Monsters in history and culture.

It seems that monsters used to accompany humans for thousands years. They were embodiment of our fears and premonitions. People were trying to avoid meeting their hideous figures as well as their mysterious power. Luckily, there were always some brave heroes ready to face them and to rescue horrified community.

In the past people were afraid of monsters because they really believed in their existence. Nowadays monsters surrounds us but we don't care. We can find them in primary school books and Disney movies depicted as funny and friendly creatures. Does it mean that we finally domesticated them or we have no fears?

Below mix from Monsters & Co and beautiful Chech song:

In fact, the landmark of this change of attitude was very ordinary: electric light. Monsters, even if you could meet them also during the day, belong to the world of darkness. You never know what lies hidden in the shadow, while enlighten streets look safely.

Every civilization had its own gallery of monsters, however some of them appeared simultaneously in different parts of world and they were succeeded by newer cultures. The good example are dragons present in China and America as well as in Europe. In Christian symbolism dragons were identified with devil forces which must be defeated, while in Asia they are often benevolent.

Below Paolo Uccello picture form 1470 with dragon as incarnation of devil.

Fafner from picture below is one of the most interesting European dragons: wise and eloquent, use to talk with his killer about philosophy before he died. Fafner, known from German mythology, occurred in Wagner's opera "The Ring of the Nibelung" and he still inspires: lately he appeared in anime Soukyuu no Fafner.
Below Fafner painted by Arthur Rackham in 1911.

Another my favourite monster, which is also still popular (eg. in computer games and comics), is a huge wolf Fenrir. During doomsday Fenrir is going to gobble the most important Scandinavian god - Odin (and this is how the real Armageddon will look like ;-) Here you can see this smart beast while he's biting off a hand of another god:



Some monsters were perceived as bad creatures and later their image have changed. The good examples are Greek harpies. They used to be shown as dangerous birds with creepy female faces and later they shaped into beautiful winged ladies.

In modern history perception of monsters was changing. It depended on actual trends and fascinations. Poor dragons were combated by medieval knights until creatures from Greek and Roman legends got popular in Baroque. Romanticism restored monsters from local believes and Expressionism gave it deeper meaning - they began to represent darkness of human soul. Finally Modernism found beauty in their terrifying nature whereas Surrealism made whole world monstrous :-)

Questions:
1. Do you like monsters? Why/why not?
2. Do you have any favourite mythological creature?