Sea 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 "colossal octopus" attacking ship, Wash (visual arts)|pen and wash by Pierre Denys-Montfort, engraved by Étienne Claude Voysard, 1801

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.

mythical or legendary creature, believed to dwell in the sea and often imagined to be of immense size

mythological creature

sea monster or large sea creature, associated with Andromeda of Greek myth

thumb|upright|The bishop-fish in Johann Zahn's 1696 work Specula physico-mathematico-historica notabilium ac mirabilium sciendorum

thumb|Tlaltecuhtli's head is shown flung back with a serpent tongue and a sacrificial knife between her teeth thumb|Annotations detailing the iconography of the Tlaltecuhtli Monolith (located at the Museum of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City, Mexico) Tlaltecuhtli (Classical Nahuatl Tlāltēuctli, ) is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican deity worshipped primarily by the Mexica (Aztec) people. Sometimes referred to as the "earth monster," Tlaltecuhtli's dismembered body was the basis for the world in the Aztec creation story of the fifth and final cosmos. In carvings, Tlaltecuhtli is often depicted as an

thumb|Cipactli

thumb|240px|alt=Tammas flees the nuckelavee|The nuckelavee chasing an islander, painting by James Torrance (1859–1916). The nuckelavee () or nuckalavee is a horse-like demon from Orcadian folklore that combines equine and human elements. If one was looking casually, or under the cover of shadow in the night, it was thought to have the silhouette of a normal horseman. However, upon further inspection, it resembles a fleshless horse which sports one eye and fins on its legs, with a fleshless human head, torso, and arms longer than normal sprouting out the horse's back.

thumb|The isonade as depicted in Takehara Shunsen's Ehon Hyaku Monogatari is an enormous, shark-like sea monster said to live off the coast of Matsuura and other places in Western Japan.

sea monster in Finnish mythology

thumb|An Aspidochelone from a French manuscript, c. 1270. J. Paul Getty Museum According to the tradition of the Physiologus and medieval bestiaries, the aspidochelone is a fabled sea creature, variously described as a large whale or vast sea turtle, and a giant sea monster with huge spines on the ridge of its back. No matter what form it is, it is always described as being so huge that it is often mistaken for a rocky island covered with sand dunes and vegetation. The name aspidochelone appears to be a compound word combining Greek aspis (which means either "asp" or "shield"), and chelone, t

is a gigantic octopus-like monster from Ainu folklore, similar to the Nordic kraken, which supposedly lurks in Uchiura Bay in Hokkaido.

In Caribbean folklore, the Lusca is a name given to a mythological sea monster said to exist in the region of the blue holes nearby Andros, an island in The Bahamas.

Biblical Hebrew term

' ( "sea" + "steam"; "sea-reek"; "sea-steamer'") is a sea creature, purported to inhabit Iceland's waters (Greenland Sea) and southward toward Helluland. Although it was thought to be a sea monster, research suggests that the stories originated from a specialized feeding technique among whales known as trap-feeding.

German submarine

In Inuit folklore, the kăk-whăn’-û-ghăt kǐg-û-lu’-nǐk or akh’lut is an orca-like composite animal that takes the form of a wolf when on land, and is sometimes depicted as a wolf-orca hybrid.

The Apotamkin (also spelled apotampkin) is a creature in Native American mythology. According to the mythology, it is a giant fanged sea monster that lives in the Passamaquoddy Bay and pulls people in to eat them, particularly careless children. It is said to have long red hair, and in some versions, it was a human woman before being changed into a serpent. One interpretation of Apotamkin myth is that it was used to instill fear into children to keep them from venturing into areas alone and without parental guidance.

Biblical demon or monster

The Rannamaari was a sea monster from Maldivian folklore that was believed to have sexually abused and murdered countless young women. According to popular versions of the story, a Maghrebi merchant called Al-Barbari performed a ritual after convincing the authorities at the time to let him take the place of girls meant to be sacrificed to the monster in an effort to save them and the islanders. He recited the Qur'an in the presence of the Rannamaari. With this ritual, the Rannamaari fled and never returned and the incident led to the islanders converting to Islam. The story is one of the most

thumb|300px|A glashan featured in an Irish folktale retelling. Glashtyn (Manx English: glashtin, glashtan or glashan; or ) is a legendary creature from Manx folklore.

right|thumb|280px|"Yamato Takeru's battle against an Akugyo" from Koura Urakawa's Kanpira Shrine Tour Akugyo (悪魚 or 悪樓, "evil fish") or daigyo (giant fish) or raichōgyo (thunderbird fish) is a type of sea monster or aquatic yōkai in Japanese mythology.

legendary monster supposedly living in the Chesapeake Bay, United States

1917 Type UB III submarine

thumb|right|Ureia, guardian taniwha of the Hauraki Gulf|Hauraki people. Carving from the meeting house Hotunui, 1878 In Māori mythology, taniwha () are large supernatural beings that live in deep pools in rivers, dark caves, or in the sea, especially in places with dangerous currents or deceptive breakers (giant waves). They may be considered highly respected kaitiaki (protective guardians) of people and places, or in some traditions as dangerous, predatory beings, which for example would kidnap women to have as wives.

thumb|Illustration of a similar creature in the Alexander Romance, Armenian manuscript, 1538–1544. The saratan (from the Arabic سرطان, saraṭān, "crab"), sometimes spelled zaratan, is a giant sea creature from Arabic literature and folklore.

dragon

thumb|175px|right|A sea-lion, illustrated in A Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909). In heraldry, the term sea-lion (sometimes called a morse) refers to a legendary creature that has the head and upper body of a lion, but with webbed forelimbs and a fish tail. These occur most frequently as supporters, but also occur as crests and occasionally as charges. Sea-lions are frequently found in "sejant" or "sejant-erect" (sitting upright) attitudes, but may also be found "naiant" (horizontally, as if swimming) or "assurgeant" (issuing from the waves of the sea).

thumb|200px|A sea-griffin. The sea-griffin (German: Fischgreif; Polish: rybogryf, gryf morski) is a heraldic charge in form of an aquatic griffin with the head, upper half, wings, and talons of an eagle and the lower half of a fish.