Jonah or Jonas is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible hailing from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, which details his reluctance in delivering the judgment of Yahweh to the city of Nineveh in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. After he is swallowed by a large sea creature and then released, he returns to the divine mission.
In Greek mythology, sirens are humanlike beings with alluring voices; they appear in a scene in the Odyssey in which Odysseus saves his crew's lives. Roman poets place them on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli. In some later, rationalized traditions, the literal geography of the "flowery" island of Anthemoessa, or Anthemusa, is fixed: sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in the islands known as the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae. All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks.
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa.
In Ancient Greek ketos, Latinized as cetus, is any huge sea monster. According to the mythology, Perseus slew a cetus to save Andromeda from being sacrificed to it. The term cetacean derives from cetus. In Greek art, ceti were depicted as serpentine fish. The name of the mythological figure Ceto is derived from kētos. The name of the constellation Cetus also derives from this word.
The Leviathan is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, and the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch. The Leviathan is often an embodiment of chaos, threatening to eat the damned when their lives are over. In the end, it is annihilated. Christian theologians identified Leviathan with the demon of the deadly sin envy. According to Ophite diagrams, the Leviathan encapsulates the space of the material world.
Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and are often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water. The definition of a "monster" is subjective; further, some sea monsters may have been based on scientifically accepted creatures, such as whales and types of giant and colossal squid.
The Sirena is a mythological sea creature from Filipino culture. In some regions of the Philippines, particularly Bicol and Visayas, Sirenas are known as Magindara and portrayed as vicious mermaids. Like Sirens of Greek mythology, they have alluring and irresistible singing voices; unlike Sirens, who are portrayed as part woman and part bird, Sirenas are often described as mermaid-like creatures living under the sea. In Philippine mythology, the Sirena is a mythological aquatic creature with the head and torso of a human female and the tail of a fish. The Sirena is an Engkanto –' the Filipino counterpart of English mermaids. Engkantos are classified as one of the Bantay Tubig, a Filipino term for mythical guardians of the water. In addition to the Sirena, other examples of Bantay Tubig are Siyokoy, Kataw, and Ugkoy. The male version of a Sirena is called a Sireno. Sometimes, Sirena are paired with Siyokoy. A popular mermaid character in the Philippines is Dyesebel.
The kraken is a legendary sea monster of enormous size, etymologically akin to a squid or octopus, said to appear in the sea between Norway and Iceland. It is believed the legend of the Kraken may have originated from sightings of giant squid, which may grow to 12–15 m in length.
A Zaratan is a grandiose sea turtle found in literature and folk lore. Zaratans are notable for their long-life span and impossible size. Zaratan shells are easily mistaken for small islands, similar to the whale-like Fastitocalon. The Zaratan is catalogued in Jorge Luis Borges's El Libro de Los Seres Imaginarios. Zaratans also appear in some editions of the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons.
"Fastitocalon" is a medieval-style poem by J. R. R. Tolkien about a gigantic sea turtle. The setting is explicitly Middle-earth. The poem is included in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
Hafgufa is a sea creature, purported to inhabit Iceland's waters 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.
Lyngbakr is the name of a massive whale-like sea monster reported in the Örvar-Odds saga to have existed in the Greenland Sea. According to the saga, Lyngbakr would bait seafarers by posing as a heather-covered island, and when a crew landed on his back, he sank into the sea, drowning the crew.
Vanishing island refers to any permanent island which is exposed at low tide but is submersed at high tide. Vanishing islands occur globally. There are vanishing islands in the Philippines and several in the San Juan Islands.
The Worksop Bestiary, also known as the Morgan Bestiary, most likely from Lincoln or York, England, is an illuminated manuscript created around 1185, containing a bestiary and other compiled medieval Latin texts on natural history. The manuscript has influenced many other bestiaries throughout the medieval world and is possibly part of the same group as the Aberdeen Bestiary, Alnwick Bestiary, St.Petersburg Bestiary, and other similar Bestiaries. Now residing in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, the manuscript has had a long history of church, royal, government, and scholarly ownership.
The Icelandic Physiologus is a translation into Old Icelandic of a Latin translation of the 2nd-century Greek Physiologus. It survives in fragmentary form in two manuscripts, both dating from around 1200, making them the earliest illustrated manuscripts from Iceland and among the earliest Icelandic manuscripts generally. The fragments are significantly different from each other and either represent copies from two separate exemplars or different reworkings of the same text. Both texts also contain material that is not found in standard versions of the Physiologus.
The Devil Whale is a legendary demonic whale-like sea monster. According to myths, this whale is of enormous size and could swallow entire ships. It also resembles an island when it's sleeping, and unsuspecting sailors put ashore on its back. When the sailors start a fire, the Devil Whale awakes and attacks the ship, dragging it to the bottom of the sea. Because of this Christianity began associating the whale with the Devil. This story is found in Sinbad the Sailor.
The sea goat is a legendary aquatic animal described as a creature that is half-goat and half-fish.
The Panther is a 74-line alliterative poem written in the Old English language which uses the image of a panther as an allegory for Christ's death and Resurrection. It is believed to be part of a cycle of three animal-based poems called the Old English Physiologus or Bestiary, a translation-adaptation of the popular Physiologus text found in many European literatures, preserved in the Exeter Book anthology of Old English poetry. Being the first of three poems in the cycle, The Panther is followed by the poems The Whale and The Partridge.
