Squid History". The Gorgon of Greek mythology may have been inspired by squid or octopus, the animal itself representing the severed head of Medusa, the beak as the protruding tongue and fangs, and its tentacles as the snakes. The six-headed sea monster of the "Odyssey", Scylla, may have had a similar origin. The Nordic legend of the kraken may also have derived from sightings of large cephalopods; the science fiction writer Jules Verne told a tale of a kraken-like monster in his 1870 novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". In literature, H. G. Wells' short story "The Sea Raiders" featured
Journey Through the Impossible "The Children of Captain Grant" and "Michael Strogoff", as similarly spectacular plays. Verne began playing with the idea of bringing a mixed selection of "Voyages Extraordinaires" characters together on a new adventure in early 1875, when he considered writing a novel in which Samuel Fergusson from "Five Weeks in a Balloon", Pierre Aronnax from "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", Phileas Fogg from "Around the World in Eighty Days", Dr. Clawbonny from "The Adventures of Captain Hatteras", and other characters would go around the world together in a heavier-than-air flying machine. Another novel featuring a similar trip around the world