The Minotaur as depicted by Sam Wood in art for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition in the Forgotten Realms wiki. I prefer the art for this edition over the others as it showcases the more bestial and bull-like depiction of the Minotaur in modern fantasy, as opposed to its far more human depiction in classical mythology itself (essentially as human with bull’s head and tail)

(7) CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY – VILLAIN: MINOTAUR

Perhaps the most iconic and the most archetypal of the beasts of classical mythology – the bull-man (or is that man-bull?) stalking its sacrificial human victims in its Labyrinth and devouring them until it was slain by the Athenian hero Theseus.

The Minotaur needs little introduction, except perhaps a reminder that it actually had a name, something that blows my mind each time I recall it – Asterion or Asterius. As a bull-man hybrid, the Minotaur was classically depicted with the head (and tail) of a bull and the body of a man.

In modern fantasy, minotaurs tend to be depicted as more bestial and bull-like, usually as much bigger and stronger than humans – and typically with hooves rather than feet. They also tend to be depicted in the plural – that is, as part of a fantasy species – in marked contrast to the singular nature of the original Minotaur in classical mythology as a result of its distinctive origin.

You do not want to know that distinctive origin – it’s squick. Okay, maybe you do but don’t say I didn’t warn you! The king of Crete, Minos, reneged on sacrificing a bull to Poseidon and as usual when the gods got angry with mortals, they got…weird. “Poseidon arranged with Aphrodite for Minos’ wife Pasiphae to fall in love with the bull”. You can guess where it goes from there, albeit it needed Minos’ master architect Daedalus to make it happen with a cow disguise for Pasiphae.

Naturally, Minos couldn’t have the Minotaur roaming about the palace as family embarrassment, so he resorted to the stereotype of locking it up in the attic. And by attic, I mean the Labyrinth, the iconic lair of the Minotaur – also designed by Daedalus – where they fed people to it.

Yes, despite its herbivorous head, the Minotaur had an unnatural appetite for human flesh to match its monstrous appearance – which it satisfied from sacrificial victims, seven youths and seven maidens, offered in tribute by Athens to Crete, although the myths varied between an annual tribute or some other period. I’m guessing the Minotaur kept leftovers in the fridge for the rest of the period.

Enter the Athenian hero Theseus, who volunteered for the tribute so as to end it once and for all. The rest is, well, mythology.

Despite its singular nature in classical mythology, the Minotaur or minotaurs have recurred throughout popular culture and imagination, both literally and metaphorically, in adaptations or imitations. One of my favorites is the minotaurs in Sean Stewart’s Resurrection Man, essentially conjured from human bestiality or brutality by the wild magic force infusing the world after the Second World War.

ELDRITCH ABOMINATION RANKING

An archetypal abomination – “born from a union so unnatural that he can only sustain himself by consuming human flesh”.

FANTASY DARK LORD RANKING

Not so much in the original mythology but the Minotaur has surprising potential as a fantasy dark lord ruling from its Labyrinth, particularly if its intelligence is more human than bovine – or if combined with Minos, whether conflated as the one person (for example as a weird were-creature) or combined as a team (for example with the Minotaur as Minos’ “muscle”).

RATING:

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The Sphinx as it appears in Dungeons & Dragons, featured on D & D Beyond, D & D’s 5th edition online resource

(8) CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY – VILLAIN: SPHINX

What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?

Yet another one of the beasts of classical mythology, albeit at least one with some human component.

It has far more name recognition in popular culture and imagination than other hybrid beasts of classical mythology such as the Chimera, primarily because it did not just feature in classical mythology but also in representations throughout the ancient Near East – particularly in Egypt and most famously the monumental statue of the Great Sphinx of Giza.

However, that does bring us to an important distinction for a Top 10 Heroes & Villains of Mythology. The sphinxes (or sphinges as that is the other plural form of sphinx) of the ancient Near East in general and Egypt in particular tended to be more heroic. In Egypt, the human component of the sphinx was “typically depicted as a man” – or androsphinx – “and is seen as a benevolent representation of strength and ferocity, usually of a pharaoh”.

The Egyptian sphinxes are so iconic, particularly the Great Sphinx of Giza, that they tend to influence the visual characteristics or depictions of all sphinxes since, whether in size or Egyptian headdress or other features – even when those sphinxes otherwise behave like evil or villainous Sphinx of classical mythology.

