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
Iara (mythology) live with her underwater forever, which was not necessarily a bad thing, as she was pretty and would cater for all needs of her lover for the rest of his life. It is often claimed that, until the 18th century, the Iara legend was originally about an aggressive monstrous river merman known as Ipupiara ("freshwater monster", in Portuguese phonological rules; by that [Pre-Pombaline] time, most Brazilians still spoke ), that would readily devour fishers, rather than that of a seducing, docile river mermaid. Iaras are immortal (like the nymphs of Greek mythology), but her lovers do age and die, which