Banshee

In the fairy tales they were good guys.

They cry out to us, warning victim of coming death. They use their scream to drive their victims crazy. Victim crack opes their own head and the banshee feeds on the brain (frontal lob). And the only people who can hear their scream is the victim.

They travel out in mist. And they only pray on the vulnerable. They pray at night and haunt the same place until it's dry clean.

Gold blade could kill them.

Haunted Painting

It's always the subject that haunts the painting.

Human Remains

Human remains (hair, bones etc) and sometimes evil spirit leashes to any object (flask, ring, neckless etc) you gotta burn them.

Zanna

In Romanian lore, Zanna are the creatures who guide and protect lost children. Zanna intencially appear as child imagination, allowing the child to move on with confidense once guidance no longer needed.
Zanna shares a teelephatic link.

Khan Worm

The Khan Worm, as the name suggests, is a worm that enters into people's head through their ears or mouth, and controls their actions. Dean says it is like a Khan Worm on steroids, and also refers to it as a "twelve inch long herpe." When possessing people it leaves dark green sludge in it's victims' ears, though it can stop this if it wants. It also spills the same sludge out of its victim's nose when it is injured or in pain.

From its comments, it is likely, that like most monsters, it eats humans.

The second version of the Khan differs from the first in several respects. This variety absorbs all bodily fluids, eventually causing the host to go mad with thirst, drinking any liquids they can find, eventually forcing the host to kill; then in its state of heightened thirst, they will drink the blood from other people. This version of the worm acts more as a parasite, drying out their hosts and moving on. This version appears to have originated in the Middle East, though how long it has existed is unknown. It's also unknown if Eve directly created this version or if it naturally evolved (presumably from the first).

Unlike the first which goes into people's heads, this version enters the stomach, and forcibly introduces itself through its victim's mouth and down their throat.

• Crushing - Though agile, the Khan worm is vulnerable to being crushed easily.
• Extreme Dehydration - A variation of the Khan worm that feeds off hydration can be ousted from a body by not consuming any liquids for a prolonged period and being forced near extreme heat sources.
• Electricity - The Khan Worm can be injured by electricity. Prolonged duration exposure can kill it. It is likely that this is its weakness due to it potentially being connected to its host's brain, an organ which runs primarily off of electrical signals. The other variant seems not to have this weakness or is less vulnerable to it as it didn't leave Cole Trenton when he was repeatedly electrocuted for long periods.

Guns & Ammo

Iron; Repels the evil spirit but it's gotta be pure.
The Colt; Back in 1835, when Halley's Comet was overheaded, same night those men died at the Alamo, they say Samuel Colt made a gun. A special gun. He made it for a hunter. Story goes, he made 13 bullets. The hunter used it for a half dozen times before he disappeard along with the gun. They say the gun could kill anyting, like supernatural anyting...

Key of Solomon: It works, you get a demon in one, they're trapped. Powerless. It's like a satanic roach motel.

Tarot

Tarot dates backs to the early christian era. When some priests using magic and a few of them veered into the dark stuff:
Necromancy and how to push death away and how to couse it. 
Use the black magic to ride the reaper.

Spirits - Ghosts - Poltergeist

Angry spirits born from violent deats.
Ghost activity or malevolent spirit = flickering lights, cold spots, smelly strong ozone, weird noises (scratching)...

If it's a spirit, it usually bound to a specific locale: A town, house etc. But a poltergeist can haunt a person instead of a place. Or a spirit can latch to cursed object, so it moves city to city with the object. 

Spirit latches on the repressed emotions, feeds of them. A few of them (vengeful spirits) known to latch on families, follow them for years, like banhees, angiaks... Basically like a curse.
Hauntings sometimes include bug manifestion.

Spirits can be dorment for years. Demolition or remodelling can awake spirits, make them restless.

Spirit don't exactly see the shades of gray.
And you don't break the curse, you run away from it.

Buckshot won't do much good unless if you use Rock Salt Shells... Salt being a spirit deterrant. It won't kill a ghost but it'll slow it down.

Find the grave (remains), salt and burn the bones and put it down.

Evil spirits cross over hallowed ground, sometimes there are destroyed.

