Reptile or the fantastic, as in the monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s. The snake or serpent has played a powerful symbolic role in different cultures. In Egyptian history, the Nile cobra adorned the crown of the pharaoh. It was worshipped as one of the gods and was also used for sinister purposes: murder of an adversary and ritual suicide (Cleopatra). In Greek mythology snakes are associated with deadly antagonists, as a chthonic symbol, roughly translated as "earthbound". The nine-headed Lernaean Hydra that Hercules defeated and the three Gorgon sisters are children of Gaia, the earth. Medusa was one of
Monster Mythology in length (half page), though some take up two columns (full page). Each entry includes one or more paragraphs of descriptive text to indicate what sort of deity it is, followed by a brief statistics line (describing the deity's alignment, the most common alignment of its worshippers, the god's area of control, and a description of the god's symbol). Each section also describes the god's avatar and priesthood, as noted in the Introduction. The following beings are detailed in "Monster Mythology": Gods of the Elves Gods of the Dwarves Gods of the Gnomes Gods of the Halflings Gods of the