Female legendary creatures

A sphinx ( ; , ; or sphinges ) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle.

mythological figure, fantasy character, witch

ancient Greek mythological monster, the mother of monsters

thumb|Scylla as a maiden with a Cetus (mythology)|kētos tail and dog heads sprouting from her body. Detail from a red-figure bell-crater in the Louvre, 450–425 BC. This form of Scylla was prevalent in ancient depictions, though very different from the description in Homer, where she is land-based and more dragon-like.

thumb|Henry Fuseli's painting of Odysseus facing the choice between Scylla and Charybdis, 1794–1796 Charybdis (; , ; , ) is a sea monster in Greek mythology. Charybdis, along with the sea monster Scylla, appears as a challenge to epic characters such as Odysseus, Jason, and Aeneas. The descriptions of Greek mythical chroniclers and Greek historians locates her in the Strait of Messina.

thumb|A 12th-century sandstone statue of an apsara from Madhya Pradesh, India

The simurgh (; ; also spelled senmurv, simorgh, simorg, simurg, simoorg, simorq or simourv) is a benevolent bird in Persian mythology and literature. It bears some similarities with mythological birds from different origins, such as the phoenix ( quqnūs) and the humā (). The figure can be found in all periods of Iranian art and literature and is also evident in the iconography of Georgia, medieval Armenia, the Eastern Roman Empire, and other regions that were within the realm of Persian cultural influence.

Ceto (; ) is a primordial sea goddess in Greek mythology, the daughter of Pontus and his mother, Gaia. As a mythological figure, she is considered to be one of the most ancient deities, and bore a host of monstrous children fathered by Phorcys, another child of Gaia and Pontus. The small Solar System body 65489 Ceto was named after her, and its satellite after Phorcys.

thumb|300px| Ivan Kramskoi, Rusalki ("The Mermaids"), 1871

thumb|Houris in Jannah|paradise, riding camels. From a 15th-century Persian manuscript.

fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm

right|thumb|upright=1.15|Tibetan board carving of the ḍākinī Vajrayogini

thumb|A wooden puppet depicting the Befana In Italian folklore and folk customs, the Befana () is a witch-like old woman who delivers gifts to children throughout Italy on Epiphany Eve (the night of January 5) in a similar way to Santa Claus or the Three Magi. The Befana is a widespread tradition among Italians and thus has many names. She is a part of both popular national culture and traditional folk culture and is akin to other figures who roam about sometime during the Twelve Days and reward the good, punish the bad, and receive offerings. The Befana is a mysterious, contradictory figure o

thumb|Auðumbla licks Búri free as she produces rivers of milk from her udders, an illustration from an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript of the Prose Edda thumb|Audumbla milk company in Stockholm 1908. This house was also [[Alfred Nobel's birthplace.]]

thumb|Undine A novella Undines (; also ondines) are a category of elemental beings associated with water, stemming from the alchemical writings of Paracelsus. Later writers developed the undine into a water nymph in its own right, and it continues to live in modern literature and art through such adaptations as Danish Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 "The Little Mermaid" and the 1811 novella Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué.

In Greek mythology, Campe, Kampe, or Kampê (; ) was a female monster. She was the guard, in Tartarus, of the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires, whom Uranus had imprisoned there. When it was prophesied to Zeus that he would be victorious in the Titanomachy—the great war against the Titans—with the help of Campe's prisoners, he killed Campe, freeing the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires, who then helped Zeus defeat Cronus.

ruler of Avalon in the Arthurian legend

thumb|Illustration of a Kikimora (1934) by Ivan Bilibin (1876–1942). (Kikimora as house-spirit and guardian of chickens - hence her depiction in chicken-like form). Kikimora is a legendary creature, a female house spirit in Slavic mythology. Her role in the house is usually juxtaposed with that of the domovoy. The kikimora can either be a "bad" or a "good" spirit, which will depend on the behavior of the homeowner. In more recent times, an image of kikimora as a female swamp spirit has developed.

thumb|right|Ivan Bilibin's Alkonost

herd of horses in Greek mythology

feminine spirit in Southern Slavic folklore

thumb|Rokurokubi from the Hokusai Manga by [[Katsushika Hokusai]] thumb|Nukekubi, from Bakemono no e scroll, [[Brigham Young University.]] Rokurokubi (ろくろ首, 轆轤首) is a type of Japanese yōkai (apparition). They look almost completely like humans with some differences. There is a type whose neck stretches and another whose head detaches and flies around freely (nukekubi). The Rokurokubi appear in classical kaidan (spirit tales) and in yōkai works.

right|thumb|220px|The of the Sasakibara Family () from the Buson Yōkai Emaki by [[Yosa Buson. It depicts a cat in Nagoya that would wear a napkin on its head and dance. Unlike which have two tails, the bakeneko has only one tail.]] The '''''' (, "changed cat") is a type of Japanese , or supernatural entity; more specifically, it is a , or supernatural cat. It is often confused with the , another cat-like . The distinction between them is often ambiguous, but the largest difference is that the has two tails, while the has only one.

