Do Mythical Creatures Exist?

Mermaids, Vampires, Werewolves and Centaurs among many others are very familiar mythical creatures in the imaginary world we create in drawings, games and films. We know that their origins goes much further back into ancient history. But did these ancient people really believe in such mythical creatures? Are mythical creatures real?  Ye Old Tales: The historian Geoffery of Mammoth (11th century) described the first people

of Britain to be very large and strong people much taller than any human. These Giants were led by formidable leaders such as Albion. However the Giants became extinct by the invasion of Brutus and his men. A writer called Rabelais built whole genealogies of Giants from Biblical to the Renaissance. This is really the only evidence for so called 'Giants'. Perhaps such beings were merely humans a few feet taller than the average man of ancient  history (which was 5ft tall in Britain). But what about the stranger mythical creatures? The colossal beaver, the Afnac of Wales created floods by swinging its tail, the Jinshin Mushi of

Japan produced earthquakes and primordial beings like the Frost Giant Ymir and East Asian Pan-Gu created the world. Modern science has debunked such stories and has given us an alternative answer to how this world operates. Such old tales helped people understand their world more easily and such inventions can still exist today - when Russian spacecrafts went missing it was believed that they were eaten by the Great Galactic Ghoul). But then again who knew what lived in the English channel or under Japan? Others beings

like the Banshee were simply ancient deities who became lowly beings as religious beliefs changed.  Bones of the Earth: Many mythical animals are scientific impossibilities. Take the Dragon as an example. It is an animal so large that its body mass does not enable it to fly. In comparison the Ostrich is much smaller and is still too big to cannot fly. But original evidence of these mythical creatures was found in the mountains. When skeletal structures of primordial fish were found in the mountains the most suitable explanation at the time was that the long 'lizard' must have flown there. The contemporary explanations is that the sea creature's body sunk to the sea bed, and over time the sea bed was pushed up to become a mountain. Mythical creatures created from misunderstandings of archaeological finds has been fairly common: A rhino's skull was believed to be that of the Cyclops (the hole for the horn looked like an eye socket). Skeletons of the Archaeopteryx, a dinosaur with wings was he basis for the Griffin and Basilisk. Science can not always be sure what is extinct. Mythical creatures such as the Basilosaurus, Australopithecus and Neanderthals are apparently extinct but these may be living as Nessie, Bigfoot and as Tsiatko respectively.  Mutated Species: If you were to read the likes of mythical creatures found in the ancient  Chinese bestiaries like Diniao, Xiao and Congcong, it would be easy to believe that these were simply deformations of ordinary animals. But if you were to see a turtle of 6 legs when travelling in the unexplored mountains one could be led to believe that a whole race of them live there. In the West babies that were born deformed underpinned people faith in God as it seemed that God had failed in his creation of man, and was not a perfect creator. St. Augustine in his book 'City of God' (c. 5th century), answered this problem this by stating that for every child born abnormally different, God had created a human race just the same.  What the Heck Was That?: Stories of sightings of of mythical beings are said to have been exaggerations of what was really encountered. Stephen Asma in 'On Monsters' (2010) describes that beasts fought by Alexander the Great and his army were hugely exaggerated. As psychological fear arises, perceptions are distorted. Accounts of fabulous beasts left New World explorers like Christopher Columbus disappointed when they found no evidence of mythical creatures. Sightings of mysterious creatures were later found to be ordinary animals such as Manta which was in fact a stingray. Leonardo Da Vinci observed that in order to describe a newly discovered animal you need to base it on a known one. Thus when these descriptions are taken literally they sound very strange. Could the head of  a dog be a way of describing the head of a mandrill?  The Otherworld: It may seem that all mythical creatures are just fictional and do not exist. However there are arguments that some supernatural beings might exist. Whilst modern science has pushed mythical creatures to the edge of extinction, we have not explored the Otherworld that may intertwine with ours. There are those who claim to have seen Angels and Shamans who say that they can communicate with beings in the spirit realm. The flying Gurudas and hissing Nagas of India were believed to have existed when times were more auspicious and the realms were easily crossed. We should not leave out the Tulpa; a being that manifests from ones imagination through the power of meditation. We should still be open minded.  Jenny Hanivers: Speculation and doubt of so many mythical creatures arose from Jenny Hanivers, creatures that seemed to be real but were later proved as a hoax. It is an art that has been practised for many years that became popular in Antwerp, Belgium to would sew together animal corpses making them look like real mythical creatures.  So what of the Mermaid, Vampire, Werewolf and Centaur? The Mermaid comes from sightings, perhaps a mistaken sight of sea-lions or dugongs, Vampires a possible premature burial and Werewolves people suffering from lycanthropy. The Centaur is the strangest of

all but the Black Devil from South America could explain much. Yet these stories fill our hunger for imagination and have found their way into the ancient Greek plays all the way through to the Hollywood movies. Whether they are perhaps real or false they are sources great inspiration and joy.