Monsters are the physical embodiment of fear. Monsters are physical embodiments for a wide variety of reasons. The most important is: the apparent invulnerability/incredible strength of monsters, they represent the bad part of society, most of the time they look ugly, they represent evil/nightmares themselves, they are intelligent and some deviate from the norms are the reasons why monsters are the physical embodiment of Fear. The incredible characteristics of monsters are what strike fear into the hearts of others. In many myths, monsters represent a weakness for societies. For example, the heroes of Rome fight these monsters to overcome them, which is the community's symbolic overcoming of weakness. The fear represented by monsters is primarily human fear since monsters are generally on good terms with animals and human fear is much deeper than animal fear. A monster's apparent invulnerability/incredible strength is what instills fear in its opponents. Examples of this can be seen in numerous sources. One such example is “Eurytheus first commanded Heracles to bring him the skin of the Nemean lion. Heracles knew that the beast could not be harmed by stone or bronze, so he would have to devise another way to kill it. When he encountered the lion he learned that even his arrows and huge wooden club were useless. The lion responded to Heracles' attack by retreating into a cave that had two exits." (Rosenberg 101). This quote shows the incredible strength that the beast possesses which allows it to free itself from death with normal weapons. Many amateur heroes retreat when their trusted weapons fail. This fear was ultimately caused by the monster's toughness. Another powerful example is the fact that some monsters born of the gods might prove more formidable than... middle of paper...urs. According to Edith Hamilton, “Because the union of a horse and a human was not degrading, the 'Centaur' is the only one of the imagined monsters of antiquity to which positive characteristics were assigned.” Another example is that some monsters are not free from human emotions. A monster who exemplifies this is Polyphemus who dearly loved the sea nymph Galatea. Monsters are a representation of fear and are like nightmares. This is because many of the qualities of monsters inspire fear, so they are a representation of fear itself. Monsters are like nightmares: those who have the nightmare always wake up before the end, symbolizing the victory of good over evil. This is why monsters symbolize evil as well as fear. This was the case with Heracles and the snakes. Danger was also lurking, little Heracles woke up before tragedy could strike and reacted to the tragedy.