Spectral entities can couse energy fluctuations that can be read with an EMF (electromagnetic field) detector. 

Hook Man (Urban Legend)

"Found the bloody body, suspended upside down"  that sounds like hook man.
It's famous.
Every urban legend has a source. A place where it all began.

Phantom scratches, puntures, invisible killer...
Maybe the hook man isn't man at all, maybe it's some kind of spirit.

"Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light" 

The Bloody Mary (Urban Legend)

According to the legend, the person who says "bloody mary" in front of mirror, gets it.
As far as legend goes, bloody mary scratches your eyes out. 

For a legend widespread, it's hard to know who really she is. One story says she's a witch, another says she's a mutilated bride...

Every version has a few things in common; it' always a women named Mary and she always dies in front of a mirror.

There's a lot of folklore about mirrors. They reveal your lies,  all your secrets... They're a true reflection of your soul, which is why it's bad luck to break them. 

An old superstition says, mirrors can capture spirits. So when someone died in a house, people cover mirrors so that the ghost wouldn't get trapped.

Devils and Demons

Every religion and word culture, has concept of  demons and demonic possesion.
If you're panicked, you're open for demonic possesion.
If possessed, he/she will flinch at the name of god.(latin:christo) 

An exorcism that's gotta work is: The Rituale Romanum
It's two parts: 
First part expels the demon from victim's body, it makes it manifest, which makes it more powerful. It doesn't need to possess anyone, it can just wreck havoc on it's own.
Second part sends the bastard back to hell, once and for all.
Demonic possesion leaves behind sulfuric residue.

Demons, they don't want anyting; just death and destruction for it's own sake.
For example :
Accordding to Japanese belief certain demons behind certaing disasters; both man made and natural.
One couses earthquakes, another couses diseases...   
                

There are signs (omens) to demon precense:

• Cattle deaths,
• Temperature fluctuations,
• Electrical storms.

And they leave behind sulfur trace.

Women in White (Weeping Women)

It's a ghost story. Well it's more of a phenomenon, really. 
They're spirits.
They've been sighted for hundreds of years, dozens of places :
in Hawaii, in Mexico, in Arizona, Indiana...
All these are different women, but all share the same story:

When they're alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them,
and these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity,
murdered their children.

Then once they realized what they had done,
they took their own lives.

So now their spirits are cursed.
Walking backroads, waterways...

And if they found an unfaithful man,
they kill him.

And that man is never seen again.

Spectre

In common use, it called ghost. In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a seance. 

The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices; funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic are specifically designed to appease the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of phantom armies; ghost trains, phantom ships, and even ghost animals have also been recounted.

Ixcacao

The story of the Goddess of Chocolate is a long and complicated one. She was worshipped as a fertility goddess, with different names and different roles, in the ancient cultures of Meso-America.

Mayan name, Ixcacao. (By the way, the suffix Ix- in a name makes it clear that it is the name of a female. It literally means "little one". So her name translates into English as "Cocoa Woman") She featured in the creation myths of the Mayans, introducing agriculture to the people and helping insure the birth of the Sacred Twins. Initially she was an  an earth goddess in a matriarchal society where tending the crops was woman's work. Banishing hunger and providing for the safety and security of the people was her divine responsibility. Though she seldom made a public appearance in the myths, Ixcacao, the Mayan Goddess of Chocolate, had been loved by the common folk as a compassionate goddess of abundance.

But that was soon to change!

The patriarchy had begun. At first it was a golden age. Kings and dynasties appeared. A ruling class was born.

Astronomy flourished, as did the arts; writing (glyphs) began to appear on the magnificent monuments, palaces and temples of the kings and many of the nobility. Large cities were established and populated with wealthy people.

Pulutus

Ploutos (Wealth), usually Romanized as Plutus, was the god of wealth in ancient greek religion and myth. 

In the philosophized mythology of the later Classical period, Plutus is envisaged by Aristophanes as blinded by Zeus, so that he would be able to dispense his gifts without prejudice; he is also lame, as he takes his time arriving, and winged, so he leaves faster than he came. When the god's sight is restored, in Aristophanes comedy, he is then able to determine who is deserving of wealth, creating havoc.

