Cerberus, the hound of the underworld, stood guard at the gates of Hades and prevented those not permitted from entering. He is usually described as a beast with three heads and the tail of a dragon. When Aeneas journied to the lower regions under the guidance of the Sibyl, he brought along a medicated cake to drug the animal and insure their safe passage. To throw a sop to Cerberus means to give a bribe and thereby ward off an unpleasant situation.
Trojan Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, was amorously pursued by the god Apollo. Having at first agreed to succumb to his advances, she was awarded the gift of prophecy, but later, when she changed her mind and refused him, Apollo punished her. She would remain a prophetess, but would never be believed. Cassandra's predictions were invariably of disaster, foretelling the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra or the destruction of Troy through the ruse of the Wooden Horse. A Cassandra today is anyone who utters dire warnings of the future, regardless of their truth.
In greek mythology, a Chimera is a wild, hybrid creature, a monster, with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent and it breathed fire. Luckily it was slain by the Corinthian hero Bellerophon, riding the winged horse Pegasus.. Today a chimera (an imaginary monster compounded of incongrous parts) has come to mean a fantastic delusion, an illusory creation of the mind. It can also refer to a hybrid organism, usually a plant. Chimerical and Chimeric refer to something as unreal, imaginary, or fantastic. These adjectives can also signify that one is given to fantasy.
here were two distinct groups of giants called the Cyclopes, whose name means circle-eyed and indicates their principle distinguishing feature, one round eye in the center of their forehead.
The second group of Cyclopes were a tribe of giants, the most important of whom is Polyphemus, a son of Poseidon, encountered by Odysseus.
The word cyclopean refers to anything that pertains to the Cyclopes or partakes of their gigantic and powerful nature. Thus the Cyclopes were said to be responsible for the massive stone walls which surround the palace-fortresses of the Mycenaean period. And so cyclopean is used generally to describe a primitive building style, which uses immense, irregular, stone blocks, held together by their sheer weight without mortar
