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 that this book follows a similar format to 2nd edition "Legends and Lore", except that while that book dealt with nine historical and two fictional human cultures, "Monster Mythology" deals with nonhuman pantheons. Unlike the culture-specific gods in "Legends and Lore", the gods in this book are for any campaign setting. Approximately 26 of the deities found in "Monster Mythology" were previously found in the first edition "Deities and Demigods" book, while the majority did not. The introduction has several sections after the lead. Running Divine Beings provides notes for the Dungeon Master on how and when deities interact with