TOP 10 HEROES OF MYTHOLOGY (SPECIAL MENTION)

 

Few things are as fundamental to mythology as heroes – or as prolific.

I’ve counted down my Top 10 Heroes of Mythology but there’s more than enough heroes and heroism for my usual twenty special mentions per top ten, given all the various heroes of all the various mythologies.

Just a reminder of my criteria of heroism from my Top 10 Heroes of Mythology – firstly, there’s the scale of how heroic they are in their moral character or ethos, and secondly, there’s the scale of how powerful they are, ranging up to heroes capable of saving the world.

Finally, iconic status – and above all 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 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.

 

 

 

 

(1) APOLLO & DIONYSUS

 

Nietzsche famously propounded a literary or philosophical dichotomy or duality (or duo, if you prefer) between the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The classical Greeks themselves did not see Apollo and Dionysus as opposing figures but would probably applaud Nietzsche anyway, with all the reboots and retcons they gave the classical mythology.

The golden god of the sun, Apollo was the archetypal divine hero of classical mythology – the original Olympian Superman. His divine attributes or powers were extremely varied – the sun and light obviously but also archery (the symbolic equivalent of the sun’s rays), prophecy and truth (he was patron of the Delphic oracle), music and poetry, healing and more. In popular religion, he had a strong function as protector from evil – in short, he stood for truth, justice and the Grecian way. For Nietzsche, the Apollonian stood for the forces of reason and logic, control and clarity, structure and order, art and science – in short, the ideal of perfection

On the other hand, Dionysus was a foreign newcomer to Olympian pantheon and the god most associated with mortality – the son of a mortal mother (by Zeus) and a god who died to be reborn. He was also a darker figure as the god of intoxication in all its forms – ecstasy, fear and madness. What’s more, Dionysus was the god of the mysteries and theatre. For Nietzsche, the Dionysian stood for the forces of passion and emotion, chaos and mysticism, music and intoxication – in short, the ideal of a good night out…

 

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

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(2) PAN & ABRAXAS

 

Io Pan! Io Pan Pan!

Iao Abraxas!

Pan, the original horny god with the groin of a goat or as Bill Hicks styled him, randy Pan the Goat Boy. God of nature, mountains, shepherds and s€xuality – also the source of our word panic, for the divine mad fear he could inspire in people, including as savior of Athens, the invading Persian army at Marathon.

As a Capricorn goat boy myself, I’ve long been a Pan fan. Ironically, the only classical Greek god reported as dead – in a historical legend by Plutarch, with a sailor during the reign of Tiberius reporting a divine proclamation from an island that “the great god Pan is dead” – but reports of his death, to paraphrase Mark Twain, were greatly exaggerated. Pan was the one god that endured more than all the others, even to the extent of embodying in horned and hooved form all classical paganism as a whole in modern romanticism and neo-paganism. Perhaps aptly enough, given the pun on Pan – as the word for “all” in Greek also being Pan.

One might call it Pan’s odyssey – from mythic Pan through medieval and early modern Pan to his romantic rebirth, Edwardian height of popularity, and ultimately contemporary Pan. There’s just too much Pan – or is that too many Pans? – out there.

Sadly, one of my favorite historical legends of how Christianity embodied Pan as its devil – may be just that, a legend dating back only to the nineteenth century (following the hypothesis of Ronald Hutton to that effect).

I still prefer the legend. In one of my story ideas, a somewhat lost and forlorn Satan muses to the protagonist (with whom he has occasional chats) of his origin from Pan (as one of his multiple-choice origin stories). The protagonist calls him out on his conflicting origin stories, to which Satan replies “Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I am legion, I contain multitudes”. But then he becomes sadly wistful “I would give anything just to dance in the moonlight again, when I was not evil but only wild and free”.

Another of my mythic idiosyncrasies is that I tend see a matching figure to Pan in Abraxas, even if the latter has nowhere near the classical pagan firepower as Pan in popular culture.

One reason is something of a physical resemblance in their half-animal half-human form. Where Pan is essentially a satyr as goat from waist down and with goat horns on his head, Abraxas is similarly animal from waist down and from neck up, only more so. For the former, Abraxas has much the same animal proportions of Pan – only more eerie or eldritch as instead of the lower half of goat, as Abraxas had a serpent (or serpentine tail) for each leg, anguiped rather than satyr. For the latter, Abraxas goes hard into animal head territory – instead of dainty goat horns on a human head, Abraxas has an actual animal head, with the head of a rooster. Serpentine legs and head of a rooster – if there’s a divine figure as more overt phallic symbol, then I don’t know what it is, particularly if you use the alternative word for rooster.

As to what sort of divine figure Abraxas is, well, that’s not entirely clear – Gnostic aeon or archon, classical or Egyptian god, or magical figure?

