Charybdis was a terrible whirlpool which swallowed ships. Scylla was a monster with six long necks and six awful heads each with triple rows of teeth. Ships passing through the strait between them were doomed either to be swallowed by the whirlpool or lose six rowers.
Selene:
Moon goddess. Various representations show her with a chariot, horse, white mule or bull. The mule transported the moon.
Sirens:
One of the perils faced by Odysseus was passing the Sirens, who lured sailors to their deaths with their sweet singing. Odysseus and his companions survived this, by them tying him to the mast and having their ears stopped with wax. The early descriptions are of half bird/half women, sitting in a green field piled with human bones.
Sphinx:
The Greek sphinx was depicted with the head and chest of a woman, enormous eagle wings and the body of a lion. Associated with combat and death. The most famous Greek sphinx was the Theban sphinx, renowned for her riddling and eating of travelers.
Tempe:
The valley between Mt. Ossa and Mt. Olympus.
Thrinicia:
An island on which the sun-god Helios kept his cattle. After surviving Scylla and Charybdis, Odysseus and his crew made landfall here. Despite warnings from Circe and Teiresias, when they were trapped there by stormy weather his crew slaughtered some of the cattle of Helios. As a punishment the black ship was sunk and all but Odysseus lost their lives.
Throttler:
The name of the Theban sphinx.
Teiresias:
The blind seer of Thebes, whose spirit Odysseus went to consult in Hades.
Titans:
The children of Uranus and Gaea who held sway before the Olympians. Godlike, there is no record of them being worshiped. To the contrary, they seem to have encouraged egalitarian behavior. The Titans took up arms against the Olympians, but were defeated and banished with few exceptions.
Triton:
Son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, he had the head, shoulders and arms of a man and the scales and fins of a fish. He rode a chariot pulled by crayfish-clawed horses. He was renowned for frightening giants with the sounds he made by blowing his conch—a shell adapted to be a very crude and noisy trumpet. Also marine genii of similar appearance.
Tyche:
The goddess of chance. Her attribute is abundance, and she is the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. One is prompted to wonder if this is why fishing and luck should go hand in hand.
Typhoeus:
The last child of Gaea. Sent by Gaea to avenge the defeat of the Titans, he succeeded for a time in imprisoning Zeus. He was eventually trapped under Mt. Etna.
Zeus:
Supreme god of the Olympians. A flinger of thunderbolts. Obviously the ancient Greek powers-that-be had their priests shape the pantheon to reinforce the strict aristocratic and hierarchical forms of their society. Zeus was the boss, and tolerated none of the Titan egalitarianism. His rule did evoke some ire from his grandmother, Gaea (who had seen to his upbringing), who sent Typhoeus to put him in his place. Eventually Zeus was victorious. The lord of all seems to have spent a great deal of time beating up rival claimants to Olympus, such as the Titans and the Giants, behaving just as a model aristocrat should. Married to Hera, Zeus’ pastime of infidelities, seduction and outright rape would take far too long to list here.
Egyptian:
Amemait:
The devourer. A monster with a crocodile snout, part lion, part hippopotamus, all nasty, the devourer of unjustified souls.
Anubis:
Jackal-headed Anubis. The son of Nephthys, by Osiris. Usher in the hall of judgment and inventor of embalming techniques.
Bes:
A dwarf-god, the protector of man against evil spirits and dangerous beasts. He is always portrayed grinning and bearded, with a topknot adorned with ostrich plumes and a leopard-skin cloak. Fond of fighting and dancing, his symbol was used to protect against dangerous beasts, and evil spirits that haunted dreams. He presided over marriages, and the makeup and adornment of women, as well as protecting pregnant mothers. Revered in Punt (Ethiopia) and Carthage as well as Egypt, the little hell-raiser was definitely one of the most attractive figures in ancient mythology.
Harmakhis:
The correct name of the huge stone sphinx of Gizeh.
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