- This article is about monsters as a kind of legendary creature. For other uses, see Monster (disambiguation).
Saint George versus the Dragon, by Gustave Moreau (1880) Monster (lat. monstrum) is a term for any number of legendary creatures that frequently appear in mythology, legend, and horror fiction. The word originates from the medieval vulgar Latin verb monstrare, which translates either "to exhibit" or "to point out". The first so named monstra were the showpieces in travelling carnival freakshows, people afflicted with body deformities or diseases like elephanitiasis.
They are also a mainstay of role-playing and video games. "Monster" usually, but not always, implies that these creatures are larger than human size. It almost always implies that the creatures are powerful and hostile to the hero, and must be overcome to succeed in the quest. The monster par excellence is the dragon.
Occasionally, there are monsters who act out of legitimate motives and their monstrous appearance leads to serious misunderstandings. One well known example is the Horta in the Star Trek episode, "The Devil in the Dark".
Monsters in history Prior to its appropriation by the fantasy genre, the monster was an important social concept. Monsters were often associated with unknown lands and unknown things. For instance, historically, unexplored areas on maps would be marked indicating that monsters such as dragons lived there. This connection between monsters and the unknown meant that the monster was an important concept in the Rennaissance and the Enlightenment, as Western society began to use science and other academic disciplines to try to understand the unknown. Monsters were seen as scientific puzzles — things science needed to understand. In the Enlightenment, the cabinet of curiosities would often include monsters in amongst the scientific instruments and toys. Similarly, the monstrous was an important concept on aesthetics during the enlightenment, often closely associated with the wondrous and the sublime.
This relationship between science and monstrosity became an important theme in many Victorian-era horror novels, where science was often depicted not merely as studying monsters, but as producing them. Notable examples include Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein. This change corresponded with a decline in the popularity of science among the general public.
Some traces of this classic relation to monsters can be found in the popularity of tabloid newspapers such as the Weekly World News. Contemporary philosophers such as Lorraine Daston have written at length about the relationship between how society depicts monsters and the role of science in that society.
Occasionally, monsters are depicted as friendly or misunderstood creatures. The monsters of Monsters Inc. scare to create the energy to run their secret world, and the furry monsters of Sesame Street live as complete equals to their fellow humans and animals.
Religious monsters Many Eastern religions such as Hinduism, as well as ancient religions such as Greek mythology and Norse mythology have an important focus on monsters, which are generally depicted as the enemies of the gods. Ragnarok in Norse mythology was the final battle between the gods of Asgard and the many monsters of the world.
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