And yes – it is the Sphinx of classical mythology that was villainous. Whereas the Egyptian sphinxes were typically depicted as male, the Sphinx of classical mythology had the head of a woman – and interestingly, as opposed to the wingless Egyptian sphinxes, it also had the wings of an eagle.

The Sphinx of classical mythology was also the one that had its Riddle, which it effectively used as its murder weapon. Okay, okay – the Riddle itself wasn’t the weapon. The Sphinx itself would kill you, presumably with its lion claws although the fact that it ate its victims suggests it also had lion fangs, but after you failed to answer the Riddle which it posed to all who encountered it.

As such, the Riddle of the Sphinx tends to have “dire consequences for those who won’t or can’t guess correctly” – and for the Sphinx if you did, which is how the hero Oedipus killed it, whether by the Sphinx killing itself from some strange compulsion upon answering the riddle or Oedipus taking a more direct hand in slaying it.

“The Greek sphinx was a single one-of-a-kind monster and enemy of mankind sent as a plague by Hera to punish Thebes and was the one that asked the infamous riddle and was bested by Oedipus.”

While the Sphinx has not quite lent its name to a metaphorical term like the Chimera – or for that matter Oedipus thanks to Freud – its name is used to connote enigma or mystery.

“Sphinxes are enigmatic beings. Some are merely monsters with inscrutable motives, while others guide entire civilizations towards goals only they understand. No matter the world, a sphinx is a mystery given form.”

ELDRITCH ABOMINATION

Well yes, as a hybrid beast it ranks high as eldritch abomination – arguably its human aspects make it even more so.

FANTASY DARK LORD RANKING

Unlike the Hydra or Chimera, the Sphinx would actually rank well as potential fantasy dark lord, particularly if it could focus its intelligence or mysterious nature away from riddles.

“Sphinxes are typically associated with knowledge in some form… Associations with magical lore and oracular powers are also fairly common. They’re usually powerful, rare and magical beings; regardless of their specific role in a story, sphinxes are rarely trivial creatures.”

RATING:

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Horus character profile in the Smite video game

(8) EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY – HERO: HORUS

“Look out Set, here I come Set

To get Set, to sunset Set

To unseat Set, to set down Set”

One of two deities from Egyptian mythology I rank as heroes in my top ten, Horus is the more conventionally heroic figure.

“God of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history…these various forms may be different manifestations of the same multi-layered deity…He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner falcon or peregrine falcon, or as a man with a falcon head.”

Vengeful god Horus!

The best-known form of Horus is the son of Isis and Osiris on a roaring rampage of revenge against Set for killing his father Osiris.

Horus! The pharaoh’s champion!

While “the pharaoh was associated with many specific deities”, perhaps the most pharaonic deity was Horus, “who represented kingship itself and was seen as a protector of the pharaoh”.

Cosmic Horus! His right eye is the sun and his left eye is the moon.

No, seriously – “since Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the Sun and Moon”.

Speaking of eyes, even his eye was heroic – “The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities…In the Egyptian language, the word for this symbol was “wedjat”

SUPERMAN-BATMAN SCALE

Like Egyptian gods in general, Horus is definitely on the divine Superman end of the scale, even to the point that they have remarkably similar origins as infant children saved from disaster by their parents for divine greatness – except for Horus, it’s his mother Isis that’s the literal equivalent of Superman’s rocket launching him to safety from Krypton’s destruction. Isis fled with Horus from Set and raised him up for his roaring rampage of revenge.

PUNCHING OUT CTHULHU RANKING

I don’t know about Cthulhu but he certainly ranks high in the punching out Set ranking.

PARTY ROCK RANKING

A little too serious to rank high in my party rock ranking but what do you expect from the Egyptian pantheon’s equivalent of Inigo Montoya – “you killed my father, prepare to die!”.

Also – you do NOT want him bringing the salad with his special sauce to barbecues…

RATING

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The Chimera as it appears in art for Dungeons & Dragons, featured in D & D Beyond, D & D’s 5th edition online resource

(9) CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY – VILLAIN: CHIMERA

Like the Hydra in tenth place, the Chimera is one of many beasts that roam classical mythology.

