'Prodigious Creatures' (Terata e Thaumata/Thomata) in literary sources from the 5th century BC

Abstract

Gods, heroes, and monsters are three categories commonly used to classify beings presented in what is conventionally called 'Greek mythology,' a complex system that integrates narratives, religious beliefs, and social practices. However, 'monster' is not a valid category to classify those creatures which appear in the mythopoetic discourse of Homer and Hesiod: first, because 'monster' is not a taxonomic category in archaic hexametric poetry; Second, because such creatures are linked, on the one hand, to the scope of the extraordinary, which is, in turn, intrinsically linked to the divine realm, and, on the other, because the terminology used in this poetry refers to an oracular system of divination, all absent characteristics from the modern notion of monster. In view of this, it is sought to investigate whether or not there is a change in the attitude towards what we modernly refer to as monstrous in narratives later than those of Homer and Hesiod, more precisely those dating from the classical period (5th century BC), focusing on Herodotus's Histories, a work in which the author describes some fantastic people and creatures, and on the tragedies that made use of mythological narratives. (AU)