Some years ago, I spent a week of late nights making an epic diagram of mythical creatures. Over the years, it's had a life of its own, clocking up millions of views across Tumblr, Pinterest, and even a few Reddit posts too.
This is an edited version of my original blog post, explaining the development of the design, how the creatures kept piling up, and the thinking behind some of the decisions. You can buy the Epic Mythical Creatures Chart design on prints, cards and lots more on my Fine Art America shop.
From assuming it would be an easy design taking 2 or 3 hours, it very quickly escalated into a huge project!
The more I looked up interesting mythical creatures I'd never heard of, like Uchchaihsharavas and Tikbalang and Makara, the more I was fixated on expanding and laying out this complicated diagram, ending up with 57 mythical creatures and legends made up from 17 real world animals...
...And then I spent an another entire week converting it into a underground subway map!
The underground tube / subway / metro version is the same diagram and information, made from the same animals and mythical creatures, just much more graceful. This design will also be available to buy soon, watch this space.
I had an idea for a Venn/Euler diagram of mythical creatures, and someone showed me Unwin and Carline's chart from 2009. This is a very classy minimalist diagram, but I knew I could make a far more comprehensive chart.
My research was conducted via Wikipedia and Google Images, along with my own knowledge and memories of playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle as a kid. I make no apology for this.
Uchchaihshravas, flying 7-headed horse in Hindu mythology. Image from Wikipedia; it's a snippet from the painting "Kurmavatara (Vishnu's Incarnation as a Tortoise)" (1760-65, artist unknown) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
This was a difficult chart to create. I know that many people will either disagree with particular creatures, or have suggestions/complaints about something that hasn't been included; there's certainly been a lot of comments over the years - see Dragon below, for example.
So, it's certainly not perfect, but this was the best I could do at the time; it's my chart and my version, and I'm happy with it.
All creatures and characters listed in the chart have a heritage in historical mythology.
Unwin and Carline's mythical creatures chart included the "Mermahuataur", a creature they made up for a joke, which I fully support - we all enjoy a laugh (see "More Body Parts" below).
For this chart though, I wanted to keep it to known mythical creatures. No ManBearPig, sorry not sorry.
Recent and/or clunky inventions like the Pegacorn are not included (much as I love the Pegacorn).
Cryptids are a fuzzy area. For this chart, I steered clear of most conventional cryptids like bigfoot, the chupacabra, the Loveland frog, the Loch Ness Monster, and so on.
Sleipnir, Odin's 8-legged horse from Norse mythology. Image from Wikipedia, a snippet from a fuller photo of the Tjängvide image stone.
Let me explain my thinking: Centaur, Ipotane, Tikbalang and Buraq are all different combinations of horse + human. Pegasus, Hippogriff and Hippalectryon are all different versions of horse + bird.
Russian folklore features both the Sirin and the Gamayun, but they are often very similar in form, so only the Sirin was included.
Maybe a more comprehensive list would be more interesting, or more useful? Ultimately, I wanted to keep it streamlined, and space was an issue.
This is one of the more controversial decisions and many people over the years have disagreed! Let's dive into it:
As a fan of dinosaurs, it would have been easy for me to include Dragon as lizard + bird. And naturally, dragons are not the same throughout history or throughout the world.
For simplicity though, I kept to European dragons, whose wings are conventionally lizard-like - scaly and/or leathery - not feathered (e.g. like the Cockatrice). So they are listed here as lizard + bat.
I felt strange including the Narwhal, because it seems like a mythical combination of animals in its own right! But it's a real, single creature.
For Unicorn, I could have used rhino instead, but the shape and depiction of unicorn horns is far closer to the narhwal's tusk. (There's also historical examples of people thinking narwhal tusks are unicorn horns.) Did you know the Narwhal's tusk is a very long tooth?
A creature's generic name is prioritised in the chart over known characters and legends; if there's no known creature name, the name of the legend is used.
So, we know Medusa was a Gorgon, but there is no clear name for a horse with wings, so Pegasus is included by name.
What can I say? I enjoy a laugh sometimes, and the categories of "More Body Parts" and "Fewer Body Parts" aren't totally serious.
That said, there's a surprising number of creatures which would struggle to find a home in this chart without them, e.g. Hydra and Sleipnir, so they are also quite useful categories.
This is a very hazy area: mythology and religion don't have a hard line separating them and they never did.
I tried to stick to mythical creatures as conventionally understood, rather than religious "gods", and not including religious characters or creatures like angels. For example, Ammit seemed to me like more of a mythical creature, compared to the Egyptian god Anubis.
Ultimately I just used my own judgement.
Some creatures are definitely, exclusively winged - for example the Lamassu, Pegasus, Harpy - and so they are listed as part bird or part bat.
In contrast, some creatures are sometimes known as having wings, but not always. So, this is why some creatures you may typically think are flying (e.g. the Chimaera and Manticore) are not listed as part bird or part bat.
From my readings, some legends are not clear about whether a creature is part lizard or snake, (e.g. Ladon, Hydra), or part snake or fish (e.g. Ophiotaurus).
Many creatures are known as being partly or wholly "serpent", which is the scientific name for "kind of like a snake or a lizard, maybe a fish, almost certainly slippery!". Given the ambiguity, I've done my best.
Here's some of my favourites in compiling this list:
Uchchaihshravas: 7-headed flying horse from Hindu mythology
Hippalectryon: Back end of a rooster, front end of a horse. Great name!
Zahhak: Persian legend with snakes rising from his shoulders
Hecatonchires: The "hundred-handed" (and fifty-headed) destroyers of the Titans from Greek mythology
Chimaera: lion's body and head, goat head, lizard head and snake for a tail. Can't beat it for totally bad-ass monster
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