halcyon - a mythical bird said to breed at the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea and to have the power of calming the winds and waves

imaginary being, imaginary creature - a creature of the imagination; a person that exists only in legends or myths or fiction

Augeas - the mythical Greek king who did not clean his stables for thirty years

Alcyone, Halcyon - (Greek mythology) a woman who was turned into a kingfisher

Arjuna - (Hindu mythology) the warrior prince in the Bhagavad-Gita to whom Krishna explains the nature of being and of God and how humans can come to know God

Scylla - (Greek mythology) a sea nymph transformed into a sea monster who lived on one side of a narrow strait; drowned and devoured sailors who tried to escape Charybdis (a whirlpool) on the other side of the strait

Stentor - the mythical Greek warrior with an unusually loud voice who died after losing a shouting contest with Hermes

mythical creature, mythical monster - a monster renowned in folklore and myth

Dardanus - (Greek mythology) founder of Troy

Hyperborean - (Greek mythology) one of a people that the ancient Greeks believed lived in a warm and sunny land north of the source of the north wind

Perseus - (Greek mythology) the son of Zeus who slew Medusa (with the help of Athena and Hermes) and rescued Andromeda from a sea monster

Midas - (Greek legend) the greedy king of Phrygia who Dionysus gave the power to turn everything he touched into gold

Sisyphus - (Greek legend) a king in ancient Greece who offended Zeus and whose punishment was to roll a huge boulder to the top of a steep hill; each time the boulder neared the top it rolled back down and Sisyphus was forced to start again

Narcissus - (Greek mythology) a beautiful young man who fell in love with his own reflection

Nibelung - (German mythology) a companion or follower of Siegfried

Bellerophon - (Greek mythology) a mythical hero of Corinth who performed miracles on the winged horse Pegasus (especially killing the monster Chimera)

Patroclus - (Greek mythology) a friend of Achilles who was killed in the Trojan War; his death led Achilles to return to the fight after his quarrel with Agamemnon

flying horse, Pegasus - (Greek mythology) immortal winged horse that sprang from the blood of the slain Medusa; was tamed by Bellerophon with the help of a bridle given him by Athena; as the flying horse of the Muses it is a symbol of high-flying imagination

Phoenix - a legendary Arabian bird said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new phoenix; according to most versions only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years

Sarpedon - (Greek mythology) a son of Zeus who became king of Lycia; fought on behalf of the Trojans in the Trojan War and was killed by Patroclus

Siegfried - (German mythology) mythical German warrior hero of the Nibelungenlied who takes possession of the accursed treasure of the Nibelungs by slaying the dragon that guards it and awakens Brynhild and is eventually killed; Sigurd is the Norse counterpart

Sigurd - (Norse mythology) mythical Norse warrior hero who gains an accursed hoard of gold and was killed by Brynhild; Siegfried is the German counterpart

Enkidu - legendary friend of Gilgamish

Gilgamish - legendary Sumerian king and hero of Sumerian and Babylonian epics

Sita - wife of the Hindu god Rama; regarded as an ideal of womanhood

houri - (Islam) one of the dark-eyed virgins of perfect beauty believed to live with the blessed in Paradise

Hero - (Greek mythology) priestess of Aphrodite who killed herself when her lover Leander drowned while trying to swim the Hellespont to see her

Leander - (Greek mythology) a youth beloved of Hero who drowned in a storm in the Hellespont on one of his nightly visits to see her

Pygmalion - (Greek mythology) a king who created a statue of a woman and fell in love with it; Aphrodite brought the sculpture to life as Galatea

Galatea - (Greek mythology) a maiden who was first a sculpture created by Pygmalion and was brought to life by Aphrodite in answer to Pygmalion's prayers

Romulus - (Roman mythology) founder of Rome; suckled with his twin brother Remus by a wolf after their parents (Mars and Rhea Silvia) abandoned them; Romulus killed Remus in an argument over the building of Rome

Remus - (Roman mythology) the twin brother of Romulus

Daedal, Daedalus - (Greek mythology) an Athenian inventor who built the Labyrinth of Minos; to escape the Labyrinth he fashioned wings for himself and his sone Icarus

Icarus - (Greek mythology) son of Daedalus; while escaping from Crete with his father (using the wings Daedalus had made) he flew too close to the sun and the wax melted and he fell into the Aegean and drowned