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brutal warrior who wears animal skins in battle and is the likely origin of the werewolf legend.
    Wolves, although not necessarily werewolves, figure prominently in Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and in Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. Werewolves have also been routinely celebrated in Hollywood, including 1985’s Teen Wolf (in which the werewolf character is played by Michael J. Fox), 1994’s Wolf (starring Jack Nicholson in the werewolf role), and three werewolf movies in 1981: The Howling; Wolfen; and An American Werewolf in London.
Winged Horse
    Wizards view winged horses as a transportation boon, as they can guide flying carriages and, for long trips, even be ridden bareback. As with Hippogriffs, winged horses must be concealed through regular applications of a Disillusionment Charm, which allows them to blend into their environment.
    Many breeds of winged horses exist in the wizarding world, but two stand out:
    • Thestral: In the wizarding world, Thestrals are great black horses with leathery wings and only skeletal bodies, who feast on dead cows and can be seen only by people who have seen death. A Thestral is also a term from sixteenth-century British mythology for horses that were believed by some to be demonic and by others to be quite practical. One tale links the Thestral to the winged horse Pegasus, from Greek mythology, as a brother.
    • Abraxan: These golden giant palominos can, in groups of a dozen horses, pull a carriage the size of a house. The horses have enormous heads and large red eyes, and they drink only single-malt whiskey.

Creatures from Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman Traditions
    The creatures in this section have a classical pedigree: they all emanate from the mythologies of Mesopotamia, Egypt, ancient Greece, or ancient Rome. A few creatures simultaneously originated in other areas of the world as well, but they’re listed in this section because their influence on classical mythology was significant.
Basilisk
    According to legend (from which Rowling clearly drew inspiration), a basilisk is a frightening snakelike creature; the name comes from the Greek word basilískos, meaning “little king,” because a white spot on this creature’s head looked like a small crown. One breath or look from this mythical reptile (born, oddly enough, from a cock’s egg) means instant death. A basilisk is very similar in description to a mythical cockatrice, which can be killed only by the sound of a crowing cock.
    The wizarding world’s Basilisk has a few variations from its Greek counterpart in that it is born from a chicken’s egg, and that egg must be kept under a toad until it hatches. It, too, has a deadly look that leads to instant death and it, too, can be killed by a rooster’s crow, although it will live for hundreds of years if it doesn’t hear that sound. (Clearly, Basilisks are city dwellers.) The wizard version of a Basilisk also has poisonous fangs, which seem unnecessary, given that one look instantly kills an approaching enemy.
Centaur
    Creatures dating back to Greek mythology, centaurs have the upper bodies of men and the lower bodies of horses, and were thought to be wild, hard-drinking, and cruel.
    MAGIC TALE
    Chiron is perhaps the most well known centaur; a skilled physician and wise counselor to Greek mythological heroes— Achilles, Asclepius, and Heracles, among them. He was thought to be the son of Cronus, a god, and Philyra, a sea nymph.
    Conversely, in the wizarding world, centaurs are wise fortunetellers who understand the art of divination much better than most humans do. They are, however, aggressive and fiercely protective of their freedom, a result of having watched humans domesticate horses and fearing the same will be in store for them. Like horses, they vary greatly in size, color, and markings.
Chimaera
    From the Greek chímaira, meaning young female goat, in Greek mythology, a creature named Chimaera is part lion (her front parts), part