen states that "some people" derive the name from the
Old English word
gremian, "to vex". Since the
Second World War, different fantastical creatures have been referred to as gremlins, bearing varying degrees of resemblance to the originals.
The term "gremlin" denoting a mischievous creature that sabotages aircraft, originates in
Royal Air Force (RAF) slang in the 1920s among the British pilots stationed in
Malta,
the Middle East and
India, with the earliest recorded printed use being in a poem published in the journal
Aeroplane, in Malta on April 10, 1929. Later sources have sometimes claimed that the concept goes back to
World War I, but there is no print evidence of this.
[1][N 1]An early reference to the Gremlin is in
aviator Pauline Gower's
The ATA: Women with Wings (1938) where Scotland is described as "gremlin country", a mystical and rugged territory where scissor-wielding gremlins cut the wires of biplanes when unsuspecting pilots were about.An article by Hubert Griffith in the servicemen's fortnightly
Royal Air Force Journal dated April 18, 1942, also chronicles the appearance of gremlins, although the article states the stories had been in existence for several years, with later recollections of it having been told by
Battle of Britain Spitfire pilots as early as 1940.
This concept of gremlins was popularized during the Second World War among airmen of the
UK's RAF units, in particular the men of the high-altitude Photographic Reconnaissance Units (PRU) of
RAF Benson,
RAF Wick and
RAF St Eval. The creatures were responsible for otherwise inexplicable accidents which sometimes occurred during their flights. Gremlins were also thought at one point to have enemy sympathies, but investigations revealed that enemy aircraft had similar and equally inexplicable mechanical problems. As such, gremlins were portrayed as being equal opportunity tricksters, taking no sides in the conflict, and acting out their mischief from their own self-interests. In reality, the gremlins were a form of "
buck passing" or deflecting blame. This led the folklorist John Hazen to note, "Heretofore, the gremlin has been looked on as new phenomenon, a product of the machine age — the age of air."
#4 the witches:
(Redirected from
Witches)
Witchcraft, in historical,
anthropological,
religious, and
mythological contexts, is the alleged use of
supernatural or
magical powers. A
witch (from Old English
wicca masculine, wicce feminine) is a practitioner of witchcraft. Historically, it was widely believed in
early modern Christian Europe that witches were in league with the
Devil and used their powers to harm people and property. Particularly since the mid-20th century, 'bad' and 'good' witchcraft are sometimes distinguished, the latter often involving healing. The concept of witchcraft as harmful is normally treated as a cultural ideology, a means of explaining human misfortune by blaming it either on a supernatural entity or a known person in the community.
#3 the banshee:
In Irish legend, a banshee wails nearby if someone is about to die. There are particular families who are believed to have banshees attached to them, and whose cries herald the death of a member of that family. The most common surname attached to the banshee was
Mac. They were also associated with the
Airlie clan. Accounts of banshees go back as far as 1380 with the publication of the
Cathreim Thoirdhealbhaigh (
Triumps of Torlough) by Seean mac Craith. Mentions of banshees can also be found in
Norman literature of that time.
Traditionally, when a person died a woman would sing a lament (in
Irish:
caoineadh,
[ˈkɰiːnʲə] or
[ˈkiːnʲuː],
"caoin" meaning "to weep, to wail") at the funeral. These women are sometimes referred to as "
keeners" and the best keeners would be in much demand. Legend has it that for five great Gaelic families — the
O'Gradys, the
O'Neills, the
O'Briens, the
O'Connors, and the
Kavanaghs — the lament would be sung by a fairy woman; having foresight, she would sing the lament when a family member died, even if the person had died far away and news of their death had not yet come, so that the wailing of the banshee was the first warning the household had of the death.
The
O'Briens banshee was thought to have the name of
Eevul, and was ruler of 25 other banshees who would always be at her attendance.It is thought that from this myth comes the idea that the wailing of numerous banshees signifies the death of a great person.
In later versions, the banshee might appear before the death and warn the family by wailing. When several banshees appeared at once, it indicated the death of someone great or holy. The tales sometimes recounted that the woman, though called a fairy, was a ghost, often of a specific murdered woman, or a woman who died in childbirth.
Banshees are frequently described as dressed in white or grey, often having long, pale hair which they brush with a silver comb, a detail scholar Patricia Lysaght attributes to confusion with local
mermaid myths. This comb detail is also related to the centuries-old traditional romantic Irish story that, if you ever see a comb lying on the ground in Ireland, you must never pick it up, or the banshees (or mermaids — stories vary), having placed it there to lure unsuspecting humans, will spirit such gullible humans away. Other stories portray banshees as dressed in green, red, or black with a grey cloak.
#2 the dybbuk
Dybbuks are said to have escaped from
Sheol or to have been turned away for serious transgressions, such as
suicide, for which the soul is denied entry.
[citation needed] The word "dybbuk" is derived from the
Hebrew דיבוק, meaning "attachment"; the dybbuk attaches itself to the body of a living person and inhabits the flesh. According to belief, a soul that has been unable to fulfill its function during its lifetime is given another opportunity to do so in dybbuk form. It supposedly leaves the host body once it has accomplished its goal, sometimes after being
helped.
the top: the grim reaper:
The concept of
death as a
sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In
English, Death is often given the name
Grim Reaper and, from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large
scythe and clothed in a black
cloak with a
hood. It is also given the name of the
Angel of Death or
Devil of Death or the
angel of dark and light (
Hebrew:
מַלְאַךְ הַמָּוֶת
Malach HaMavet) stemming from the
Bible.
In some cases, the Grim Reaper is able to actually cause the victim's death, leading to tales that he can be bribed, tricked, or outwitted in order to retain one's life, such as in the case of
Sisyphus. Other beliefs hold that the Spectre of Death is only a
psychopomp, serving to sever the last ties between the soul and the body and to guide the deceased to the next world without having any control over the fact of the victim's death.
In many languages (including English), Death is personified in male form, while in others, it is perceived as a female character (for instance, in
Slavic languages).