Among the Eleusinian figures painted on Greek ceramics, Plutus, whether a boy child or a youthful ephebe (young men of training age), is recognized by the cornucopia, or horn of plenty, that he bears. In later, allegorical bas-reliefs, Plutus is a boy in the arms of Eirene, as Prosperity is the gift of "Peace", or in the arms of Tyche, the Fortune of Cities.

In Lucian of Samosata's satirical dialogue Timon, Ploutus, the very embodiment of worldly goods written up in a parchment will, says to Hermes:

"it is not Zeus who sends me, but Pluto, who has his own ways of conferring wealth and making presents; Pluto and Plutus are not unconnected, you see. When I am to flit from one house to another, they lay me on parchment, seal me up carefully, make a parcel of me and take me round. The dead man lies in some dark corner, shrouded from the knees upward in an old sheet, with the cats fighting for possession of him, while those who have expectations wait for me in the public place, gaping as wide as young swallows that scream for their mother's return."

In Canto VII of Dante's Divine Comedy poem Inferno, Plutus (Pluto in the original Italian) is a wolf-like demon of wealth which guards the fourth circle of the Inferno, the Hoarders and the Wasters. Dante almost certainly conflated Plutus with Pluto, the Roman god of the Underworld.

Shojo

A shōjō (heavy drinker or orangutan) is a kind of Japanese sea spirit with red face and hair and a fondness for alcohol. The legend is the subject of a Noh play of the same name. There is a Noh mask for this character, as well as a type of Kabuki stage makeup, that bear the name. The Chinese characters are also a Japanese (and Chinese) word for orangutan, and can also be used in Japanese to refer to someone who is particularly fond of alcohol.

There is a tale involving the shōjō and white sake. There was a gravely sick man whose dying wish was to drink sake. His son searched for it near Mount Fuji and came across the red shōjō, who were having a drinking party on the beach. The shōjō gave him some sake after listening to his plea. Since the sake revived the dying father, the son went back to the spirit to get more sake each day for five days. A greedy neighbor who also wanted the sake became sick after drinking it. He forced the son to take him to the shōjō to get the good sake. The shōjō explained that as his heart wasn't pure, the sacred sake would not have life-restoring benefits, but instead had poisoned the neighbor. The neighbor repented, and the shōjō gave him some medicine to cure him. The father and the neighbor brewed white sake together

Harmonia

In Greek mythology, Harmonia is the immortal goddess of harmony and concord. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia, and her Greek opposite is Eris, whose Roman counterpart is Discordia.

According to myth, she is the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite; another myth says, Harmonia was from Samothrace and was the daughter of Zeus and Electra, her brother lasion being the founder of the mystic rites celebrated on the island. Finally, Harmonia is rationalized as closely allied to Aphrodite Pandemos, the love that unites all people, the personification of order and civic unity, corresponding to the Roman goddess Concordia.

Chronos

Chronos ("time," also transliterated as Khronos or Latinized as Chronus) is the personification of Time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature.

Chronos was imagined as a god, serpentine in form, with three heads—those of a man, a bull, and a lion. He and his consort, serpentine Ananke (Inevitability), circled the primal word egg in their coils and split it apart to form the ordered universe of earth, sea and sky. He is not to be confused with the Titan Cronus.

He was depicted in Greco-Roman mosaics as a man turning the Zodiac Wheel. Chronos, however, might also be contrasted with the deity Aion as Eternal Time.

Chronos is usually portrayed through an old, wise man with a long, grey beard, such as "Father Time". Some of the current English words whose etymological root is khronos/chronos include chronology, chronometer, chronic, anachronism and chronicle.

Vetala

A vetala (Sanskrit vetāla) is a ghost-like being from Hindu mythology. The vetala are defined as spirits inhabiting corpses and charnel grounds. These corpses may be used as vehicles for movement (as they no longer decay while so inhabited); but a vetala may also leave the body at will.

In Hindu folklore, the vetala is an evil spirit who haunts cemeteries and takes demonic possesion of corpses. They make their displeasure known by troubling humans. They can drive people mad, kill children, and cause miscarriages, but also guard villages.

