It's Biting You Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cerberus

Cerberus is the multiple-headed guardian of Hades (his number of heads is usually given as three). He is the offspring of Echidna, a snake woman, and Typhon, a monstrous serpent who tried to overthrow Zeus, and his job is to guard the Underworld and prevent the dead from escaping. When Orpheus went there to rescue Eurydice, he managed to calm Cerberus down by singing to him. One of the Twelve Labours of Heracles involved him going to the Underworld to capture Cerberus. He managed to subdue the monstrous dog and took him to King Eurystheus, with the condition that he gave Cerberus back.

The lamia is a monster who eats babies, the gorgon is a woman with snakes for hair, and the chimaera is a fire-breathing beast with the head of a lion, a snake for a tail and a goat's head on its back.

Answer: Inugami

'Inuyasha' fans might like this one. 'Inugami' literally means 'dog spirit', and it possesses its victims, willingly or unwillingly. When the inugami enters the victim's body through the ear, the victim starts to bark like a dog and develops a voracious appetite. They also become very jealous, and when they die, their body is covered in bite marks. Animals and objects could also be possessed by inugami. One ritual for creating an inugami involved chopping off the head of a starving dog and burying the body at a crossroads.

A kitsune is a fox demon, a goryo is an angry ghost, and a shinigami is a death god.

Answer: Cadejo

The cadejo is a dog-like creature in Central American folklore, which can either be black or white. Although it can sometimes be the other way round, in Guatemala the black cadejo is usually evil, while the white one is usually good. Cadejos have goat-like hooves and smell of goats. The white cadejo protects people from harm, while the black cadejo manipulates people into making bad choices, and is even said to be the devil himself. The black cadejo is also capable of punching people and standing on two legs like a human. If the offspring of a black cadejo and a normal dog is killed, it rots quickly but leaves behind a stain which prevents anything from growing on that spot again. It is dangerous to turn your back on a cadejo, as doing so will drive you insane.

A nagual is a shapeshifter who can turn into animals such as puma or wolves, Sihuanaba is a woman with the face of a horse or skull, and an alux is a tiny sprite-like spirit.

Answer: Qiqirn

The qiqirn is from Inuit mythology, and is a dog spirit which is almost completely hairless, save for its feet, mouth and the tip of its tail. It stalks travellers and likes to scare men and dogs, but is also surprisingly skittish for a vicious creature, and can be frightened away by shouting its name. Seeing it is said to cause seizures. The Qiqirn race in the 'Final Fantasy' series partially resemble the Inuit beast, although they are more rat-like in appearance.

The qalupalik is a greenish creatures that lives in water, the tupilaq is a monster created by shamans to attack an enemy, and the ahkiyyini is a skeleton spirit which plays itself like a xylophone.

Answer: Gelert

Gelert is a legendary dog associated with the Welsh village of Beddgelert. The story goes that Gelert was given to Prince Llywelyn the Great by King John of England. Llywelyn went hunting, and came home to find his baby son's cradle overturned and his son missing, and to make matters worse, Gelert had bloodstains on his mouth. Llewellyn assumed the worst and killed the dog...only to hear his son's cries and realise that the baby was under the cradle, safe. Coupled with the discovery of a dead wolf in the room, Llywelyn realised that Gelert had protected his son by killing the wolf, and it was the wolf's blood on Gelert's mouth. Llywelyn buried Gelert, but was haunted by Gelert's dying howls and never smiled again.

Coblynau are gnome-like creatures who haunt Welsh quarries, the ceffyl dwr is a water horse similar to the Scottish kelpie, and the pwca (or pooka) is a shapeshifter which often takes the form of a hare, though it can impersonate other creatures as well.

