September 01, 2009

A Venn diagram of mythical creatures. Pretty good - it works in three creatures I hadn't even heard of, and others I was a bit vague about. Why no chimera, though? (And why were there no winged centaurs?)
posted by Plegmund 15 years ago
  • What, no Great Roe?
  • I was always taught as a child that a griffin had a tail of a snake. Also, I think that the dog/human overlap should also include sphinxes and lycanthropes.
  • It would be more fun if the mythical critters intersected - rotate the Narwhal set up and to the left a bit and you could envision a Mermacornasus.
  • Oh, those chimera, very elusive and imaginary. They need more things that overlap with lions.
  • Dog-based sphinxes, you say? I think the Egyptian sphinx coincides with Manticore on this diagram - though on looking it up it seems Manticore may have a snake/dragon tail not reflected here. Greek sphinxes are altogether more challenging - you need human, eagle, snake/dragon and lion (or dog?). Although frankly, to properly capture the Greek sphinx, I think you need another area labelled 'Tits' - which would also be useful for mermaids.
  • What in the world are those areas where dogs overlap with dogs? I am pretty sure I see that in my everyday life.
  • "dogs overlap with dogs" Orthrus - two headed dog, Cerberus - three headed dog. (Similar to "The Knights who say Ni", no doubt).
  • What about those bourgeoisie areas where pigs overlap with dogs? -and humans, I suppose... Goddamn! Now I understand the dialectic...