Two headed creatures in Myth, Legend, and D&D

radja · May 7, 2015

The city where I live (Groningen) has a coat of arms which features a doubleheaded eagle. I'm not sure it has a specific name though. There may be other doubleheaded creatures in heraldry.

Olgar Shiverstone · May 9, 2015

radja said:
The city where I live (Groningen) has a coat of arms which features a doubleheaded eagle. I'm not sure it has a specific name though. There may be other doubleheaded creatures in heraldry.

There are lots of them -- the Russian eagle, the Albanian one ... I did a little searching but couldn't find names, though, which seems odd given how prevalent they seem to be in heraldry.

religon · May 12, 2015

Lodac's dragon from the movie The Magic Sword (1962) has two fire-breathing heads.

Hriston · May 15, 2015

radja said:
The city where I live (Groningen) has a coat of arms which features a doubleheaded eagle. I'm not sure it has a specific name though. There may be other doubleheaded creatures in heraldry.

Olgar Shiverstone said:
There are lots of them -- the Russian eagle, the Albanian one ... I did a little searching but couldn't find names, though, which seems odd given how prevalent they seem to be in heraldry.

The two-headed eagle was a symbol used in the Holy Roman and Byzantine Empires, and some of their successor states I suppose, to denote a government ruled by the double authority of church and state, for example. I don't think it has a mythological origin.

On the other hand, there is a two-headed bird in Hindu myth called the Gandaberunda, or Berunda, that represents the most destructive form of the god Vishnu. It is sometimes depicted as holding a full-grown elephant in each of its claws.