They are hostile spirits of the dead trapped in the 'twilight zone' between life and afterlife. These creatures can be repelled by the chanting of holy mantras. One can free them from their ghostly existence by performing their funerary rites. Being unaffected by the laws of space and time, they have an uncanny knowledge about the past, present, and future and a deep insight into human nature. Therefore many sorcerers seek to capture them and turn them into slaves.

Osiris

Osiris (Asar, Asari, Aser, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, Usire or Ausare) was an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and holding a symbolic crook and flail.

Osiris was at times considered the oldest son of the Earth god Geb, and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son. He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, which means "Foremost of the Westerners" — a reference to his kingship in the land of the dead. As ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called "king of the living", since the Ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead "the living ones".

Osiris is first attested in the middle of the Fifth dnasty of Egypt, although it is likely that he was worshipped much earlier; the term Khenti-Amentiu dates to at least the first dynasty, also as a pharaonic title. Most information we have on the myths of Osiris is derived from allusions contained in the Pyramid Texts at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and the Contending of Horus and Seth, and much later, in narrative style from the writings of Greek authors including Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus.

Osiris was considered not only a merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River. He was described as the "Lord of love", "He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful" and the "Lord of Silence". The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death — as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, if they incurred the costs of the assimilation rituals.

Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature, in particular vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile, through his links with Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year. Osiris was widely worshiped as Lord of the Dead until the suppression of the Egyptian religion during the Christian era.

Kitsune

Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; in English, kitsune refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume human form. While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others—as foxes in folklore often do—other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives.

Foxes and human beings lived close together in ancient Japan; this companionship gave rise to legends about the creatures. Kitsune have become closely associated with Inari, a Shinto kami or spirit, and serve as its messengers. This role has reinforced the fox's supernatural significance. The more tails a kitsune has—they may have as many as nine—the older, wiser, and more powerful it is. Because of their potential power and influence, some people make offerings to them as to a deity.

Leviathan

Leviathan, is a sea monster referred to in the Bible. In Demonology, the Leviathan is one of the seven princess of Hell and its gatekeeper. The word has become synonymous with any large sea monster or creature. In literature it refers to great whales, and in Modern Hebrew, it means simply "whale."


Later Jewish sources describe Leviathan as a dragon who lives over the Sources of the Deep and who, along with the male land-monster Behemoth, will be served up to the righteous at the end of time.

Sea serpents feature prominently in the mythology of the Ancient Near East, attested as early as the 3rd millennium BCE in Sumerian conography depicting the myth of the god Ninurta overcoming the seven headed serpent. Examples of the storm god vs. sea serpent trope in the Ancient Near East can be seen with Ba'al vs. Yam (Canaanite), Marduk vs. Tiamt (Babylonian) and Atum vs. Nehebkau (Egyptian) among others, with attestations as early as the 2nd millennium as seen on Syrian seals.

Phoenix

The phoenix, or phenix, is a mythical sacred fire bird that can be found in the mythologies of the Arabian, Persian, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, Indians and Canaanites.

It is described as a bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends. It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (literally "sun-city" in Greek). It is said that the bird's cry is that of a beautiful song. The Phoenix's ability to be reborn from its own ashes implies that it is immortal, though in some stories the new Phoenix is merely the offspring of the older one. In very few stories they are able to change into people.

Atropos

Atropos or Aisa, in Greek mythology, was one of the three Moirai, goddesses of fate and destiny. Her Roman equivalent was Morta.

Atropos or Aisa was the oldest of the Three Fates, and was known as the "inflexible" or "inevitable." It was Atropos who chose the mechanism of death and ended the life of each mortal by cutting their thread with her "abhorred shears." She worked along with her two sisters, Clotho, who spun the thread, and Lachesis, who measured the length.

Her origin, along with the other two fates, is uncertain, although some called them the daughters of the night. It is clear, however, that at a certain period they ceased to be only concerned with death and also became those powers who decided what may happen to individuals. Although Zeus was the chief Greek god and their father, he was still subject to the decisions of the Fates, and thus the executor of destiny, rather than its source. According to Hesiod's Theogony, Atropos and her sisters (Clotho and Lachesis) were the daughters of Nyx(Night), though later in the same work (ll. 901-906) they are said to have been born of Zeus and Themis.

