TOP 10 MYTHOLOGY HORROR

 

Horror is a genre of fiction that seeks to elicit fear or disgust.

That always prompts me to think of Greek dramatic tragedy and its quality of catharsis proposed by Aristotle, arousing intense feelings of fear and pity in its audience.

However, thinking about horror also prompts me to think that horror, or at least feelings or forms of horror, extend well beyond the genre of fiction labelled as such. Indeed, there is horror to be found throughout the subjects of my top ten lists, most obviously with the heart of horror genre fiction in my lists for film or fantasy and SF – but somewhat less obviously for poetry and literature, comics, television, music, and tropes, all of which are surprisingly prolific for feelings or forms of horror. More surprisingly prolific but even less obviously still is the horror to be found in science and philosophy or history.

Mythology on the other hand may not be so surprising for horror, given that it is easy to trace the origins of horror to mythology itself.

“The horror genre has ancient origins, with roots in folklore and religious traditions focusing on death, the afterlife, evil, the demonic, and the principle of the thing embodied in the person.” (Wikipedia, “Horror Fiction”)

Also, mythology was the usual subject of that Greek dramatic tragedy I referenced at the outset for its catharsis. I stand by that comparison between Greek tragedy and the genre of horror, at least as holding up in similar qualities of catharsis. And it wouldn’t take too much to tweak most Greek tragedies into horror films.

Hence, this is my Top 10 Mythology Horror list. Obviously, horror in mythology tends to be from supernatural sources, but then my own tastes in horror similarly lean towards dark fantasy or supernatural horror so it’s a good match. For that matter, horror films or horror in fantasy literature also frequently lean to adapting the horror in mythology.