Mythology

Zlydnya

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Tradition: Belarusian Mythology
Alternative names: Zlydnya
Category: Demon

The Myth

Zlydnya is a malevolent supernatural being appearing as an invisible woman without a tongue, eyes, or ears. She was once a snake, which was transformed into Zlydnya after a violent encounter with Lucifer.

The snake wrapped itself around its neck in a swamp and began to bite. During the struggle, Lucifer pulled the snake out and struck it with a saber. The snake then became Zlydnya.

Zlydnya has a particular love of soul-damning substances and keeps various abominations in a pot. She distributes these abominations among people, bringing them harm.

Sources

“Zlydnya.” New Bestiary (Bestiary.us). Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.bestiary.us/Zlydnya

Bietebauw

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Tradition: Belgian Mythology
Alternative names: Bitebau, Budde
Category: Demon

The Myth

The Bietebauw is a frightening supernatural being from Flemish folklore, appearing as a boogeyman, devil-like creature, or ghost. In one recorded account from a 1595 witchcraft trial in Den Bosch, it is described as a black, crawling animal with no head and no tail.

In other traditions, the Bietebauw appears as a ghost in human form. People who were born with the caul were believed to be able to see it, while others could not. When it appeared to them, it could reveal a supernatural warning or prediction of something that was about to happen.

The Bietebauw was also used as a child-frightening figure, with Flemish traditions invoking it as a creature that would come from the black mountains and seize naughty children. In some older contexts it was associated with a devil or malevolent supernatural being.

Sources

“Van aardmannetje tot zwarte juffer: Een lijst van Nederlandse en Vlaamse elfen en geesten.” Abe de Verteller. Accessed August 29, 2026. https://abedeverteller.nl/van-aardmannetje-tot-zwarte-juffer-een-lijst-van-nederlandse-en-vlaamse-elfen-en-geesten/

Gagoze

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative names: Gagojin, Gagoji, Gangoji, Gangōji, Gagoze
Category: Demon

The Myth

Gagoze is a Japanese yokai associated with the ancient Gangōji temple in Nara. In later yokai picture scrolls, it is depicted as an ogre-like figure with a cloth covering its head. These depictions are thought to have been inspired by the vengeful spirit said to have appeared in the temple’s bell tower.

During the reign of Emperor Bidatsu, a farmer from Katawa in Aichi District, Owari Province, encountered a small thunder deity that had fallen from the sky. After helping the deity return to heaven, the farmer was rewarded with a child.

The child was born with a snake wrapped around his head and grew into a person of extraordinary strength. He eventually became a temple servant at Gangōji.

At that time, a demon appeared every night in the temple’s bell tower and killed people. The exceptionally strong youth volunteered to defeat it. At midnight, he confronted the demon and fought with it. The demon eventually escaped, but the youth succeeded in tearing out some of its hair.

The following day, the monks followed the trail of blood left by the fleeing demon. It led them to a place where people who had committed evil deeds at the temple had been buried. The demon was therefore revealed to be the vengeful spirit of a wicked person who had died.

The demon’s hair was preserved at Gangōji as a temple treasure. The youth later became known as Dōjō Hōshi and became a Buddhist monk.

The names Gagoze, Gagoji, Gagojin, and Gangoji later became associated with words for monsters or bogeymen in children’s speech. During the Edo period, these names were understood as corruptions of Gangōji and were connected with the legend of the temple’s demon.

Sources

Takahashi, Toshihiro. “元興寺 [がごぜ] (Gagoze).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). December 6, 2010. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010653554.html

Abak

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Tradition: Mandaya Mythology, Philippine Mythology
Alternative names: Abak, Abaka
Category: Demon

The Myth

Abacus is an evil demonic spirit in the folklore of the Mandaya people of Mindanao in the Philippines. The name Abak is given as a Latin spelling of Abaka, the name of the evil spirit in Mandaya folklore.

The figure is also recorded as the proper name of one of the deities of the Bagobo people. The surviving description identifies Abacus primarily as a malevolent supernatural spirit, but provides no further details about its appearance, behavior, or associated legends.

Sources

“Abak.” New Bestiary (Bestiary.us). Accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.bestiary.us/abak

Tilla And Šerišu

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Tradition: Hurrian mythology, Syrian Mythology
Alternative names: Tilla, Šerišu; dtil-la, gudti-el-la
Category: Cow, Deity

The Myth

Tilla was a Hurrian god who was associated with the form of a bull. He is best known from texts discovered at Nuzi and was worshipped particularly in the kingdom of Arrapha in northern Mesopotamia. His principal cult center was Ulamme, where he appears to have been the chief deity.

The clearest description of Tilla as a bull occurs in the Song of Ullikummi, part of the mythological cycle surrounding the god Kumarbi. Tilla was one of two divine bulls who pulled the chariot of Teshub, the Hurrian weather god. The other was Šerišu. Before Teshub went into battle against Ullikummi, a gigantic stone being, Teshub ordered that Tilla’s tail be covered with gold.

Tilla and Šerišu were therefore not ordinary cattle, but powerful divine bulls belonging to the entourage of Teshub. Their presence reflects the important connection between bulls and weather gods found throughout the ancient Near East, although the precise origins of this association remain uncertain.

Tilla’s relationship with Teshub may, however, have developed over time. Texts from Nuzi sometimes treat Tilla as an independent deity rather than simply as Teshub’s divine draft animal. Other sources also pair Šerišu with a different bull deity, Hurriš. Scholars have consequently suggested that Tilla, Šerišu, Hurriš and Šarruma belonged to a broader group of bull deities connected with Teshub.

Tilla was widely worshipped in Arrapha and was particularly prominent at Nuzi. He appears frequently in Hurrian theophoric names, including names expressing ideas such as “Tilla helps,” “Tilla frees,” and “Tilla is reliable.” An entu priestess associated with his cult is also attested.

The surviving evidence therefore presents Tilla as a powerful divine bull whose importance extended beyond his role as one of Teshub’s chariot animals. His cult, personal names and association with the weather-god tradition show that the bull could represent an important manifestation of divine power in Hurrian religion.

Sources

Vonbun, Franz Josef. “Die schwarze Kuh.” In Die Sagen Vorarlbergs. Mit Beiträgen aus Liechtenstein, no. 183, p. 141. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. Accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/oesterreich/vorarlberg/montavon/schwarzekuh.html

Tarbh Uirge

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Tradition: Scottish Mythology
Alternative names: Tarbh Uirge
Category: Cow

The Myth

The Tarbh Uirge was a supernatural creature associated with small, lonely moorland lochs. Unlike the Water-horse, it was considered harmless and did not harm people who approached its haunts.

The creature normally remained in the lochs and emerged only at night. It could sometimes be heard lowing near the water before wandering among farmers’ cattle, although it was rarely seen.

Its presence was believed to explain a particular kind of unusual calf. Calves with abnormally short ears, as though the upper part had been cut away with a knife, were said to be the offspring of the Tarbh Uirge. Since the Tarbh Uirge itself was believed to have no ears, its calves supposedly inherited only half-sized ears. In Gaelic these calves were called Carc-chluasach, meaning “knife-eared.”

One account from the district of Lorn tells of a dairymaid and a herdsman who were preparing to leave a cattle fold in the evening. They suddenly saw a small, ugly, extremely black animal moving among the cattle. It had the shape of a bull, but its body was described as soft and slippery and its bellow was unnatural, sounding somewhat like the crowing of a cock.

Terrified, the two fled from the fold. When they returned the following morning, however, they found the cattle lying peacefully inside as though nothing unusual had happened.

The Tarbh Uirge was therefore a strange but essentially harmless creature of the Scottish lochs, associated particularly with nighttime appearances, unusual cattle, and an eerie supernatural bellow.

Sources

Campbell, John Gregorson. Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland: Collected Entirely from Oral Sources. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1900.

Schwarze Kuh

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Tradition: Austrian Mythology
Alternative names: The Black Cow
Category: Cow

The Myth

One evening, a shepherd from Montavon arrived late at the Latonz Alp to retrieve a black cow that had been left behind when the herd descended from the mountain. He put the cow in the stable and spent the night sleeping on a bunk in the alpine hut.

Around midnight, the alpine spirits, known as Bütze, entered the hut. They began cooking, boiling, and roasting in the room with an incredible din. The shepherd awoke and stared at them in confusion.

