This story contains spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods now playing in theaters.
DC's version of Captain Marvel always had roots in classic mythology, with his name and powers derived from various Greek gods and heroes. It's no surprise, then, that Shazam! Fury of the Gods uses mythological figures whom Billy Batson and his friends encounter. That includes everyone from the villainous Hesperides -- the three daughters of Atlas who serve as the film's antagonists -- to a late-inning cameo from Wonder Woman herself.
But that also includes a collection of CGI monsters who arise from The Tree of Life planted in the middle of Philadelphia. They run amuck as the Daughters try to establish their reign on Earth before the Shazamily push them down in the film's big climax. A comprehensive list of each one is included below in the order they appear in the film, along with a brief discussion of their mythic roots and how Fury of the Gods reflects them.
Ladon the Dragon Is Tied to the Atlas Myth
Of all the creatures in Fury of the Gods, Ladon is the closest to the Atlas myth, where the three Hesperides originated. He's a serpent, guarding The Tree of Life at the end of the world and the golden apples that grow from it. Heracles slays Ladon as part of his Twelve Labors and retrieves the golden apples in the process. Fury of the Gods depicts the dragon as a creature made of living wood with a glowing white mouth that creates blind fear in any mortal who sees it. Shazam himself dispatches it during the movie's climax.
The Chimera Is a Monster Composed of Three Separate Creatures
The chimera is the first creature to pop out of The Tree of Life's sinister seed pods in the movie. Traditionally, the creature is composed of three different creatures. The Iliad by Homer gives it the body and face of a lion, with a tail comprising a living serpent and the head of a fire-breathing goat rising from its middle. The hero Bellerophon slew it while riding the winged Pegasus by forcing a piece of lead into the back of the monster's throat with his spear. The lead melted and choked the monster to death. Fury of the Gods gives the chimera a more naturalistic look, with just one head combining the features of a lion and a crocodile along with a scorpion's tail and bat-like wings.
The Harpies Traditionally Torment Victims of the Gods
Harpies are winged creatures comprised of equal parts vultures and human women. They often serve to torment and vex humans who had angered the gods. The most notable example is Phineas, who was punished for misusing the power of prophecy. Every day he was served a banquet of food, and every day, the harpies would come and despoil it. He was rescued by Jason and the Argonauts on their quest for the golden fleece. Fury of the Gods depict them as bird-like women who drop one of their victims from a great height. Their design is loosely based on the classic Ray Harryhausen design from the 1963 movie Jason and the Argonauts.
The Minotaur Is a Well-Known Mythological Monster
The minotaur is famously connected to the island of Crete, whose mythic ruler Minos gives the monster its name. It was the cursed child of Minos's queen: born with the head of a bull and the body of a man. Minos kept it in an inescapable labyrinth beneath his palace: sending human sacrifices into the maze for the creature to hunt down and kill. The hero Theseus eventually enters the labyrinth and slays the creature. Fury of the Gods sticks reasonably close to the myth: depicting the minotaur as a perpetually angry, anthropomorphic bull-man with an imposing set of horns.
The Cyclops Riffs on a Fantasy Movie Classic
Cyclopes are normally presented as one-eyed giants, though like a number of monsters on this list, their temperament varies depending on the myth in which they appear. Hesiod's Theogony mentions three cyclops brothers, who assist the god Hephaestus in forging the thunderbolts of Zeus. Homer's Odyssey paints them in a far more menacing light: as primordial cannibals who devoured any humans they could get their hands on. The story's hero, Odysseus, escapes one by putting his eye out. Fury of the Gods' cyclops is another reference to Harryhausen: emulating the one-horned version that appeared in 1958's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
Unicorns Are Only Loosely Connected to Greek Myth
With the exception of Ladon, the film's other monsters are destroyed by a herd of black unicorns, which the Shazamily rides into battle. Fury of the Gods reimagines the creatures as black and menacing: the one monster that other monsters fear. The Greeks didn't use unicorns in their mythology, though evidence suggests that they believed single-horned horses existed in the real world. Modern audiences tend to associate the creatures with later European mythology and fairy tales, which used unicorns as symbols of purity. Supposedly, only a virgin could ride one, which often explains their association with children and young maidens. The movie nods to that by letting fourteen-year-old Darla tame them with a handful of Skittles in her pocket.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now playing in theaters.