Arachne

In Greco-Roman mythology, Arachne was a great mortal weaver who boasted that her skill was greater than that of Athena, goddess of wisdom and strategy. Arachne refused to acknowledge that her knowledge came, in part at least, from the goddess. Offended by Arachne's arrogance, Athena set a contest between the two weavers. According to Ovid, the goddess was so envious of the magnificent tapestry and the mortal weaver's success, and perhaps offended by the girl's choice of subjects (the loves and transgressions of the gods), that she destroyed the tapestry and loom and slashed the girl's face. “Not even Pallas nor blue-fevered Envy \ Could damn Arachne's work. \ The brown haired goddess Raged at the girl's success, struck through her loom, Tore down the scenes of wayward joys in heaven.″ Ultimately, the goddess turned Arachne into a spider. Arachne simply means "spider" in Greek.

Dragon

A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that features in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and which is ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern mythologies, and the Chinese dragon with counterparts in Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries.

The two traditions may have evolved separately, but have influenced each to a certain extent, particularly with the cross-cultural contact of recent centuries. The English word "dragon" derives from Greek "drákōn", "dragon, serpent of huge size, water-snake", which probably comes from the verb "drakeîn"; "to see clearly".

Leprechaun

A leprechaun (Irish: leipreachán) is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief. Like other fairy creatures, leprechauns have been linked to the Tuatha De Danann (race of people) of Irish mythology. The leprechauns spend all their time busily making shoes, and store away all their coins in a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If ever captured by a human, the leprechaun has the magical power to grant three wishes in exchange for their release. Popular depiction shows the leprechaun as being no taller than a small child with a beard and hat, although they may originally have been perceived as the tallest of the mound-dwellers (the Tuatha Dé Danann).

Veritas

In Roman mythology, Veritas, meaning truth, was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn and the mother of Virtue. It was believed that she hid in the bottom of a holy well because she was so elusive. Her image is shown as a young virgin dressed in white. Veritas is also the name given to the Roman virtue of truthfulness, which was considered one of the main virtues any good Roman should possess. In Greek mythology, Veritas was known as Alethia.

This Latin word "veritas" now appears in the mottos of many colleges and universities. It is typically capitalized in mottos (as "Veritas") for being an ideal (such as: Truth, Kindness and Beauty). There is a private university of art and architecture in Costa Rica called "Universidad Veritas". Veritas is the motto of Harvard University, Providence College, Knox College (Illinois), Bilkent University (Ankara), the University of California - Hastings College of the Law, Drake University and the Scotland independent school Fettes College, as well as the Dominican Order of the Roman Catholic Church and Providence College, which is run by the Dominicans. Caldwell College in Caldwell, New Jersey issues a "Veritas Award" each year in honor of the Dominican Sisters who founded and administer the college. "Veritas" is included in the motto of Indiana University and Yale University, Lux et Veritas (Light and Truth). It also appears on the California State University's motto Vox Veritas Vita (Speak the Truth as a way of Life). "Veritas vos liberabit" ("The Truth Will Set You Free") is the motto of The Johns Hopkins University. Veritas Curat ("Truth Cures") is the motto of the Jawaharhal Institude of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, a prominent medical school in Pondicherry, India. Howard University in Washington DC, goes by the motto "Veritas et Utilitas", translated to "Truth and Service".

Okami

In folklore, the wolf was associated with the mountains (yama) and was thought to be both benevolent and malevolent. An anonymous Japanese said that "[no animal] is as frightening as [the wolf] is. It is quick and agile, and Yanagita Kunio, the father of Japanese folklore studies, said that "the wolf can hide even where there is only a single reed". In Edo period Japan, the word yama-inu became slang for a rabid dog.

On the other hand, the wolf has a benevolent side as well. At night when travelers are lost in the mountains, the wolf at times will escort them to the doors of their homes. In such capacity, these wolves are known as okuri-ôkami "sending wolf". In some stories of okuri-ôkami, the wolf is never seen, but its presence is known by the constant chirping of a sparrow at the traveler's side. However, the wolf was also said to turn on some travelers as soon as its home was reached, and also that the wolf could judge between the good or bad and would maul the latter if it came upon them in the mountains.

