The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic. John Matthews

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      CENTIPEDE

      In Japanese legend, the giant centipede was a monstrous insect which lived upon cattle and humans in the northern mountains. The people of that locality sent messengers to help rid them of its terrible depredations. The hero Hidesato hunted it, successfully shooting an arrow through the centipede’s head. In return for his services, the Dragon King of Lake Biwa gave him an eternally-renewing bag of rice.

      CEPHUS

      At Memphis, Cephus was a creature which originated in Ethiopia and was worshipped by the Egyptians. Cephus had the head of a satyr and the body of a bear.

      CERASTES

      The two-horned desert snake of Egypt. The name cerastes was used by Greeks for the African snake which has a horny protuberance over each eye. Herodotus held that it was harmless, but Aristotle suggested that the horny parts over each eye might be horns. Pliny wrote that the Cerastes buried itself in the sand and moved its horns to attract birds. Like many other snakes, it was believed to be a detector of poison in food and drink, and to protect people from the evil eye.

      CERBERUS

      Cerberus was the three-headed (sometimes fifty-headed) dog with a serpent’s mane found in classical Greek tradition who guarded the entrance to Hades. His task was to prevent the living from entering the underworld – a task he fulfilled except in the cases of Orpheus, Aeneas and Odysseus, each of who tricked their way into the land of the dead and out again on their own particular errands. Aeneas had the help of a sibyl who drugged Cerberus with honeyed opiate while Orpheus sent the dog into a charmed sleep with the sound of his lyre. Cerberus barked whenever he was exposed to light and his saliva was the source of the poisonous plant, aconite.

      It was appointed to Hercules as his twelfth labour to bring Cerberus from the underworld – a feat which was nothing short of overcoming death itself. In order to prepare himself for this labour, and so as not to violate the sanctity of the underworld divinities, he had himself initiated into the rites of Eleusis. But Hercules had been responsible for the spilling of much blood, including the slaying of centaurs. To regain his purity, he underwent special secret rites. He persuaded Charon, ferryman of the dead, to ferry him over where Cerberus was waiting. It was his way to wag his tail to those who intended to stay but to devour those who intended to leave. The Hydra was said to be Cerberus’ sister, and since Hercules had already overcome her, when the hero approached, the guard-dog fled to the god of the underworld, Hades, and hid under his throne. Assailed by ghosts and by a vision of the Gorgon, Hercules offered the flesh of one of the underworld cattle to them to propitiate the god. Hades allowed Hercules to take Cerberus with him but only if he could catch him without weapons, armed only with a breastplate and lion-skin. Hercules crept up behind Cerberus and choked him until he gave in, and permitted himself to be led out on a chain. The snakes upon the guard-dog’s body hissed and swarmed., while his eyes sparked. One version of the story has Hercules returning the dog himself, but another tells how Cerberus broke away from him at the fountain near Mycenae and the temple of Hera which was known afterwards as ‘the water of freedom.’

      Cerberus is clearly the inspiration for J.K. Rowling’s Fluffy, the giant three-headed dog which guards the attic of Hogwarts School in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

      CERCROPES

      In classical mythology, the Cercropes were a race of humanoids who lived in the wilderness of Asia Minor around Ephesus. They preyed upon travellers until the hero Hercules defeated them and brought them to the judgement of Zeus who transformed them into apes.

      CERNUNNOS

      Cernunnos is the deer-antlered god with a humanoid body in Celtic myth. There is no one particular myth concerning him, for only his image remains. The cer part of his name, relating to his antlers, means ‘horned’. He is found primarily in sculpted statues and reliefs from ancient Gaul (modern France), but the clearest image is found on the silver votive cauldron, the Gundestrup Cauldron, discovered in Denmark which shows him seated, wearing a stripy close-fitting tunic and trousers, with a royal torc or neck-ring about his neck. In one hand he holds up another torc while in the other he holds a ram-headed snake, as if to show that he combines the animal instincts of the beasts and the cultured wisdom of humans. Cernunnos is shown surrounded by many beasts, including a stag.

      In Welsh myth, such a figure is shown as the guardian of animals, a threshold guardian between our world and the other. Visitors to the Otherworld have to answer his challenges before they are allowed in. Like Herne, leader of the wild hunt, Cernunnos may admonish and punish those who injure those under his protection. He is a Lord of the Animals. Julius Caesar speculated that Cernunnos was the same as the Roman Dis Pater, god of the departed spirits of the underworld. Traces of his cult remain in the legends surrounding the Breton saint, Korneli, who is a patron of horned beasts. Indo-European scholars have related him to Pasupati, the Hindu Lord of the Beasts.

      CERYNEAN HIND

      In Greek mythology, the Cerynean Hind was a wild female deer with golden antlers. She began life as the Titan Taygete, the companion of Artemis who was Mistress of the Animals (see Lords and Ladies of the Animals). Taygete succumbed to the attentions of Zeus and Artemis punished her friend by turning her into an antlered hind. The Cerynean Hind ranged through the countryside of Arkadia and into the mountains of Argos, laying waste to farms and fields. The quality of the hind that made it deadly was not its wildness but its effect upon potential hunters who became totally obsessed by the thought of their prey, finding it impossible to stop, even though the hind led them into unknown countries. Most hunters died of sheer exhaustion. Thus, the magical property of the Cerynean Hind is the dangerous compulsion to follow desires to their end whatever the cost.

      Hercules undertook to hunt the Cerynean Hind as his third labour. He followed it for a whole year, throughout Arkadia and beyond, into Hyperborea, the land beyond the north wind, and on into the Otherworld itself. He finally came to the Garden of the Hesperides where he found the hind beneath the tree of the golden apples where the apple-guarding serpent Ladon dwelt. Accounts vary as to what happened next. In some versions, Hercules took the hind’s golden antlers, but others tell how he tied the hind’s legs together and carried her back into Arcadia where he was met by Apollo and his sister Artemis, who was exceedingly annoyed at the capture of her sacred animal. Hercules excused himself by saying that he was only carrying the hind into Mycenae alive, and Artemis forgave him.

      CETUS

      In Greek mythology, Cetus was a sea monster that had the head of a greyhound, the body of a whale and a two-part tail. This monster was created by Zeus solely for the purpose of destroying Andromeda, the daughter of Queen Cassiopaea. The Queen had boasted that Andromeda was more beautiful than the goddesses and sea nymphs – a statement that so offended the gods that the queen was forced to chain her daughter to a rock in the sea in order to make restitution to the gods. While Andromeda turned and pulled against her chains, Cetus made ready to devour the maiden. Fortunately, the hero Perseus arrived just in time with the freshly-severed head of the Gorgon, Medusa. The property of this head was to turn everyone who saw it into stone. As Cetus СКАЧАТЬ