So why does it rank in ninth place in my Top 10, above the other beasts of classical mythology, you might ask? At least the Hydra was killed by a god-tier hero like Heracles (as one of his twelve legendary Labors). The Chimera was killed by the hero Bellerophon, not exactly in the top rank of heroes for name recognition from classical mythology, although his steed Pegasus fares somewhat better.

Like the Hydra, there are a couple of reasons – indeed, pretty much the same reasons as for the Hydra. As one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, it was a particularly nasty beast.

And it was a particularly distinctive one – “a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature…composed of different animal parts. Typically, it is depicted as a lion with a goat’s head protruding from its back and a tail ending with a snake’s head. Some representations also include dragon’s wings.” In its adaptation in Dungeons and Dragons, the tail with snake’s head ends up as a dragon head and tail, making it a three-headed beast.

However, as usual the primary reason is for its thematic or metaphorical significance. Its very nature as a fantastic hybrid has lent its name as a term for any “imaginary monster composed on incongruous parts” – or even more so for any “illusion or fabrication of the mind”, typically of a haunting nature or that of a fever dream. The former has seen its use as a term in genetics for an organism, potentially including humans, with more than one genetically distinct cell populations within its body – or in other words, more than one genotype or DNA profile.

Again, it’s a metaphor with some real resonance in life – or at least my life, which at times I think had been populated almost entirely by chimeras. Or is that chimerae? (According to spellcheck, it’s chimeras).

ELDRITCH ABOMINATION RANKING

The definitive eldritch abomination of mythology – so much so that its name has effectively become synonymous with the concept.

FANTASY DARK LORD RANKING

Again like the Hydra, it fares poorly for fantasy dark lord ranking, possessed at it was of only animal intelligence – albeit a bit brighter than the Hydra, such that it seemed to have been capable of terrorizing a somewhat larger area.

RATING:

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Shiva as depicted in his standard game design in Smite official game art

(9) HINDU MYTHOLOGY – HERO: SHIVA

The other of two deities from Hindu mythology I rank as heroes in my top ten, Shiva may be a more ambiguously heroic figure than Vishnu but I just have an idiosyncratic preference for him – a running theme for this and two other pantheons in my top ten where I prefer the more ambiguous and arguably anti-heroic of two heroic deities from that pantheon.

As I noted for Vishnu, Hindu gods can be incredibly complex figures, and Shiva is one of the most complex. Like Vishnu, “the persona of Shiva converged as a composite deity” – “Vishnu and Shiva…began to absorb countless local cults and deities within their folds. The latter were either taken to represent the multiple facets of the same god or else were supposed to denote different forms and appellations by which the god came to be known and worshipped…Shiva as we know him today shares many features with the Vedic god Rudra…the god of the roaring storm”.

In broad strokes, Shiva is known as the Destroyer within the Trimurti or trinity of supreme divinity that includes Brahma as the Creator and Vishnu as the Preserver. However, when it comes to the practice of Hinduism, Shiva and Vishnu are the big two with Brahma a distant and abstract third (or lower if you count goddess), reflected in Shaivism and Vaishnavism as the two major strands of Hinduism. The former elevates Shiva as the sole supreme deity “who creates, protects, and transforms the universe”, just as the latter does with Vishnu (although there are variations within these two strands which combine both gods as one).

Where Vishnu is usually depicted in blue hue, Shiva is usually depicted with white skin, albeit from ashes smeared on his skin and a blue throat, both with hardcore explanations. He has many iconic attributes – his mystical third eye, crescent moon as his crest or crown, matted hair, yogic pose, tiger skin pelt, trident, drum, the serpent or naga Vasuki as his garland, and the bull Nandi as his mount.

“Shiva has many aspects, benevolent as well as fearsome…in his fierce aspects, he is often depicted slaying demons”. The fierce aspects usually fall within his persona as the Destroyer, but he has a dual persona as a benefactor as well – and we’re talking righteous destruction here, slaying demons after all.

“Shiva is often depicted as embodying attributes of ambiguity and paradox. His depictions are marked by the opposing themes including fierceness and innocence. This duality can be seen in the diverse epithets attributed to him and the rich tapestry of narratives that delineate his persona within Hindu mythology”.

Two aspects of Shiva particularly appeal to me. Well, apart from his representation as the phallic “lingam” – Shiva is a phallic god!. The first is his persona as Nataraja – lord of the dance. We’re talking the cosmic dance of creation and destruction here, as well as the other literal and metaphorical meanings of dance.

The second is the extent to which he is identified with Dionysus from classical mythology – to the extent that “the ancient Greek texts of the time of Alexander the Great call Shiva Indian Dionysus, or alternatively call Dionysus god of the Orient”.

SUPERMAN-BATMAN SCALE

Like Vishnu and Hindu gods in general, Shiva is definitely on the divine Superman end of the scale.

PUNCHING OUT CTHULHU RANKING

Even more so than Vishnu, as punching out demons is part of his epithet as Destroyer

PARTY ROCK RANKING

With his phallic lingam symbol and Dionysian persona, Shiva scores even higher than Vishnu for party rock ranking. And of course he’s a god for the goddesses, from his usual consort Parvati to the divine feminine principle, Devi or Shakti.

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The Hydra as it appears in art for Dungeons & Dragons, featured in D & D Beyond, D & D’s 5th edition online resource

(10) CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY – VILLAIN: HYDRA

The Hydra – or the Lernaean Hydra – is one of many beasts that roam classical mythology

And how does it rank tenth place entry in my Top 10, you ask? I mean, it was merely one of the legendary Labors of Heracles (to kill it), so why does it rank above the other fantastic beasts of those labors – or of classical mythology in general?

Well, a couple of reasons. It was a particularly nasty beast – any of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna tended to be snaky bad news

It had poisonous breath and blood so virulent it was lethal, even indirectly – such that Heracles used arrows dipped in its blood thereafter to deadly effect, although that came back to bite him eventually.

But the primary reason is for its thematic or metaphorical significance – I tend to be in mythology for the metaphors

The Hydra had one particularly nasty trait that made it exceptionally dangerous and difficult to overcome – it regenerated its heads. Worse, it multiplied them, so that for every head cut off, it sprouted two in their place

As metaphors go, it is particularly resonant for those problems in life that simply seem to multiply when you try to solve them, especially by means of brute force or direct action rather than finesse. Now that I think of it, most of my files at work are hydras

ELDRITCH ABOMINATION

The Hydra certainly ranks highly as eldritch abomination, coming as it does from classical mythology’s finest pedigree of eldritch abominations – Typhon and Echidna.

FANTASY DARK LORD RANKING

Sadly, not so high for fantasy dark lord ranking, possessed at it was of only rudimentary animal intelligence – more Shelob than Sauron.

RATING:

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Vishnu’s avatar Rama as depicted by official character profile art in the video game Smite

(10) HINDU MYTHOLOGY – HERO: VISHNU

‘Whenever righteousness wanes and unrighteousness increases I send myself forth.

For the protection of the good and for the destruction of evil,

and for the establishment of righteousness,

I come into being age after age.’

One of two deities from Hindu mythology I rank as heroes in my top ten, Vishnu is the more conventionally heroic figure, but I just have an idiosyncratic preference for the other deity – a running theme for two other pantheons in my top ten.

“Whenever the world is threatened with evil, chaos, and destructive forces, Vishnu descends in the form of an avatar (incarnation) to restore the cosmic order.”

Hindu gods can be incredibly complex figures, even more so to me as I do not have the same familiarity with Hindu mythology as I do with European mythologies.

In broad strokes, Vishnu is known as the Preserver within the Trimurti or trinity of supreme divinity that includes Brahma as the Creator and Shiva as the Destroyer. However, there are a few major strands of Hinduism, one of which is Vaishnavism which elevates Vishnu as the sole supreme deity “who creates, protects, and transforms the universe”.

Vishnu is usually depicted as blue with four arms, although there are two-armed depictions. Each of his arms holds one of his iconic symbols – a conch shell, a discus, a club or mace, and a lotus flower.

“There are both benevolent and fearsome depictions of Vishnu. In benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient being sleeping on the coils of the serpent Sesha (who represents time) floating in the primeval ocean of milk called Kshira Sagara with his consort, Lakshmi”.

Which sounds pretty chill, being a cosmic milker.

Ultimately, it’s his avatars that are his most heroic manifestations, being expressly for the purpose of saving the world as quoted above. In particular, there’s the Dashavatara or his ten primary world-saving avatars, elevated above his lesser avatars. The ten primary avatars vary “across sects and regions” – some include Buddha – but typically include his greatest avatars Rama and Krishna. There’s also Kalki, the tenth or final avatar as a messianic millennial figure similar to the Second Coming of Christ.

SUPERMAN-BATMAN SCALE

Definitely on the divine Superman end of the scale.

PUNCHING OUT CTHULHU RANKING

Well, he certainly spent a fair bit of time in his avatar as Rama punching out demons led by the demon king, Ravana.

PARTY ROCK RANKING

Vishnu scores pretty highly for rocking out at parties, particularly in his youth as Krishna where he embodied the concept of lila – the ludic universe or “playing for fun and enjoyment rather than sport and gain” – and banging the local milkmaids or gopi. Which brings us back to Vishnu as chill cosmic milker.

RATING:

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Statue of St Michael at the former seat of the Bavarian Military Order of Saint Michael in the Electoral Palace, Bonn, Germany – photograph by Michael Jaletzke for Wikipedia “St Michael” under licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

TOP 10 HEROES & VILLAINS OF MYTHOLOGY

Few things are as fundamental to mythology as heroes, or indeed, the very concept of hero which I would argue at its heart to be mythic (as well as the heart of mythology).

Joseph Campbell considered it as such, in his best known or most iconic book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which is also my sixth-place entry in my Top 10 Mythology Books. Campbell argued his theory of the monomyth or Hero’s Journey as the archetypal narrative in which the protagonist hero sets out, has transformative adventures and returns home. That is, the hero (ad)ventures into the mythic world – the supernatural or mysterious realm – and brings something back, not least himself in transformed form.

The word hero comes from Greek – and much of our concepts or narratives of heroism originates from classical mythology and Greek hero cults, as encapsulated in the ethos I quoted from Weston La Barre as my opening quotation. Although their stories could “serve as moral examples”, the heroes of classical mythology or paganism are somewhat at odds with the competing heroic narratives of moral idealism in Biblical mythology or Judeo-Christianity – “A classical hero is considered to be a ‘warrior who lives and dies in the pursuit of honor’ and asserts their greatness by ‘the brilliancy and efficiency with which they kill'”.

Of course, what often distinguishes mythic heroes is the depravity and destructive power of their antagonists, the villains of mythology. Unlike actual heroes and villains in history or real life, the heroes and villains of mythology tend to be more pure embodiments of good or evil – and more powerful, on a scale approached only by the superheroes or supervillains of comics (which closely resemble or even modelled on them), whether saving worlds or enslaving and destroying them.

These are essentially the criteria of heroism or villainy for my top 10 heroes and top 10 villains of mythology. Firstly, there’s the scale of how heroic or villainous they are in their moral character or ethos. Secondly, there’s the scale of how powerful they are, ranging up to heroes or villains capable of saving or destroying worlds (and beyond!).

Finally, iconic status (and my idiosyncratic preference) tends to trump all – although of course iconic status is usually gained from other criteria in the first place, with the most morally good and powerful heroes or most evil and destructive villains being most iconic in popular culture or imagination. However, iconic status is qualified by my greater familiarity with European or Western mythologies, which might overshadow iconic status within non-Western mythologies.

I have some other playful rankings within each entry for heroes:

SUPERMAN-BATMAN SCALE

It feels a little odd to rank the heroes of a mythology on a “scale” of the two most iconic superheroes of comics, but the Superman-Batman scale is surprisingly apt for mythology, arguably even more so than for comics. For mythology, the scale acts as one from the divine or semi-divine superman to the mortal who achieved their heroism through skill or training.

PUNCHING OUT CTHULHU RANKING

Pretty much what it says on the tin – ranking the heroes of mythology by deeds of punching out eldritch abominations, often literally

PARTY ROCK RANKING

The most playful of my rankings – ranking heroes by the extent to which they would rock out at parties.

And for villains:

ELDRITCH ABOMINATION RANKING

I mean, this one was obvious after the punching out Cthulhu ranking for heroes – except of course it’s ranking villains not by punching out eldritch abominations, but by the extent to which they are eldritch abominations. Spoiler alert – almost all of them when it comes to mythology

DARK LORD RANKING

Again, pretty much what it says on the tin – ranking the villains of mythology on the scale of fantasy dark lords for destroying or enslaving worlds. Spoiler alert – quite often when it comes to mythology, particularly as fantasy dark lords, including the most famous dark lord of fantasy, tend to be modelled on one of my entries.

So, counting down my top 10 heroes and top 10 villains in mythology…