There’s even more direct parallels with Pan in the inscriptions and images on the prolific engraved ‘Abraxas stones’ that have been located in archaeology. There’s the salutation of Iao for Abraxas, echoing that of Io for Pan – and according to Egyptologist E. Wallis Budge, Abraxas was a Pantheus or Pantheos, that is, All-God.

I particularly have a soft spot for Abraxas from two sources for my personal mythos. One is the 1970 Santana album of that name, featuring its psychedelic cover art with the gloriously naked and voluptuous black magic woman as its centerpiece. The other is Piers Anthony’s Tarot trilogy, in which Abraxas is an unlikely candidate as the one true god, boosted by his golden priestess and devotee Amaranth, one of the s€xiest fantasy or SF female characters I have read. Iao Abraxas, indeed!

 

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT PAN-TIER?)

 

 

 

 

(3) HORNED GOD & SACRED KING

 

“He is the laughter in the woods.”

Pan and Cernunnos may be the most famous or iconic (the former more so) but there are more horned deities, particularly if you include deities that are represented or symbolized by horned animals.

“Deities depicted with horns or antlers are found in numerous religions across the world. Horned animals, such as bulls, goats, and rams, may be worshiped as deities or serve as inspiration for a deity’s appearance in religions that venerate animal gods”.

Like the Triple Goddess, modern witchcraft and neopaganism have adapted the horned deities of paganism to the Horned God, representing the male aspects of divinity and second only to the Triple Goddess, typically as her consort among other roles.

“The Theme, briefly, is the antique story, which falls into thirteen chapters and an epilogue, of the birth, life, death and resurrection of the God of the Waxing Year; the central chapters concern the God’s losing battle with the God of the Waning Year for love of the capricious and all-powerful Threefold Goddess, their mother, bride and layer-out. The poet identifies himself with the God of the Waxing Year and his Muse with the Goddess; the rival is his blood-brother, his other self, his weird.”

Of course, supernatural horned beings are depicted much more negatively in Christianity, with the devil and other demons typically as horned (or is that horny)? Interestingly, there are the occasional exceptions, with no less than Moses famously said to be or depicted as “horned” upon being radiant or glorified by God. That is usually attributed to mistranslation but has recurred throughout artistic depictions of him, including by Michelangelo.

“The Horned God has been explored within several psychological theories and has become a recurrent theme in fantasy literature” – with my favorite example of the latter being the titular Horned God in “Slaine: The Horned God” by Pat Mills.

And then there’s the mythic figure of the sacred king, overlapping with that of the horned god, at least in modern paganism and a recurring theme in fantasy.

“In many historical societies, the position of kingship carried a sacral meaning and was identical with that of a high priest and judge…The monarch may be divine, become divine, or represent divinity to a greater or lesser extent.”

The figure of the sacred king was famously propounded by Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough – behold the monomyth of the sacrificial sacred king!

“A sacred king, according to the systematic interpretation of mythology developed by Frazer in The Golden Bough…was a king who represented a solar deity in a periodically re-enacted fertility rite. Frazer seized upon the notion of a substitute king and made him the keystone of his theory of a universal, pan-European, and indeed worldwide fertility myth, in which a consort for the Goddess was annually replaced. According to Frazer, the sacred king represented the spirit of vegetation…came into being in the spring, reigned during the summer, and ritually died at harvest time, only to be reborn at the winter solstice to wax and rule again. The spirit of vegetation was therefore a ‘dying and reviving god’. Osiris, Dionysus, Attis and many other familiar figures from Greek mythology and classical antiquity were reinterpreted in this mold…The sacred king, the human embodiment of the dying and reviving vegetation god, was supposed to have originally been an individual chosen to rule for a time, but whose fate was to suffer as a sacrifice, to be offered back to the earth so that a new king could rule for a time in his stead.”

 

RATING:

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

 

 

(4) TAROT – FOOL & HANGED MAN

 

The Tarot may have its mystique and even its mythos, but does it have heroes?

O yes – hence this special mention, drawn from the archetypal characters of individual cards, particularly those of the more iconic Major Arcana or “trumps” of the Tarot. Indeed, there are enough ‘heroic’ cards of the Tarot for their own top ten and a few special mentions beyond that.

However, as the title of this special mention entry indicates, two cards stand out above all others as heroes of the Tarot – the Fool and the Hanged Man.

At first glance, both might seem unusual choices. There are cards that might seem more conventional heroic figures by the metric of power – the Magician, the Emperor, the Hierophant, the Chariot, and the Sun.

However, it is the Fool that is the true hero of the Tarot. In its modern form, the Major Arcana has its own mythic narrative, essentially a version of the archetypal hero’s journey, with the Fool – traditionally numbered zero or just unnumbered – as its hero, similar to the figure of the holy fool. The Fool sets out on his quest, innocence in search of experience, poised to fall or fly. The rest of the Major Arcana depicts the figures he encounters, as well as ultimately his descent into and triumphant return from the underworld.

Coming in close second place is the Hanged Man, a self-sacrificial mystical inversion of the Fool, that the Fool either encounters or – in my preferred reading – becomes, in his descent into the underworld. Indeed, the image of the Hanged Man is parallel to that of the Fool. Where the Fool innocently and seemingly inadvertently is poised to step off a precipice while gazing (or perhaps dreaming) skywards, the Hanged Man is more deliberately poised to descend into the Underworld, hanging by his foot in seemingly mystical pose with head downwards.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

 

 

(5) SAVIOR – JESUS & BUDDHA

 

By definition, mythic heroes tend to be saviors on a mythic scale, even on the scale of saving the world.

Jesus and Buddha are the definitive world saviors – indeed, so much so that one might wonder why I don’t rank them higher than this special mention entry.

Well, firstly and most fundamentally, Jesus and Buddha are world saviors as the foundational figures of the world religions named for them (or technically, Jesus’s title as Christ). Other heroes of mythology, notably those of classical mythology, may have had their cults, but the hero cults of Jesus and Buddha – if one calls them that, as at least one historian did when observing Christianity to be a Greek hero cult devoted to a Jewish messiah – persist in contemporary religious belief. Accordingly, as heroic figures they are regarded with reverence that requires them to be ranked separately, even uniquely – hence this special mention. Indeed, even ranking them together or among the heroes of mythology might be regarded as controversial to that reverence.

There’s another reason I rank them as special mention. Jesus and Buddha are similarly unique as heroes in that they are not saviors by the use of violence, even that violence used against the forces of evil or chaos that is characteristic of other heroes. Instead, they defeat those forces and save the world by other means, spiritual rather than physical – Jesus by belief or faith, and Buddha by enlightenment.

Indeed, it’s a plot point in Buddha’s legendary biography that he renounces his princely status – and the prophecy of more conventional heroic conquest, eschewing conquering the world for saving it. He effectively renounces it again when tempted in his fabled meditation under the Bo Tree by the forces of evil represented by the demon lord Mara. Jesus similarly renounces such things as all the kingdoms of the world when offered to him instead of his path to salvation, in his even more famous trial of temptation. Jesus also famously inverts the model of heroic conquest even more so than Buddha, saving the world not by conventional victory or violence but by self-sacrifice – the ultimate gambit of winning by losing, as it were.

Otherwise, they are so well known as religious figures, even outside their respective religions – albeit more so for Jesus due to the more pervasive extent and influence of his religion – that it would be redundant to recite further details, other than to observe that each could be the subject of their own top ten, indeed of many such lists.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

 

 

 

 

(6) TRICKSTER – MONKEY & COYOTE

 

 

“Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah

Some call me the gangster of love…

‘Cause I’m a picker, I’m a grinner

I’m a lover and I’m a sinner

I play my music in the sun

I’m a joker, I’m a smoker

I’m a midnight toker

I sure don’t want to hurt no one”

 

I don’t know – the lyrics of the Steve Miller Band’s The Joker just seemed apposite to trickster heroes (or Dionysian heroes for that matter, although there’s a large overlap between the two), just as the lyrics to Queen’s theme for Flash seem apposite to more conventional savior heroes (or Apollonian ones).

Tricksters need little introduction as archetypal characters, except to note there’s enough of them for their own top ten – or at least two top ten lists, one for trickster heroes and one for trickster villains, as it is the nature of tricksters to break rules and cross boundaries, including between heroism and villainy, even if they tend to prefer mischief to outright evil. If a villain uses deception and manipulation as well as brute force, they tend to have something of a trickster nature to them – including arguably my top mythic villain, Satan. I’ve already featured heroes and villains in my Top 10 Heroes & Villains of Mythology that could be characterized as tricksters – most demonstrably two that are counterparts to each other, Odin and Loki in Norse mythology.

 

“And the nature of Monkey was…irrepressible!”

 

Tricksters can be “god, goddess, spirit, human” or anthropomorphic animal spirits. Indeed, the last tend to be the best tricksters or at least my favorites, hence the two I’ve included as representative for this entry – Su Wukong, the Monkey King of the Chinese Buddhist legendary tract Journey to the West, and Coyote, the leading trickster of Native American mythology (albeit the Raven figure comes close as it plays the same role in other cultures).

“As one of the most enduring Chinese literary characters, Wukong has a varied and highly debated background and colorful cultural history. His inspiration might have come from an amalgam of influences, generally relating to religious concepts.”

Apparently, sources or influences for Su Wukong include Taoism and legends about monkeys or gibbons from the Chu kingdom of China onwards, but it’s hard not to suspect some influence from the Hindu god Hanuman.

“The Coyote mythos is one of the most popular among western Native American cultures, especially among indigenous peoples of California and the Great Basin”.

Personally, I like to trace a line of descent from the Coyote figure in native American mythology to Wile. E. Coyote in Looney Tunes cartoons – heck, he’s even in the same geographic area. (I also do another bit tracing his line of descent from Sisyphus as hero of existential philosophy). Of course, poor Wile E. Coyote is out-tricked by the Roadrunner (perhaps reflecting the same avian trickster spirit as Raven) or is just too tricky for his own good.

 

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT TRICK-TIER?)

 

 

 

(7) ANGELS & SAINTS

 

Well, you simply can’t feature a list of mythological heroes without featuring angels and saints, even if they aren’t always straightforward as heroes.

That’s particularly the case for angels – even in the Biblical text, they can be as ineffable as the God for whom they serve as supernatural intermediaries or messengers. All too often they are agents of His wrath. Not to mention they are literally looking like some sort of eldritch abomination:

“Six wings, four faces, a wheel of fire with eyes lining the rim — you name it. Benevolent or not, these angels were the stuff of nightmares. They didn’t traditionally introduce themselves with “Fear not!” for nothing. Those that were winged tended to stay in heaven or looked… different”.

Of course, angels were also depicted as appearing human, defaulting to the modern archetype of winged (and haloed) humans. Careful with those wings, though – bird wings good, bat wings bad. It’s interesting how the wings of fallen angels seem to transform from good bird wings to evil bat wings – insect wings tend to be reserved for fairies. (Some works also transform angelic halos to something more sinister when they fall).

Also interestingly – and somewhat surprisingly – there are only a few named angels, most notably Michael and Gabriel, demonstrating the usual -el suffix for angel names although there are exceptions.

Michael is the archetypal heroic angel – or is that angelic hero? – famously as the warrior of God and leader of Heaven’s host of angels against Satan, in which role he doubles up as dragonslayer, albeit he casts down rather than slays Satan in the latter’s form as dragon.

Michael also demonstrates some other angelic features. Firstly, that angels have been depicted as a hierarchy of different ranks or types – Michael himself is an archangel. Secondly, Michael has been canonized as a saint as well as an angel – Saint Michael – such that he offers a nice segue into featuring saints as heroes.

Saints of course are almost always depicted as human, at least originally, with a few exceptions of angels characterized as saints or the singular case of Mary, rendered semi-divine through her own immaculate conception. However, saints transcend their humanity to partake of divine or semi-divine nature – becoming saints – by the power of their faith or grace, “having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God”.

As such, they are heroic by nature, albeit usually of a gentler or more pacific nature than other mythic heroes – very often, the only violence is of a self-sacrificial nature, as martyrs. However, there are warrior saints – even at least one dragonslayer saint in the form of Saint George, the archetypal heroic saint.

Really, angels and saints could well be the subject of their own top ten list – indeed, many such top ten lists, including their various elements, tropes, and types, not least angelic hierarchies and patron saints. They came very close to having their own entry in the special mentions for my Top 10 Mythologies, except that they primarily appear in Biblical mythology and associated religions – although there are analogies and counterparts in other mythic or religious traditions such as Buddhism.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(8) GILGAMESH

 

Epic!

No, seriously – the first epic hero, Mesopotamian mythic hero and titular protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The first surviving version of that epic apparently dates back to the 18th century BC, in turn originating from Sumerian poems which may date back to the Third Dynasty of Ur in 21st century BC.

“He was possibly a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who was posthumously deified”. That’s certainly how he was presented by my favorite adaptation of him by Robert Silverberg, who had him as the protagonist of posthumous fantasy in Silverberg’s novel To the Land of the Living. Silverberg obviously had an enduring interest in Gilgamesh, featuring him in a more straightforward adaptation Gilgamesh the King. Indeed, Gilgamesh has been surprisingly enduring and prolific in adaptation in art and popular culture, not just by Silverberg.

Gilgamesh is perhaps most famous for his epic quest for immortality – in which he failed, ironically perhaps for its fame but not surprisingly given how much any such quest is defying the odds. The house of mortality always wins.

Gilgamesh and his epic are even more impactful from their influence on both Biblical and classical mythology, particularly the latter as an influence on the Iliad and the Odyssey.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

*

 

 

(9) BEOWULF

 

“I…AM…BEOWULF!”

The most enduring mythic character – along with antagonists Grendel and Grendel’s mother (with the subsequent dragon tending to be overlooked for that more intriguing mother and son duo) – from “the oldest surviving work of fiction in the English language, written sometime between 700 and 1000 AD”.

Indeed it’s so old – how old is it? Older than yo momma (but not Grendel’s momma) – “that the language it’s written in is barely recognizable as English” and it is more correctly described as Old English.

Like the Iliad and Odyssey earlier in these special mentions, it is an epic poem, but in Beowulf’s case it is “in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend”. The story, set in pagan Scandinavia, is reasonably well known, at least in outline, and is in an effective three-part structure that perhaps has added to its enduring appeal.

Beowulf, a “hero of the Geats” (in southern Sweden), “comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes” (once again gloomy Denmark pops up in classic literature), “whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel for twelve years”. In the first part, Beowulf faces off with Grendel, tearing off his arm and slaying him. In the second, Beowulf faces off against Grendel’s monstrous mother out for vengeance and slays her too. Yass hero, slay! Although he slays her in a very different sense in the 2007 film adaptation – not surprisingly given she appears as a golden form of her voice actress Angelina Jolie, complete with high heels! In the third, Beowulf, now a king in his elderly years, faces off and defeats a dragon, but “is mortally wounded in the battle”.

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote on the difficulty of translating Beowulf in an essay (“On translating Beowulf”). On the subject of J.R.R. Tolkien, here’s a shoutout to him as an enduring influence on adapting or interpreting Beowulf through his study of the epic poem, in lectures or his essay, as well as Beowulf as an enduring influence on Tolkien (“Beowulf is among my most valued sources”) – and through him on modern literary fantasy.

You might know Beowulf’s influence on Tolkien and modern literary fantasy through a little book Tolkien wrote called The Lord of the Rings. Although personally I tend to see more of the direct overlap through The Hobbit – with Bilbo as Beowulf, Gollum as Grendel, and Smaug as, well, the dragon. Sadly, no Grendel’s mother though.

 

RATING:

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(10) ROBIN HOOD

 

“The legendary outlaw archer Robin Hood is an incredibly famous character of medieval folklore, so much so that he has been adapted into countless different media” – and so incredibly famous that for English historical legend he is perhaps exceeded by only one other figure, King Arthur.

“Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw from England. The character was first alluded to in William Langland’s poem Piers Plowman written in the year 1377, although the reference in this poem indicates Robin Hood existed much earlier than that in oral tradition.”

I’d say he needs little introduction, except elements of his legend originally varied from his subsequent adaptations. He is traditionally associated with Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire – hence the Sheriff of Nottingham as his antagonist – but an early ballad places him in Yorkshire, while later ones place him even further away in Scotland and London. “He is identified as a yeoman — a non-noble, free, small landholder — in his original incarnations. The Elizabethans would attribute a title of nobility to Robin as Earl of Huntingdon; several modern incarnations make him a knight (or at least a soldier) and treat The Crusades as some sort of medieval Vietnam.”

More religious elements, such as his devotion to the Virgin Mary, have been replaced by his iconic charity to the poor.

He is the archetypal archer hero – an archetype that has proved surprisingly enduring in the modern age of firearms or squires – combined with “association with nature” and “rebellious personality”.

“The possible inspirations for the myth are equally varied and unclear. While there is limited evidence that he may have been a historical figure, or at least named after one, the modern consensus is that he is a distillation of multiple figures — historical and mythical — from the early 2nd millennium.”

Although there are also theories identifying him as a “a remnant of pre-Christian pagan belief in some form of nature spirit” such as “Robin Wood”, the “Spirit of the Forest”. I’ve read one such version which also conflated him with the folklore figure Robin Goodfellow.

Robin Hood is accompanied by a cast of other characters in legend, perhaps most famously Maid Marian, and his Merry Men – including Little John, Will Scarlett, and Friar Tuck.

 

RATING:

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(11) PROMETHEUS

 

The Rock – the People’s Champion!

No, seriously. Prometheus was the people’s champion – the champion of humanity – in classical mythology. The Rock comes later…

Unlike the Olympian gods or other gods in general (and Prometheus was a Titan which might account for some of the difference), he was consistently in humanity’s corner. In some versions of the myth, he created us (from clay) – which would also account for why he looked out for us.

The primary myth is that he stole fire from the Olympian gods to give to us and hence gave us the means for civilization. In some versions, he added to that by teaching us the actual arts and sciences of civilization as well. As part of his character as benefactor to humanity, he was the classic guile hero or even benevolent trickster, relying on intelligence – with his very name usually argued to mean forethought.

Some versions of his myth have him playing another trick on the gods which compounded his theft of fire from heaven – swindling their sacrifices. That is, he instructed humanity when the gods were choosing their portion of animal sacrifice to disguise the bones under a glistening layer of fat. The gods chose that portion, so that humans were able to retain the meat from animal sacrifices.

Unfortunately, you can only play so many tricks on the gods – only the one as a general rule, two if you were lucky or on a winning streak – before they came down on you with their wrath. The house always wins – and in classical mythology, Olympus was the house.

And so Prometheus literally was bound to a rock as people’s champion – perhaps not so bad of itself, but the eagle eating his liver daily was the true torment, the liver of course regenerating overnight to be eaten again the next day. I told you the Rock comes later. However, Zeus just couldn’t stay mad at Prometheus forever and allowed him to be freed by Heracles. Some versions of his myth attributed that to Prometheus finally confessing the secret of Zeus’ downfall but there was not too much attention given to what Prometheus did after he was unbound.

“In the Western classical tradition, Prometheus became a figure who represented human striving (particularly the quest for scientific knowledge) and the risk of overreaching or unintended consequences.”

Hence, Prometheus has lent his name to common usage as the adjective Promethean, meaning “daringly creative” or innovative but also often rebellious and defiant of authority (or even “suffering grandly”).

“In particular, he was regarded in the Romantic era as embodying the lone genius whose efforts to improve human existence could also result in tragedy” – as with the lesser known subtitle Mary Shelley gave her novel Frankenstein, “The Modern Prometheus”.

“The myth of Prometheus has been a favourite theme of Western art and literature”, particularly “in the post-Renaissance and post-Enlightenment tradition” – including popular culture, notably as the title of the Alien film prequel-sequel (presequel?).

 

 

RATING:

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(12) HECTOR

 

Troy’s greatest warrior and the classical archetype of heroic antagonist, worthy adversary to Achilles in the Iliad.

It just goes to show you can have heroes on both sides. Indeed, there’s been a consistent tendency to see Hector as more heroic, or at least more sympathetic, than Achilles – a tendency that dates back potentially to the Iliad itself and certainly through to the modern reader.

“Hector is still the hero who forever captures the affection of the modern reader, far more strongly than his conqueror has ever done”.

It’s not a universal tendency. Some drily point out that the Iliad more tells than shows Hector’s prowess as a warrior – “Many, but not all, scholars of the Iliad see an incongruence between Hector’s in-story reputation and his actual achievements”. On the other hand, others argue Hector should have played it safe, “following his wife’s practical advice to defend Troy from the city wall” rather than “fighting on the frontlines for the sake of glory” – he was Troy’s crown prince after all.

However, Hector was fated to fall in an epic for which the declared subject in its opening line is the wrath of Achilles – which was, after all, targeted on Hector, at least after Achilles’ companion Patroclus is killed by Hector. This time, it’s personal for Achilles – and so he killed Hector, leaving the Trojan king Priam to beg Achilles if the latter could please stop dragging Hector’s dead body behind him while doing victory laps in his chariot.

Still, it’s hard not to see Hector as more heroic or sympathetic to Achilles, particularly as Hector is fighting foremost to defend his city and family.

“Hector throughout the Trojan War brings glory to the Trojans as their best fighter. He is loved by all his people and known for never turning down a fight. He is gracious to all and thus thought of favorably by all but the Achaeans…He turns the tide of battle”.

That consistent tendency to see Hector as more heroic, or at least more sympathetic, than Achilles – has also carried over to the Trojans against the Greeks in general. The Romans traditionally traced their lineage to Troy and hence accordingly took a positive view of Hector, followed by medieval writers who hailed Hector as one of the “Nine Worthies” or nine heroes from Biblical, classical and medieval sources, as well as others since who have favored Hector as the true hero of the Iliad.

 

RATING:

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(13) AENEAS & ROMULUS

 

All roads lead to Rome – Rome leads back to Romulus and Aeneas.

My previous special mention for Hector leads naturally to special mention for Aeneas, similarly a Trojan hero – less prominent in Greek mythology or the Iliad but one that rose to prominence as the ancestral hero of Rome in Roman mythology and the subject of the Aeneid, epic poem by Virgil intended as a sequel to the Iliad and Odyssey as well as foundational legend for Rome (and the imperial cult of Augustus).

I particularly like that Aeneas is the son of the goddess Aphrodite, which effectively makes her Roman equivalent Venus the founding mother and patron goddess of Rome.

Aeneas may well have been the founding father of Rome but he didn’t found the city itself – hence he shares special mention with Romulus. Famously, Romulus was one of two twin brothers – and as famously, he and his twin Remus were suckled by a she-wolf, known as Lupa Capitolina or the Capitoline wolf, in their infancy. Also as famously (or infamously), Romulus had a falling out of fratricidal degree with his brother as he went on to found the city (and kingdom) of Rome – just as well because the city of Reme just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

 

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

 

(14) LAO TZU / LAOZI

 

The legendary founder of Taoism and the author of its foundational text, the Tao Te Ching.

What I particularly like is that he just jotted down as a literal afterthought or postscript, at the request of a city sentry to record his wisdom for the good of the kingdom before being permitted to pass – before literally riding off into the sunset on a mystical water buffalo because he was that awesome.

