Legendary creatures
A legendary creature is an invented animal common in mythical tales and fantasy fiction.Often, legendary creatures are chimeras, a combination of two or more real animals. For example, a pegasus is a combination of a horse and bird, a centaur of a man and horse, a minotaur of a man and bull. Others may derive from distorted reports of real creatures; for example the idea of the unicorn is often claimed to have come from garbled stories about the rhinoceros.
These creatures are often claimed to have supernatural powers or knowledge, or guard some object of great value, which becomes critical to the plot of the story in which it is found. Greek mythology is especially rich with legendary creatures.
Medieval books of natural history often included legendary creatures indifferently with real ones.
Many legendary creatures have been incorporated into heraldry and architectural decoration.
In modern times, consciously fictional creatures invented to test ideas are sometimes given mock scientific names; in a certain sense these are the new legendary creatures. The most famous example is Homo economicus, the imaginary person who behaves fully rationally in the sense required by economic theory. Modern fantasy games and literature, from Tolkien down, also make extensive use of existing legendary creatures and have also invented new ones, some of which have passed into common usage and are thus becoming modern legends.
A list of some legendary creatures: