Ancient Monsters in Modern Science

Abstract The monsters of ancient myth made their way into modern science principally through the method of taxonomic nomenclature developed by Linnaeus as part of his biological classification system, but also via general surviving knowledge of and interest in the ancient stories. This chapter, focusing mainly on the natural and applied sciences, discusses how and why these mythical monsters remain relevant. Examples from astronomy, various biological sciences (e.g. botany, entomology, herpetology, genetics), and computer science, demonstrate how scholarship in STEM fields frequently draws upon the monsters of classical and other mythologies, drawing connections between current living organisms or inventions and the monsters’ unusual physical features, odd behaviours, and even their geological habitats. Appreciation of ancient myth is not limited to students of the humanities.