In novels like “Moby Dick” or “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” monsters exist to aggravate and impinge on human life. Science, folklore, and fiction have villainized deep sea creatures for centuries, ...

For centuries, sailors told stories about a massive sea monster lurking beneath the ocean. They called it the Kraken, a creature so large it could drag entire ships underwater. These stories spread ...

The historian Procopius described how a creature called Porphyrios terrified sixth-century sailors for 50 years. But what was it? A sixth-century Byzantine mosaic depicts an amphibious monster—though ...