Suddenly, one of the spirits called to him to come down from his bunk. He was forced to leave his sleeping place and join them.

Then he noticed something horrifying. His black cow, standing outside in the stable, appeared to have an enormous hole in its body. The shepherd thought that the spirits had cut the flesh out of his cow and feared that they would have eaten the entire animal before dawn.

After their meal, the Bütze began playing music and dancing so violently that the alpine hut seemed almost to come apart. At the first light of dawn, the strange visitors departed.

The shepherd watched them leave and noticed a hide stretched across the doorway of the alpine hut. He believed that it was the hide of his black cow.

But when daylight had fully arrived, the hide had mysteriously disappeared. Outside, the black cow stood in the stable completely unharmed.

The terrifying events of the night had apparently been an illusion—or something supernatural that had left no lasting mark on the cow.

Sources

Vonbun, Franz Josef. “Die schwarze Kuh.” In Die Sagen Vorarlbergs. Mit Beiträgen aus Liechtenstein, no. 183, p. 141. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. Accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/oesterreich/vorarlberg/montavon/schwarzekuh.html

Svetna Krava

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Tradition: Slovenian Mythology
Alternative names: Svetna Krava, World-Supporting Bull
Category: Cow

The Myth

In Slovenian folk tradition, there is a saying that the world stands upon a bull. The belief was recorded in the nineteenth century by Davorin Trstenjak and published in Slovenski Glasnik in 1860. The tradition was presented as a surviving fragment of an older Slavic cosmogony.

According to the belief, the entire world rests upon the bull. Whenever the bull twitches its ear, the whole world shakes.

A closely related version was recorded among the Serbs by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić in his Serbian Dictionary of 1852. In this version, some people said that the world stood upon water, while others jokingly said that the world stood upon the bull, and that when the bull moved its ear, the world shook.

The tradition therefore places the bull in a cosmic role as the foundation supporting the entire world. The source also connects this conception with broader Indo-European traditions in which animals such as bulls, horses, cows, fish, snakes, whales, and turtles function as beings supporting or participating in the creation or structure of the cosmos.

The bull’s importance is particularly significant in the discussion of Slavic tradition because cattle were economically important to many Slavic peoples. The source also notes another South Slavic motif in which supernatural opponents transform into a black bull and a red bull, representing opposing forces such as good and evil or rival communities.

The exact ancient Slavic cosmology behind the belief is uncertain, but the Slovenian and Serbian records provide evidence that the image of a bull supporting the world survived in South Slavic folk tradition.

Sources

Kropej, Monika. Supernatural Beings from Slovenian Myth and Folktales. Ljubljana: Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2012.

Stiertratte

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Tradition: Austrian Mythology
Alternative names: –
Category: Cow

The Myth

In the Glödnitz Valley, near the place known as the “Bauer im Ort,” there is a location called the Stiertratte.

According to the legend, a group of arrogant miners once committed a cruel act against a living bull. They skinned the animal alive and drove it to Weitensfeld for people to see. They then spread the bull’s hide out at the location of the Stiertratte and played dice upon it.

As an eternal disgrace and punishment for their arrogance and cruelty, not a single blade of grass has grown at the place ever since.

The story therefore explains the existence of the barren patch of land known as the Stiertratte as a supernatural punishment for the miners’ mistreatment of the bull.

Sources

Rappold, J. “Die Stiertratte.” In Sagen aus Kärnten. Augsburg and Leipzig, 1887, no. 17, p. 23. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. Accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/oesterreich/kaernten/allgemein/stiertratte.html

Sarangay

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Tradition: Philippine mythology
Alternative names: Sarangay
Category: Cow

The Myth

The Sarangay is a creature from Philippine mythology described as a powerful hybrid resembling a minotaur. It has the body of a man combined with that of a male water buffalo.

The creature is said to possess a precious gemstone attached to its ears. The Sarangay guards these jewels fiercely, and anyone who attempts to steal them is said to be killed mercilessly.

When a Sarangay becomes enraged, smoke is said to pour from its nostrils, emphasizing its dangerous and supernatural nature.

When Spanish observers encountered accounts of the creature in the seventeenth century, they reportedly interpreted the description as resembling the Greek Minotaur.

Sources

“Sarangay.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed August 29, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarangay