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…