Mythical Monsters That Might Have Actually Existed

History is full of stories of monsters that terrified our ancestors. But where did these monster myths come from? Certainly, some of them were purely metaphorical, but there are at least a few that might have been based on actual things. Here are mythical monsters that might have actually existed.

In Greek mythology, the Lernaean Hydra was a multi-headed snake-beast confronted by Heracles, son of Zeus. Or you might know him by his Roman name, Hercules. Not only was the hydra fearsome, but Heracles also found it incredibly hard to defeat because each of the hydra's heads he lopped off quickly grew back. It wasn't until Iolaus, Heracles' nephew and occasional sidekick, got the idea to burn the stumps after the hydra was decapitated that Heracles was finally able to slay the monster.

While there weren't any real 50-headed serpent beasts in Ancient Greece, the concept of a hydra might have been based on something much less fantastical, but still quite remarkable. Ordinary snakes are common all over the world, and like many other animals, they can occasionally suffer from a condition known as polycephaly, wherein the snake can have two or even three heads, but can potentially otherwise be completely healthy.

While polycephalic snakes are very rare, it would only take one or two sightings of one for it to turn into a telephone game of legends and myths. Modern biologists now consider snakes with polycephaly to be a very likely origin for the hydra myth, before artistic license turned them into monsters with dozens of heads, according to the BBC. Regeneration among reptiles is also not unheard of, which might have inspired the detail that their heads grew back, too.

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