A hulder (or huldra) is a seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore. Her name derives from a root meaning "covered" or "secret". In Norwegian folklore, she is known as huldra ("the [archetypal] hulder", though folklore presupposes that there is an entire Hulder race and not just a single individual). She is known as the skogsrå "forest spirit" or Tallemaja "pine tree Mary" in Swedish folklore, and '''''' in Sámi folklore. Her name suggests that she is originally the same being as the völva divine figure Huld and the German Holda.

type of female ghost

thumb|The Bhutesvara Yakshis, [[Mathura, 2nd century CE.]]

sculpture motif

Slavic mythological creature, personification of sunstroke

upright=1.2|thumbnail|Peruchty in , Kingdom of Bohemia, 1910 ' or ' ('Bertha'; ), also commonly known as '''''' () and other variations, was thought to be a goddess in Alpine paganism in the Upper German and also Austrian and Slovenian regions of the Alps. Her name may mean 'the bright one' or 'the bearer' (, from Proto-Germanic *berhtaz) and is probably related to the name , meaning 'the feast of the Epiphany'. Eugen Mogk provides an alternative etymology, attributing the origin of the name to the Old High German verb , meaning 'hidden' or 'covered'. The exact origin or time of origin is unkn

thumb|"Yamauba" (山うば) from the Hyakkai Zukan by Sawaki Suushi thumb|Yamamuba (山むば) from Bakemono no e (化物之繪, c. 1700), Harry F. Bruning Collection of Japanese Books and Manuscripts, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, [[Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.|alt=]] thumb|"Yamauba" (山姥) from the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by [[Toriyama Sekien]] thumb|right|A depiction of Yama-uba by Totoya Hokkei (1780–1850), yamamba, and yamanba are variations on the name of a yōkai found in Japanese folklore. Mostly said to resemble women, yamauba may be depicted as predatory monsters or benevolent beings.

thumb|Sumerian name in Akkadian language|Old Babylonian cuneiform, dDim3-me

thumb|Sirin lubok print, 18th century Sirin () is a mythological creature of Russian legends, with the head of a beautiful woman and the body of a bird (usually an owl), borrowed from the siren of the Greek mythology. According to myth, the Sirin lived in Iriy or around the Euphrates River.

Chinese legend

love interest of the legendary outlaw Robin Hood in English folklore

thumb|11. Air-people, wind-men, sylphs A sylph (also called sylphid) is an air spirit stemming from the 16th-century works of Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as (invisible) beings of the air, his elementals of air. A significant number of subsequent literary and occult works have been inspired by Paracelsus's concept: Robert Alfred Vaughan noted that "the wild but poetical fantasies" of Paracelsus had probably exercised a larger influence over his age and the subsequent one than is generally supposed, particularly on the Rosicrucians, but that through the 18th century they had become reduced

Shahmaran is a mythical creature, half-woman and half-snake, originating in Indo-Iranian and Turkic folklores.

In Finnish folklore, Ajatar (), also spelled Ajattara , or Aijotar ), is an evil female spirit.

pagan water spirit

archetype in myth

thumb|right|Gamayun (representation in a painting by Viktor Vasnetsov). Gamayun () is a prophetic bird of Russian folklore. It is a symbol of wisdom and knowledge and lives on an island in the mythical east, close to paradise. She is said to spread divine messages and prophecies, as she knows everything of all creation, gods, heroes, and man. Like the Sirin and the Alkonost, other creatures likewise deriving ultimately from the Greek myths and siren mythology, the Gamayun is normally depicted as a large bird with a woman's head. In the books of the 17th-19th centuries, Gamayun was described as

Rangda () is the demon queen of the Leyaks in Bali, according to traditional Balinese mythology. Terrifying to behold, the child-eating Rangda leads an army of evil witches against the leader of the forces of good — Barong. The battle between Barong and Rangda is featured in a Barong dance which represents the eternal battle between good and evil.

