I keep trying to work my way around to writing about the overarching themes of Greek and Norse mythology. Really, I had a whole outlined planned that discussed the ways in which each culture viewed war and love and mortality. I have, sadly, become painfully sidetracked and now I cannot stop thinking about the types and roles of various monsters and monstrous creatures that speckle both mythological landscapes.
At first glance I would have said that Norse mythology makes little use of the monster idea and instead spends a great deal of time focusing on the existence of different worlds/realms and species. Norse mythology certainly has a different number of creatures–giants, wolves, Grendel, snakes, shape shifters, etc–but they never really seem to cross from the concept of different into abnormal and worthy of fear. Then I remembered Nidhogg the monstrous snake that is either eating away at the supports of the world or sucking on corpses. The giant world ending snake certainly counts as a monster. Still, though, that was only one example I could think of in all of the Norse stories I’ve ever read. Everyone else always seems to be clearly identified as someone’s son or daughter or brother or has clearly expressed emotional and logical motivations for their behavior–be they good or evil. There is something about humanizing a villain that keeps them from becoming monstrous.
The Greeks, by comparison, are chock full of monsters. Typhon, manticores, Cerberus, Lamia, harpies, giant spiders, the list of abnormal creature monster mixes is a long one. Then there are the really scary versions. There are the humans that have been morphed into frightening monstrosities for some slight or another. Athena turned Arachne the woman into a part spider part human hybrid who then started churning out all of the spiders of the world, which….ugh…so…I hate spiders. That is genuinely the worst thing I could think of. Scylla is the unfortunate woman who got turned into a tentacle creature. There are more examples, but I am grossing myself out so lets move on. Greek mythology doesn’t ignore the idea of other species with human traits. The gorgons, the centaurs, and even the sirens all have family ties and understandable motivations.
Which leaves me wondering why monsters are so prevalent in the Greek myths, especially compared to the Norse myths. We could certainly chalk it up to a failure of translation. These two histories come to us from vastly different sources. Perhaps there are a number of other, smaller, stories in the original oral traditions of the Norse that included monstrous abominations and they simply weren’t deemed worthy of keeping. Personally, I don’t think that is very likely. Historians are generally excited enough about new and exciting elements of other worlds and cultures that they make some attempt to preserve them.
Perhaps the ratio of monsters to humanized species is more a reflection of each cultures respective tolerance for things that were different or foreign. We could, I am sure, form a number of arguments as to the why behind the myths.
Hum 115: World Mythology 