The wolf has largely been seen by peasants as a benevolent animal, and there are many village rites that involve or respond to the wolf. In contrast to the wolf's historical persecution in the West as an evil animal, in Japan if one kills a wolf for whatever reason, that man and his family had reason to fear divine retribution. Also, in certain villages it was a custom to make an offering of sekihan (red rice, used mainly in festivals and rites) whenever a wolf cub was born; and wolves were sometimes known to make return offerings of meat when a village woman gave birth. Wolves also were said to leave certain kills as a gift for the village, though if the villagers did not leave it a portion of the meat as a return gift, the wolf would grow angry. The reason the wolf was so highly regarded is that it was a protector of the rice field against boars, deer, and hares.

In this capacity as a rice field protector, it is associated with the fox "kitsune". In fact, the wolf was thought to be the divine messenger of the mountain deity (yama no kami), just as the fox was the messenger of the rice field deity (ta no kami). Farmers all over Japan have traditionally thought that in the winter, after the harvest, the rice field deity acends to the mountain and becomes the mountain deity giving rise to the idea that the fox and wolf are seasonal permutations of each other.

The contradicting, equally benign and perilous natures of the wolf are characteristic of some animals in Japanese folklore. The wolf is a guardian when it is properly attended to and cared for, but can develop a grudge toward mankind if slighted or mistreated. Thus, as a moral judge, the wolf's actions mirror humanity's own. As John Knight says, "Japanese wolf lore tells not of good or bad wolves but of good or bad people." 

Lamia

In ancient Greek mythology, Lamia was a beautiful queen of Libya who became a child-eating daemon. Aristophanes claimed her name derived from the Greek word for gullet, referring to her habit of devouring children.

Some accounts say she has a serpent's tail below the waist. This popular description of her is largely due to Lamia, a poem by John Keats published in 1819. Antonius Liberali suses Lamia as an alternate name for the serpentine drakana Sybaris; however, Diodorus Siculus describes her as having nothing more than a distorted face.

Later traditions referred to many lamiae; these were folkloric monsters similar to vampires and succubi that seduced young men and then fed on their blood.

Valhalla

In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those who die in combat travel to Valhalla upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Frejya's field Folkvangr. In Valhalla, the dead join the masses of those who have died in combat known as Einherjar, as well as various legendary Germanic heroes and kings, as they prepare to aid Odin during the events of Ragnarök. Before the hall stands the golden tree Glasir, and the hall's ceiling is thatched with golden shields. Various creatures live around Valhalla, such as the stag Eikpyrnir and the goat Heiqrun, both described as standing atop Valhalla and consuming the foliage of the tree Laeraor.

Valhalla is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturlusan, Heimskringla, also written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in stanzas of an anonymous 10th century poem commemorating the death of a Eric Bloodaxw known as Eiriksmal as compiled in Fagrskinna. Valhalla has inspired various works of art, publication titles, popular culture references, and has become a term synonymous with a martial (or otherwise) hall of the chosen dead.

Jörmungandr

In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr, often written Jormungand, or Jörmungand and also known as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent, is a sea serpent, the middle child of the giantess Angrboğa and the god Loki. According to the Prose Edda, Odin took Loki's three children by Angrboða, the wolf Fenrir, Hel and Jörmungandr, and tossed Jörmungandr into the great ocean that encircles Midgard. The serpent grew so large that he was able to surround the earth and grasp his own tail. As a result, he received the name of the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent. When he lets go, the world will end. Jörmungandr's arch-enemy is the god Thor.

Zao Shen

In Chinese folk religion and Chinese mythology, the Kitchen god, named Zao Jun or Zao Shen, is the most important of a plethora of Chinese domestic gods that protect the hearth and family with the addition of being celebrated in Vietnamese culture as well.

It is believed that on the twenty third day of the twelfth lunar month, just before Chinese New Year he returns to Heaven to report the activities of every household over the past year to the Jade Emperor (Yu Huang). The Jade Emperor, emperor of the heavens, either rewards or punishes a family based on Zao Jun's yearly report.