mythical pig

mythological serpent from Lithuanian folklore

right|thumb|Tamamo-no-Mae Woodblock print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Slavic mythological female character

thumb|A figure of a cihuateotl, the spirit of an Aztec woman who died in childbirth.

alt=|thumb|Ubume うぶめ from Bakemono no e (化物之繪, c. 1700), Harry F. Bruning Collection of Japanese Books and Manuscripts, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, [[Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.]] are Japanese yōkai of pregnant women. They can also be written as ''''. Throughout folk stories and literature the identity and appearance of ubume varies. However, she is most commonly depicted as the spirit of a woman who has died during childbirth. Passersby will see her as a normal-looking woman carrying a baby. She will typically try to give the passerby her child then disappear. When

Mormo (, Mormō) was a female spirit in Greek folklore, whose name was invoked by mothers and nurses to frighten children to keep them from misbehaving.

Japanese ghost story

thumb|Wooden mask at the Tokyo National Museum. [[Edo period, 1600s or 1700s. Important Cultural Property.]] The is a mask used in a traditional Japanese Noh theater, representing a jealous female demon. It is characterized by two sharp bull-like horns, metallic eyes, and a leering mouth. In Noh plays, the type of mask changes according to the degree of jealousy, resentment, and anger of the female characters. The is a mask that represents a female even more resentful, jealous, and angry than the , a woman on the verge of becoming a demoness.

right|thumb|240px|"Kiyohime becomes serpent-bodied at Hidaka River" (1890) (or just Kiyo) in Japanese folklore is a character in the story of Anchin and Kiyohime, which dates back to the 11th century. In this story, she fell in love with a Buddhist monk named Anchin, but after her interest in the monk was rejected, she chased after him and transformed into a serpent in a rage, before killing him in a bell where he had hidden in the Dōjō-ji temple.

right|thumb|200px|"Ameonna" (雨女) from the Konjaku Hyakki Shūi by [[Toriyama Sekien]] right|thumb|200px|"Hyakumonogatari Ameonna" (百物語 雨女) by Utagawa Yoshiiku Ameonna (, "rain woman") is a Japanese yōkai thought to call forth rain, illustrated in Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Hyakki Shūi as a woman standing in the rain and licking her hand.

In Greek mythology, Delphyne () is the name given, by some accounts, to the monstrous serpent killed by Apollo at Delphi. Although, in Hellenistic and later accounts, the Delphic monster slain by Apollo is usually said to be the male serpent Python, in the earliest known account of this story, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (6th century BC), the god kills a nameless she-serpent (drakaina), subsequently called Delphyne. According to the Suda, Delphi was named after Delphyne.

female mythological figure in northern Moroccan folklore

thumb|upright=1.2|The three Rhinemaidens at play in the waters of the Rhine. Illustration from Stories of the Wagner Opera by [[H. A. Guerber, 1905.]] The Rhinemaidens are the three nixies sisters (Rheintöchter or "Rhine daughters") who appear in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Their individual names are Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde, although they are generally treated as a single entity and they act together accordingly. Of the 34 characters in the Ring cycle, they are the only ones who did not originate in the Old Norse Eddas. Wagner created his Rhinemaidens

thumb| Salabhanjika, Hoysala era sculpture, Belur, Karnataka, India A salabhanjika or shalabhanjika is a term found in Indian art and literature with a variety of meanings. In Buddhist art, it means an image of a woman or yakshi next to, often holding, a tree, or a reference to Maya under the sala tree giving birth to Siddhartha (Buddha). In Hindu and Jain art, the meaning is less specific, and it is any statue or statuette, usually female, that breaks the monotony of a plain wall or space and thus enlivens it.

thumb|Qazwini's depiction of the anqa in The Wonders of Creation Anqa (), also spelled ''''Anqa', or Anka, or Anqa Mughrib or Anqa al-Mughrib''' (), is a golden mysterious or fabulous female bird in pre-Islamic Arab mythology. She is said to fly far away and only appear once in ages. However, it is also said that she can be found at the place of the setting of the sun.

thumb|upright|Illustration of Clíodhna in R.D. Joyce's Ballads of Irish Chivalry (1872) In Irish mythology, Clíodhna (Clídna, Clionadh, Clíodna, Clíona, transliterated to Cleena in English) is a Queen of the Banshees of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Clíodna of Carrigcleena is the potent banshee that rules as queen over the sióga (fairies) of South Munster, or Desmond.

demon of childbirth in certain Asian folk traditions