Of course, that is probably pure legend in every respect, including the historicity of Laozi himself, but who cares when it’s that cool? And it’s apt enough for the source of Taoism, with its emphases on living in balance, naturalness, spontaneity, simplicity and detachment from desire – particularly living in the moment and wu wei, or the art of doing nothing effectively.

If only there had been some law requiring any foundational religious text be written by its founder like a university exam – within a prescribed time limit of an hour, or two at most.

Surely that would eliminate much of the source of religious conflict, which at heart often seems to be wars of literary interpretation. My book is better than your book. All those long rambling religious texts – really, less is more. Of course, that would also eliminate most, if not almost all religious books.

 

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

(15) CU CHULAINN & FINN MCCOOL

 

Cu Chulainn had me at warp spasm – and Finn McCool had me at the best name for a heroic protagonist outside of, well, Hiro Protagonist.

Mind you, Cu Chulainn also scores bonus points with me for being literally named for a dog – the hound of Culann (after “killing a fierce guard dog” as a child and “offering to take its place until a replacement could be reared”).

Cu Chulainn “is an Irish warrior hero and demigod in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore…believed to be an incarnation of the Irish god Lugh”. Like Achilles, whom he resembles to a substantial extent, “it was prophesied that his great deeds would give him everlasting fame, but that his life would be short”.

By warp spasm, I’m referring to the “terrifying battle frenzy” for which he is known – “in which he becomes an unrecognisable monster who knows neither friend nor foe”. Like all true warrior heroes, he died in battle – and on his feet, binding himself to a standing stone so that he would remain on his feet until the end.

I can’t help but think of Cu Chulainn as the Conan of Irish mythology – both figuratively and literally, the latter as inspiration for Robert E. Howard’s Conan. That’s my speculation, based on my understanding that Robert E. Howard based Conan’s Cimmerian ethnicity on Celtic models.

Pat Mills’ barbarian Irish hero Slaine was definitely based in part on Cu Chulainn, but also from other sources of Irish mythology.

Speaking of which, Finn McCool is an anglicization of the less distinctive Fionn mac Cumhaill or Finn mac Cumhaill, the latter surname also a potential target for contemporary adolescent humor. He was the central figure of the Fianna Cycle or Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology – “the leader of the Fianna bands of young roving hunter-warriors, as well as being a seer and poet”.

 

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

(16) QUETZALCOATL & PAPA LEGBA

 

I felt that these pantheons needed some representation in the special mentions for my top mythological heroes – and these two deities seemed to me to be the most heroic of their respective pantheons, Aztec and voodoo, albeit there’s not many heroic choices in pantheons that often seem villainous or at least alien.

Also, how can you not have a soft spot for the name of Quetzalcoatl? It sounds cool – so much so that I like quipping my middle initial stands for it – and what’s more, it IS cool, meaning “feathered serpent”. Also, it absolutely rules at Scrabble.

“A major deity in Aztec and other Mesoamerican cultures, revered as the god of wind, wisdom, learning, the priesthood, and creation, often depicted as a serpent with feathers, symbolizing the connection between earth and sky, and representing life, death, and rebirth. He was associated with the planet Venus (as the morning/evening star), invented the calendar and books, and was a benevolent force, though his myths also involve exile and prophesied return, influencing early interactions with Spanish conquistadors.”

He can apparently be traced back to earlier Meso-American origins – among the Mayans under the less evocative (and Scrabble-winning) name of Kukulkan, or more controversially, even to a legendary Toltec ruler by the name of Ce Acatl Topiltzin. Even more controversially are those Spanish sources identifying Quetzalcoatl with St Thomas the apostle – or that the Aztecs identified Cortes with prophecies of the deity’s return.

I particularly like him because he is the least sacrificial of the Aztec gods, although sources vary as to whether he was opposed to human sacrifice or just had less of it.

Papa Legba is a loa or lwa in voodoo, “acting as the gatekeeper and intermediary between the human and spirit worlds, invoked first in ceremonies to open communication with other spirits. He is depicted as an old man with a cane, associated with crossroads, communication, and passage, symbolizing wisdom and the ability to remove obstacles, though sometimes appearing as a trickster.”

He scores bonus points for being commonly associated with dogs.

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

 

(17) GREEN MAN

 

It’s not easy being green – the Green Man, Jack in the Green, Green Knight…

“The Green Man, also known as a foliate head, is a motif in architecture and art, of a face made of, or completely surrounded by, foliage, which normally spreads out from the centre of the face. Apart from a purely decorative function, the Green Man is primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of new growth that occurs every spring.”

It has been argued as “related to natural vegetation deities” or even to represent “a pagan mythological figure” surviving in medieval art and architecture, but sadly the latter is a recent argument not supported by evidence.