Odin

Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Old English "Wöden" and the Old High German "Wôdan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz". "Odin" is generally accepted as the modern English form of the name, although, in some cases, older forms may be used or preferred. His name is related to ödr, meaning "fury, excitation," besides "mind," or "poetry." His role, like that of many of the Norse gods, is complex. Odin is a principal member of the AEsir (the major group of the Norse pantheon) and is associated with war, battle, victory and death, but also wisdom, magic, poetry, prophecy and the hunt. Odin has many sons, the most famous of whom is Thor.

Ganesh

Ganesha, also spelled Ganesa or Ganesh, also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the deities best-known and most widely worshipped in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhist and beyond India.

Although he is known by many other attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him particularly easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles, patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom. He is honoured at the beginning of rituals and ceremonies and invoked as Patron of Letters during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.

Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in clearly recognizable form in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. His popularity rose quickly, and he was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity, arose during this period. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.

Baldur

Baldr (also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Norse mythology.

In the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story. Compiled in Iceland in the 13th century, but based on much older Old Norse poetry, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda contain numerous references to the death of Baldr.

His death is seen as the first in the chain of events which will ultimately lead to the destruction of the gods at Ragnarok. Baldr will be reborn in the new world. 

He had a dream of his own death and his mother had the same dreams. Since dreams were usually prophetic, this depressed him, so his mother Frigg made every object on earth vow never to hurt Baldr. All objects made this vow except mistletoe. Frigg had thought it too unimportant and nonthreatening to bother asking it to make the vow (alternatively, it seemed too young to swear).

When Loki, the mischief-maker, heard of this, he made a magical spear from this plant (in some later versions, an arrow). He hurried to the place where the gods were indulging in their new pastime of hurling objects at Baldr, which would bounce off without harming him. Loki gave the spear to Baldr's brother, the blind god Höor, who then inadvertently killed his brother with it (other versions suggest that Loki guided the arrow himself).

Baron Samedi

Baron Samedi (Baron Saturday, also Baron Samdi, Bawon Samedi, or Bawon Sanmdi) is one of the Loa (spirits of voodoo) of Haitian Voodoo. Samedi is a Loa of the dead, along with Baron's numerous other incarnations Baron Cimetiere, Baron La Croix and Baron Kriminel. He is the head of the Guede family of Loa, or an aspect of them, or possibly their spiritual father. 'Samedi' means 'Saturday' in French. His wife is the Loa Maman Brigitte.

He is usually depicted with a top hat, black tuxedo, dark glasses, and cotton plugs in the nostrils, as if to resemble a corpse dressed and prepared for burial in the Haitian style. He has a white, frequently skull-like face (or actually has a skull for a face) and speaks in a nasal voice.

He is a sexual Loa, frequently represented by phallic symbols and is noted for disruption, obscenity, debauchery, and having a particular fondness for tobacco and rum. Additionally, he is the Loa of sex and resurrection and in the latter capacity he is often called upon for healing by those near or approaching death, as it is only Baron who can accept an individual into the realm of the dead.

Baron Samedi spends most of his time in the invisible realm of voodoo spirits. He is notorious for his outrageous behavior, swearing continuously and making filthy jokes to the other spirits. He is married to another powerful spirit known as Maman Brigitte, but often chases after mortal women. He loves smoking and drinking and is rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth or a glass of rum in his bony fingers. Baron Samedi can usually be found at the crossroad between the worlds of the living and the dead. When someone dies he digs their grave and greets their soul after they have been buried, leading them to the underworld.

Kali

Kālī,  also known as Kālikā , is the Hindu goddest associated with empowerment, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kala (the eternal time) Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" (as in time has come). Hence, Kāli is considered to be the goddess of time and change. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation still has some influence. Various Shakta Hindu cosmologies, as well as Shākta Tantric beliefs, worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. She is also revered as Bhavatārini (literally "redeemer of the universe"). Comparatively recent devotional movements largely conceive Kāli as a benevolent mother goddess.

Kālī is represented as the consort of Lord Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing. She is associated with many other Hindu goddesses like Durga, Bhadrakali, Sati, Rudrani, Parvati and Chamunda. She is the foremost among the Dasa Mahavidyas, ten fierce Tantric goddesses.