Experience amazing stories you’ll uncover exploring our newest special exhibit Mythic Creatures Dragons, Unicorns and Mermaids in the American Museum of Natural History Special Exhibition Gallery, that shines a light on both the real and imagined side of history’s most legendary creatures.
Mythic Creatures Exhbit at COSI Museum is here until September 2, 2019!
The exhibition traces the natural and cultural roots of some of the world’s most enduring mythological creatures from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and beyond. This amazing exhibition includes imaginative models, paintings, and textiles, along with other cultural objects from around the world ranging from Chinese shadow puppets to Greek coins that bring to light surprising similarities and differences in the ways people around the world have been inspired by nature to envision and depict these strange and wonderful creatures.
Creatures of the Deep
Examines the kraken, sea monsters, mermaids, and other beings that inhabit the depths of the open ocean and give form to some of water’s essential mysteries. Perhaps the most popular mythical sea creature is the half-woman, half-fish. Mermaids were likely sea mammals such as whales or manatees mistakenly interpreted by sailors.
Photo Credit: COSI Museum
Creatures of the Sky
Explores winged mythological creatures such as the Asian phoenix, a mythical bird that appears at times of peace or to announce the birth of a virtuous emperor, and Pegasus, the famed winged horse of Greek mythology.
Creatures of the Earth
Features beings that walk the Earth. Many of these creatures appear to have body parts from ordinary animals combined in unusual ways. The stories and mythical creatures of the land were often interpretations of fossils. Griffins, Unicorns and the famous Big Foot or Yeti.
Photo Credit: COSI Museum
Creatures of Power
The Dragons section rounds out the extensive examination of mythical creatures. These reptilian beasts with fabulous powers claim a mythic presence on at least three continents. In European stories dragons are powerful, wicked, and dangerous. In Asia they have sweeping powers, including breathing clouds, moving the seasons, and controlling the waters of rivers, lakes, and seas.
Photo Credit: COSI Museum
Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids: Mythic Creatures also offers numerous interactive stations throughout the exhibition, inviting visitors to touch casts of a narwhal tusk, the lower jaw of Gigantopithecus, and a life-size reproduction of the talon of a Haast’s eagle (Harpagornis moorei).
Photo Credit: COSI Museum
For more information about Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids: Mythic Creatures at COSI Museum visit their website https://cosi.org/exhibits/mythic-creatures
