Explore the pantheons

The four-tusked white elephant who rose from the churning of the ocean of milk and became the mount of Indra, king of the gods. His trunk reaches into the underworld to draw up water that the clouds pour back as rain.

Beautiful water-and-cloud nymphs of Indra's heaven, sent to charm ascetics from their penance; Menaka and Urvashi are among the most famous.

A race half-man and half-horse, wild and wine-maddened save for the wise Chiron who tutored heroes; their brawl with the Lapiths was a favorite of Greek art.

The many-headed hound with a serpent's tail who guards the gates of the underworld, letting the dead enter but none return. Dragging him up to the daylight was the last and greatest of Heracles' labors.

A fire-breathing monster, lion in front, goat in the middle, serpent behind, that ravaged Lycia until Bellerophon, mounted on the winged horse Pegasus, struck it down from the air.

One-eyed giants; the elder Cyclopes forged Zeus's thunderbolt, while their savage cousin Polyphemus trapped Odysseus in his cave.

Heavenly singers and musicians of Indra's court, masters of sacred music and often paired with the dancing apsaras; in the epics they can be warriors and lovers as readily as performers.

A creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, guardian of gold in the far north and sacred to Apollo.

Winged spirits of sudden storm-winds who snatch away food and people; they tormented the blind seer Phineus until the Argonauts drove them off.

The divine cow of plenty who yields whatever is desired, kept by the sage Vasishtha. A king's attempt to seize her from him ignites one of the great rivalries of the sages.

Half-human, half-bird celestial beings famed for music and devoted love, dwelling in the Himalayan realm of Kubera.

The venomous water-serpent of Lerna that grew two heads for every one severed. Heracles overcame it as his second labor, cauterizing each stump, and dipped his arrows in its blood to make them ever after lethal.

A composite sea-creature, part crocodile, part fish, part elephant, that serves as the vehicle (vahana) of the ocean-lord Varuna and the river goddess Ganga, and as the emblem on the banner of the love-god Kamadeva.

The bull-headed man born to the queen of Crete and hidden in the Labyrinth, fed on youths sent as tribute from Athens, until Theseus followed Ariadne's thread to its heart and killed it.

A creature assembled from nine different animals, with the head of a rooster and limbs of many beasts, in which Krishna revealed himself to Arjuna, a lesson that the divine exceeds any single form the mind can hold.

A monstrous lion whose hide no weapon could pierce; Heracles strangled it as his first labor and wore its skin ever after.

The immortal winged horse sprung from the blood of Medusa, tamed with Athena's golden bridle. He carried Bellerophon against the Chimera and, in the end, was stabled among the stars.

Ghoulish flesh-eating spirits of darkness and disease in the epic-Puranic demonology, haunting battlefields and cremation grounds.

A ferocious being, part lion and part bird, that Shiva became to subdue the man-lion Narasimha when his fury would not cool. In Shaiva telling the form embodies power beyond even Vishnu's fiercest avatar.

Bird-women whose irresistible song lured sailors onto the rocks; Odysseus alone heard it and lived, lashed to his mast.

A winged lion with a woman's face who throttled travelers who failed her riddle, until Oedipus answered it. Undone by his wit, she hurled herself from the rock, lifting her plague from Thebes.

The snow-white, seven-headed horse produced at the churning of the ocean, the archetype and king of horses. Claimed by Indra, his color became the stake in the wager that enslaved the serpent-mothers in the Mahabharata.

A spirit that hangs in cremation grounds and animates the dead, best known from the riddling tales it tells a king in the Vetala cycle.

Ambivalent nature-spirits in the retinue of Kubera, guarding hidden wealth in the earth and wilderness, benevolent or dangerous by turns.