Answer: Q'ursha

Q'ursha (literally 'black-ear') is a dog from Georgian folklore, the companion of Amirani, a hero who was similar to Prometheus, in that he gave humans a gift and was punished for it. In this case, it was metal, and the gods punished him by chaining him to the Caucasus mountains and having an eagle eat his liver. Q'ursha is also associated with Dali, a hunter goddess and Amirani's mother. He is said to have 'eyes as big as sieves', golden lips, eagle's wings - due to being born of an eagle - and a powerful bark. Q'ursha also features in a legend about a human man called Betkil, who falls in love with Dali, but cheats on her with a human woman. In revenge, Dali traps him and Q'ursha on a mountain. In some versions, Q'ursha runs to get help and the villagers try to get Betkil down, but he falls to his death; in others, Q'ursha willingly allows Betkil to kill and eat him.

Ochokochi is a being with pointed bones on his chest, who kills people by hugging them; the ali is a demon who steals babies and organs from pregnant women, and the kudiani is a witch with a tail and massive teeth.

Answer: Psoglav

Psoglav (literally 'dog head') is a Slavic monster, specifically from Serbian mythology, as well as Bosnia and Montenegro. It has the legs of a horse, the body of a human and the head of a dog, with iron teeth and a single yellow eye in its forehead, like the Greek cyclopes. It stinks of corpses because of its habit of robbing graveyards and eating dead bodies, and has an aversion to light, preferring to live in caves. A Slovenian legend tells of a psoglav attacking and killing a giant; the giant's daughters fled to Krvavec (literally 'blood mountain'), which got its name from the bloody tears they shed.

Chernava is a mermaid and the Sea Tsar's daughter, Gamayun is a bird with the head of a woman, and the raróg is a fire demon which resembles a falcon.

Answer: Anubis

If you want to be really technical, Anubis is a jackal god - jackals being scavengers - but his head in Egyptian art resembles that of a black primitive dog, the colour black representing the soil of the Nile bed. One of the most recognisable ancient Egyptian deities, he was the son of Nephthys and like her, guarded the dead and was associated with the mummification process. He would accompany the dead to the afterlife and weigh their souls against Ma'at, the feather of truth; if the soul outweighed the feather, it would be fed to the demon Ammit. His wife Anput was also a goddess of death, and their daughter Kebechet gave water to the dead during the embalming process.

Khnum was the god of the source of the Nile and a potter who made children out of clay, and had the head of a ram; Sekhmet was a warrior goddess with the head of a lioness; and Thoth was a god associated with scribes and science, and had the head of an ibis.

Answer: Tiangou

Tiangou (literally, 'heavenly dog') is a gigantic black dog which is responsible for eclipses, according to Chinese folklore; it causes eclipses by eating the Sun or the Moon, and legend has it that driving away local dogs will make Tiangou go away. One legend says that the archer Hou Yi sent his hunting hound after his wife Chang'e, the goddess of the Moon, after she stole his immortality pills, and the hound chased her into the sky and she had to hide behind the Moon. The dog's reaction was to swallow the Moon whole. The Heavenly King and Queen heard about this and had the dog captured, and the Heavenly Queen called it Tiangou and made it a guardian of the Soythern Heavenly Door. In return, Tiangou spat out Chang'e and the Moon.

A qilin is a dragon-like creature with horns, a huli jing is a fox spirit similar to the Japanese kitsune, and a shen is a sea monster which resembles a giant clam.

Answer: Black Shuck

There are many English folktales featuring large and horrible black dogs, and Black Shuck is one such example. It is native to eastern counties including Cambridgeshire, home of the marshland area known as the Fens. According to some legends, Black Shuck only has one eye. Churchyards and graveyards are among its favourite haunts, and its appearance foretells death. One Suffolk legend tells of Black Shuck running into a church, killing a man and boy, and causing the church steeple to collapse. (Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about a similar legend in 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.)

Barghest is the Yorkshire equivalent of Black Shuck, Gytrash is a black dog in the north of England who haunts roads and also disguises itself as a mule, and Gwyllgi is a Welsh black dog thought to resemble either a mastiff or a wolf.