Mythical Monsters (short story)
Mythic Monsters was a short story published in the 1978 Doctor Who annual, a condensed adaptation of several Greek myths. Although the Doctor was not the focus, he did appear at the beginning of the story, which presented the related myth as actual history of the same universe inhabited by the Doctor, rather than from a real-world point of view.
Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Although Doctor Who has fought more monsters than "most people in his time", humans fought monsters on Earth in ancient times, as recorded in Greek and Roman legends.
These include the story of Hercules. A Greek with superhuman strength, he is given twelve tasks to fulfil, many of which involve fighting monsters. The first is the Hydra, a creature with nine heads, one of which is immortal. He tries to kill the beast, but for every head he slices off, two more grow from the wound. He ends up having his servant cauterise each wound, preventing a new head from growing back; and as for the immortal final head, he buries it under a boulder. Later, another task sees Hercules capture the "great bull of the King of Minos", the Minotaur, to whom seven maidens and seven young men were sacrificed each year. Though the Minotaur is imprisoned in a "maze-like building", Hercules succeeds in finding and capturing him. Hercules' final task is to capture Cerberus, the monstrous dog guarding the entrance of Hades. He succeeds, but the king who set him his tasks is so terrified of the dog when it is brought before him that he has Hercules set him loose.
Another monster was originally a woman, Medusa. A beautiful young woman, Medusa is particularly proud of her hair until she gives offence to the goddess Athene, who punishs her by turning her hair into snakes and making her face so ugly that all who look upon it turn to stone. She is slain by Perseus, who avoids petrification by never looking at her directly, but only ever through his shield, polished so as to be used like a mirror. After he beheads her, one last monster springs from her magical blood, a winged horse called Pegasus.
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Fourth Doctor
- The Hydra
- Hercules
- A servant
- The King of Minos
- The Minotaur
- Cerberus
- A Greek king
- Medusa
- Athene
- Perseus
- Pegasus
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This story contains several discrepancies with the Greek myths it is based on, despite not being a straight-up sci-fi reimagining of them. Defeating the Minotaur is presented as one of the labours of Hercules, whereas that was actually an achievement of the unrelated hero Theseus; this is here conflated with Hercules's mythological defeat of the Cretan Bull, a supernatural bull who was the Minotaur's biological father. Additionally, the Minotaur is said to be in the possession of "the King of Minos". In the original myths, Minos is the name of the King himself, while his kingdom is Crete.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor previously encountered Medusa in his second incarnation (TV: The Mind Robber) and the Minotaur in his third. (TV: The Time Monster)
