31 Days of Monsters 2014: Catoblepas

The Catoblepas was a disgusting beast encountered in Ethiopia by the Greeks. It had the body of a buffalo, the neck of a serpent,  ridged scales down its back, a flail-like tail and a massive tusked head that was so heavy it could only look down. It's bloodshot gaze was enough to stun a man at fifty paces, and because it fed solely on poisonous grasses and roots, it emitted a stench that could kill and allegedly turn a corpse to stone. It's scales and sheer size made it almost impossible to kill, but since it was fairly docile in nature — only killing passively — it was best to just steer clear of them, and hope they never wandered too near a settlement.

31 Days of Monsters 2014: Harpy

In Greek mythology, a harpy was a vicious half-bird-half-woman monster that punished evildoers, or anyone who displeased the gods. Famously, Zeus set harpies to plague the blind seer Phineas after he revealed too much about the activities of the gods. Dante imagined a place in Hell filled with harpies that punished suicides.

31 Days of Monsters: The Minotaur

The Minotaur was the monstrous, half-human, half-bull offspring of King Minos of Crete's wife and a sacrificial bull. Being a supernatural creature, it grew to crave the blood and flesh of men and was sealed in a gigantic labyrinth designed and built be Daedalus and his son Icarus. Youths were dropped into the labyrinth at regular intervals to feed the beast.