However, “the Green Man is a term with a variety of connotations in folklore” – “During the early modern period in England and sometimes elsewhere, the figure of a man dressed in a foliage costume, and usually carrying a club, was a variant of the broader European motif of the Wild Man (also known as wild man of the woods, or woodwose). By at least the 16th century, the term “green man” was used in England for a man who was covered in leaves, foliage including moss as part of a pageant, parade or ritual”.

Hence the argument of the survival of a pagan mythological figure – by Lady Raglan in 1939 – which proposed a kind of Green Man Grand Unification Theory of the Green Man (including its frequent use as a name for pubs), the Jack in the Green folk costume and May Day celebrations.

And that’s just getting started – “The Green Man has been asserted by some authors to be a recurring theme in literature…the figures of Robin Hood and Peter Pan are associated with a Green Man, as is that of the Green Knight”.

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

 

 

 

(18) JACK

 

“Jacks are nimble. Jacks are quick. Jacks do not get caught in traps. Jacks kill Giants…Jack is a figure, like Robin Hood, who almost certainly embodies echoes of pre-Christian myths. He is a wise Fool, a Trickster. This halo of the chthonic, which is exceedingly difficult to pin down, may well explain the allure of the various Jack figures in innumerable rhymes and fairytales: the Jack who climbs the Beanstalk and rifles the treasure of the Giant; the Jack whose bargains, each of them magical, gains him the king’s daughter; Jack the Giant-Killer, whose four Magic possessions turn him into a Shapeshifter”.

And there are many more Jack figures in mythic folklore and modern fantasy. Of course, not all of them are heroic – although Jacks tend to be ambiguous heroes at the best of times as befitting for tricksters. Some are more neutral or even verging on dangerous – Jack Sprat, Jack Horner, Jack in the Green, Jack O’Lantern. Others are outright villainous – Spring-Heeled Jack, Jack the Ripper, Jack Ketch.

“Jack is an English hero and archetypal stock character appearing in multiple legends, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes. Folktales about Jack date back to 15th century England but have since spread to other countries through English migration and colonialism. Appalachia in particular has a tradition of Jack tales, often told through folk songs…Unlike moralizing fairy heroes, Jack is often thievish, lazy or foolish, but emerges triumphant through wit and trickery, resembling the trickster or rebel archetypes”.

My favorite adaptation of Jack is as Jack of Fables, the title character of the series of comics of that name by Bill Willingham, spun off from Willingham’s Fables series (and Jack’s role as supporting character in that series). Aptly enough for this special mention, he is (almost) every Jack that has appeared in folklore – Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant-Killer, Jack and Jill, Jack Horner, Jack Be Nimble, Jack Frost, Jack O’Lantern…

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

 

(19) DOG GOD & GOAT BOY

 

And now we get to my wildest special mentions, where the heroes of mythology crossover into my personal mythology.

Dog gods – “deities depicted as dogs or whose myths and iconography are associated with dogs” – occur in different mythologies, but crossover into my personal mythology due to my reverence for them. Dog gods always get bonus points from me!

“Various cultures and mythologies feature dog gods, protectors, and mythical hounds, most notably Anubis, the ancient Egyptian jackal-headed deity of the underworld.”

As for goat boy, it’s just Pan, isn’t it? Not quite – it’s for all the capering and capricious caprine deities out there, all the satyrs, fauns, and goat boys out there. As a Capricorn goat boy myself, I borrow the term for my personal mythology from Bill Hicks comedy routine, in which he styles himself as Randy Pan the Goat Boy, available for children’s parties (where he cavorts with their mommy).

Of course, there’s also Giles Goat Boy by John Barth – very much the mythic hero.

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

 

 

(20) MR MOJO RISIN’

 

Here it is, my wildest special mention where I adapt my own personal Morrison-esque mythology – but you have to admit that Mr Mojo Risin’, that iconic incantation by Jim Morrison in the bridge of The Doors single L.A. Woman, encapsulates much of the essence of the mythic hero, particularly the dying-and-resurrecting divine figure.

Even if it was fortuitously an anagram of the singer’s name – “in the bridge, Morrison repeats the phrase Mr Mojo Risin’, which is an anagram of his name Jim Morrison”.

But Stark After Dark I hear you say, what about your recurring tendency to reserve your final twentieth special mention for your kinky or kinkier entry?

O – but I have! My mythology is a s€xual mythology, Mr Mojo Risin’ looking for his L.A. Woman. And that was in the incantation from its inception:

“After we recorded the song, he wrote “Mr. Mojo Rising” [sic] on a board and said, “Look at this.” He moves the letters around and it was an anagram for his name. I knew that mojo was a s€xual term from the blues, and that gave me the idea to go slow and dark with the tempo. It also gave me the idea to slowly speed it up like an 0rgasm.”

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)