Mythical creatures that would want to make you believe.

I have always grown up wondering if magic was real. If in some distinct remote part of the world, witches still lived, if fairies and goblins ran the fields like no one's business, but then sometimes it scares me because maybe if magic does exist, then humans will destroy it just like everything that they are scared of.

But keeping that sad thought aside, I bring to you some of the most popular mythical creatures of the world, who also happen to be some of my most favourite ones. Their qualities lie in various factors. All you need to do is take a step back and open the world of endless posibilities.

BIGFOOT

In the late 1800s and 1900s, various reports of sighting ranging from an 8 foot ape to a hairy human being started surfacing. Naturally it flocked thousands of people, tourists, officials, scientists, adventurers and bounty hunters alike to find this mysterious creature to North America.

Big Foot for the first time was uncovered in 1958, when a journalist called Andrew Genzoli of Humbolt Times highlighted a logger's letter to him about some mysterious footprints. Although he had highlighted this article as a joke , it drew a lot of reader attention and he decided to dedicate a whole article on the logger and his findings itself. The article recieved great attention and soon the legend of the Big foot took birth.

Some of the evidences included giant footprints, some vague encounters and a few grainy photos. Big foot is also known as Sasquach is some regions, while in others has been called Wetigo or Wendigo. Although attributed with different names, one thing every culture as agreed upon is that Big foot has only appeared as a sign of warning or bad news.

But it seems as though Andrew's article had one more finding. According to his article that highlighted the logger's letter he stated “Maybe we have a relative of the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas”.

Before Bigfoot there was and has been another legend- Yeti. Yeti, during pre-19th century, has been believed to be a "Glacier Being" who was worshipped by the indigenous communities. Himalayan people call Yeti or Meh-Teh with different names. In Tibetan language, Yeti is called "Miche", which means a "man bear". They also refer it as "Dzu-teh", which means cattle bear or Himalayan brown bear. Its other names are Migoi (Tibetan for wild man), Bun manchi (Nepali for jungle man), Mirka and Kang Admi.

SIREN

Sirens are my personal favorite. Sirens are from the Greek mythology, and like any other stories from the mythology it does have some amount of punishment involved. Sirens are believed to be half bird and half fish, while some believe that they have human arms, making them similar to Mermaids.

Sirens are said to be punished. One of the legends state their origin as companions of Persephone and, failing to prevent her rape, they were transformed into Sirens as punishment. The Sirens had beautiful singing voices and were gifted lyre players.

The first time the Sirens appeared was in Homer's Odyessy. According to him Sirens lived on an island near Scylla and Charybdis. Their voices were said to lure the passing sailor softten ending in their demise. Early Odysessy talks about two sirens but later there were three sirens. Although, the Odyessy had eventually ended in the Trojan War, the Sirens of the story were forgotten over the time. Only recently to be discovered by Emily Wilson, a University of Pennsylvania classicist around 1615.

Sirens have been a very facinating subject ever since then. They have been used in multiple literatures and medias since then. They were often found in old timy poems

It's said that whoever responded to the singing of the Sirens never came backk alive. There have been multiple reasons to believe that while one school of thought believed they were cannibalistic, while the others believed, the songs were so meserizing that the sailors would starve to death without realising. Although it is not possible to point exactly when Sirens first started appearing in mainstream media, a lot of people believe to have captured videos of these mesmerizing creatures.

Like many creatures out there, Siren hunts are no different. People still believe that they are out there and that they can be found. Maybe or maybe not, only time would tell.

UNICORNS

Who doesn't love Unicorns? Okay agreed the concept of 'eating rainbows and pooping glitters' is a little stupid, but how magical and glittery would our world be if it were true.

Unicorns were said to be alive a few thousand years ago. Can you imagine a one horned horses, tall and high running across the landmasses in the open feild with their mane swishing with the wind. Doesnt that just sound priceless and magical?

Unicorns were first found on Mesopotamian artworks. The legends happened to be extrememly popular myths that originated in China and India. Infact, the first ever mention of Unicorns was in the 400 BCE by a Greek Historian Ctesias. Ctesias mentioned the description in his book Indica

There are in India certain wild asses which are as large as horses and even larger. Their bodies are white, their heads are dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn in the middle of the forehead that is one cubit [about a foot and a half] in length; the base of this horn is pure white … the upper part is sharp and of a vivid crimson, and the middle portion is black. … Other asses, tame or wild … do not have an ankle-bone… but these do have an ankle-bone … the most beautiful that I have ever seen…. This animal is exceedingly swift and powerful, so that no creature, neither the horse nor any other, can overtake it….

Although this description may or may not be apt. Ctesias does seem to have never really travelled to India at that point in time. His accounts were written through word of mouth of the Indian Travellers he met in the Persian court and eventaully like a game of Chinese whispers, information on the recieving end may not always be the information that was given in the start of the chain.

There are evidences and proofs that possibly this magnificent and proud unicorn may after all just be the Indian Rhinoceros. Even if it were, it would definitely need an imagination of very artistic people who could describe the creatures so beautifully to turn it into a different creature altogether.

LOCHNESS MONSTER

Monster or Not, the hero of The Scottish folklore of The Lochness Lake is the infamous lake creature called Nessie. The legends talks about St. Columba's encounter with a very big sea monster along the very shores of Loch Ness. The account was from his autobiography from 565 AD and states that the monster had bit a swimmer and was about to attack another person when he was stopped by St. Columba who ordered the monster to go back. Which suprisingly the monster followed. Since then there has been peace in the land accompanied with occasionally sighting of this mythical creature. This is believed to be the first account of the 'monster'.

However, this forgotten creature came back to prime light when a couple informed authorities of sighting a huge monter with flippers that crossed their car's path and disappeared into the water of the lake in 1933.

Well, the news spread like wild fire, London started sending their correspondents to Scottland to cover the story of this alleged "monster" while a circus offered 20,000 pound award for its capture. Over the years, te Loch Ness Monster alone generated an earning of $80 million yearly, without even having the slightest proof of its existence.

But Since 1933, a lot of efforts were made to find some sort of evidence to make sense of what these strange sightings were. There were multiple sonar explorations that took place, hunters gathered and put their brains together, but all evidences were vain. Some people even described the monster as Plesiosaur. Plesiosaurs were marine dinosaurs that should have gone extinct atleast 6.5 million years ago. Infact a more recent test was done, wherein 2016, a DNA testing was done of LochNess to understand what could be the composition of the life in the water. Although there were no unusual findings or anything that could be attached to Plesiosaurs, they did find evidence that the lake was a good host for eels. With this finding, the researchers finally dismissed the idea of "a very powerful soft-footed animal of about 20 foot long."

Although officially the myths of LochNess monster has been dispersed as probably an over-sized eel in the waters, thousands of people visit Scotland's tiny Loch Ness Lake hoping to prove to the world that the creature is real and so is the possibility of thousand other creatures that can't be seen.

HELLHOUNDS

If I claim to be in love with these ferocious creatures, there is a high chance i will be sent to a mental asylum. Hellhounds are the dogs that grew up in Hell, quite literally why they are called what they are. Hell Hounds have been featured in a lot of contemporary media like that of God Omens as the starter of Armaggedon or in Harry Potter as the protector of the secret of Chambers.

Hellhound has been stated in a lot of mythology. In the greek mythology Cerberus is another name for a three-headed dragon-tailed dog. Hellhounds originate from the folklore of the Underworld. Hellhound legends date back to ancient times and sightings and attacks have been reported throughout history. Hellhounds tend to have black fur, glowing eyes, supernatural strength or speed, large teeth, long claws, and sometimes multiple heads.

Black Shuck, Old Shuck, Old Shock, or Shuck is the name given to a medieval hellhound in England. This devil dog was said to have black fur, flaming eyes, sharp teeth and claws, and great strength. Locals described sightings of Black Shuck in graveyards, forests, and roadsides. Shuck’s most famous attack happened on August 4, 1577 at two churches in Blythburgh and Bungay in the English countryside.

Interestingly, The first sightings of these hounds were in 1127, in a documentary called The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles The preface of the 1914 version describes it as "a chronological record of important events," starting with the year AD 1. In 1127 AD in the records along with the of a meeting between England's King Henry and Scotland's King David, there's mention of a Sunday in Peterborough. People began reporting seeing a group of hunters, but they weren't exactly earthly hunters

These hunters were black, and large, and loathly, and their hounds were all black, with wide eyes, and ugly, and they rode on black horses and on black bucks. This was seen in the very deer-park of the town of Peterborough.

Maybe these hounds were afterall omens to death and not warnings to them. But that true or not, these magically giant creatures were seen differently in different societies. Maybe these existed not only in England but their references were all over the globe, starting from Norse, Greek, hindu and the list goes on.

KRAKEN

Kraken is mythologically a big octopus or squid that lies a sleep somewhere deep in the oceans. So if I say I absolutely adore them, is that biases?

If there was any evidence of Kraken ever existing, I am extremely sure it would have made its way to the critical endangered list the very minute, since Kraken is supposedly the last of its speices. Acording to the Greeks he was created by Hades the lord of Underworld to defeat the titans. But there is also a reasonably good explanation of why Kraken is portrayed the way it is. Well, sailors in the high seas came across multiple huge creatures that they had absolutely no knowledge about and there is a pretty fair chance that the idea of Kragen is based on the sailors' observation of giant squids.

Infact contrary to what the sailors said legend says that the sea monster enjoys solitude and resides deep on the ocean floor. It uses its tentacles to stay tethered to the bottom and hunts for food. The beast will only surface in warm weather—or when disrupted. Which is why it is only fair to believe that that ancient sailors confused something else in the water for Krakens, Bubbles, dangerous currents, and the appearance of new land indicications to Kraken's arrival were just maybe are all signs of underwater volcanic activity, something common in Iceland. 

Professor Mark McMenamin, a paleontologist working at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, says he has examined markings which indicate a massive octopus creature, like the mythical kraken, did exist and was behind the demise of other large sea creatures. McMenamin indicates the kraken was a highly intelligent creature and that the kraken was drowning or breaking the necks of the victims.

There have been a ton of sightings that were dismissed as the sighting of Krakens. In 1848, the frigate Daedalus encountered a sea monster that the sailors estimated to be at least 60 feet long, which caused a sensation. There were similar observations in 1845 until in 1875 a fisherman caught a giant squid.

There are a lot of evidences that say Kraken is still alive but there are just as many that state maybe it was all an illusion, after all a giant squid could not be an apex predator.

Or could they?

One thing common between all these legends is that there is no concrete way of knowing what someone saw or thinks might have seen. But regardless of all that, these stories originated from a little bit of imagination, a little bit of passion and a whole of curiosity and research. Maybe someday, we will know for sure if these creatures did ever exist, will ever exist or currently exist. We just need to believe in a little bit of magic and a little bit of imagination, and our world will be a lot more beautiful (and a little more dangerous) to live in.

These images were made by my most favourite artist artsykebab.

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