Common characteristics of villains in early mythology

Myth Villains

The Common Characteristics of Villainy: An Examination of Dastardly Traits from Early Mythology

There are many wildly different sets of mythologies and individual myths in existence today; every human culture has some set of fundamental beliefs that is largely dependent on a common mythology. The differences in these mythologies, just like the differences in the cultures that produce them, can often seem so large as to erase any sense of similarity in the myths. But, also like different cultures, different myths and mythologies also have large areas of similarity and common ground with each other. One of these areas is in the character of the villain, which is a common element in many tales. Though the villains take different shapes, there are some common traits that they typically share. Chief amongst these is selfishness, and combining this with ingenuity and a denial of responsibility equals a villain.

The Navajo Creation Myth

One aspect of the Navajo creation myth, the story of the creation of man, shows the aspects of villainy quite clearly. The villains in this tale are actually the ancestors of mankind, and are not really villains in the traditional sense -- they do not have evil intentions, and their actions do not ultimately end in destruction, but rather creation. Still, hey are definitely viewed negatively within the context of the myth, and it is their villainous actions that leads them through the chain of events that allows them to be the progenitors of the human race. Though not fully villains, the Air Spirits definitely embody the spirit of villainy.

The Air Spirits show their primary quality of villainy, that is their selfishness, in the first piece of background information given in the myth: they were all adulterous, and fought constantly because of it. It wasn't only that both the men and the women were prone to sleeping with each other's partners; "they tried to stop, but they could not help themselves." It is this lack of self-control that demonstrates truly profound and pervasive selfishness, in that it even takes over their planning abilities. The Air Spirits are not happy with the situation the way it is, but they are unable to bring themselves to stop their adulterous behavior in order to have a more peaceful existence with each other. This marks them right form the outset of the story as at least villainous, if not outright villains, and other qualities later on in the continuing myth make this determination more concrete.

One of the most ingenious moments of the myth is when, having been barred from entrance to the kingdoms of the north, south, east, and west, and with a wall of closing in on them from all sides, the Air Spirits go up simply because they have nowhere else to go. The mention of flight isn't made until this point in the myth; it is as though it develops as an inspired innovation in response to the dire situation the Air Spirits find themselves in. This shows a high degree of ingenuity among the Air Spirits, and though it is brought out only by an extreme set of circumstances and after their own obnoxious and villainous behavior, it is only more typical of villain-hood because of this. Most villains become more crafty as they become more desperate, and thus it makes sense that these villains shows their greatest amount of ingenuity when their very lives are being threatened.

The last aspect of villainy, a lack of a sense of personal responsibility, can also be observed in this tale. As the Air Spirits move from one world to the next, constantly being pushed upwards by the inhabitants of each world due to their annoying squabbling, they must be led to the holes in the sky by various helpers. These characters are completely selfish, with pressing and urgent immediate needs, but despite their ingenuity it is ultimately up to someone else to rescue them each time. These are all of the essential ingredients of a villain -- selfishness, ingenuity, and lack of personal responsibility. They are all intertwined as well, of course: it is the Air Spirit's selfishness that destroys their sense of responsibility, or vice versa, and their ingenuity is never enough to provide them either with satisfaction or with the means to establish a peaceful and happy existence amongst themselves.

Prometheus and Pandora

Though occupying a relatively short bit of verse in Hesiod's Woks and Days, the stories of Prometheus and Pandora are essential parts of the Greek mythological view of the world. The first is a sort of trickster-hero, who brought fire from the god to the humans, changing life radically on Earth. As a punishment, Pandora was created sent, and she opened the box that contained all of the earthly troubles, releasing them into the mortal world forever and leaving only hope trapped in the box. But though these two figures might be central in some readings of the myth, Hesiod's telling makes Zeus the clear pro- and antagonist in this story, and as such he can also be seen as one of the biggest mythological villains.

Like most other myths of villainy, this story begins with a bit of selfishness on the part of the villain. Zeus and the other gods, the verse tells us, "desire to keep the stuff of life / hidden from us (lines 47-8). This is a clear and explicit statement of the gods' selfishness, and in the context of the story of Zeus' in particular. There is no other reason provided for his desire to keep fire away from humanity; it is not out of a prudent and paternal fear of fire's destructive powers, nor because of something divine in the very essence of fire that is not to be sullied by human hands, but merely because it is part of the "stuff of life," and the gods do not feel like sharing. It is one more way in which Zeus can feel superior to man, and though this type of petty selfishness might not be very becoming to the king of gods in the Greek pantheon, maker of thunder and lover of swans, it is certainly appropriate for a villain.

So, too, is the ingenuity with which Zeus goes about punishing mankind for Prometheus' stolen gift. He does not simply strike all men dead, or create a terrible monster to roam the land eating livestock and trampling children. Instead, he has a woman created with immense beauty, skill as a weaver, and the "morals of a bitch" (line 76). This is Pandora, who was physically shaped out of the earth by Hephaistos, educated by Athene and Aphrodite, and given her moral fortitude (or lack thereof) by the changeable and flighty Hermes. With this pedigree, it is hardly surprising that the beautiful Pandora leaves her weaving at the earliest opportunity to open the box she was forbidden to even peek inside, thus releasing all kinds of evil an strife into the world. It is also unfortunately unsurprising that this is the method Zeus uses to punish mankind for all time.

By having Pandora be the cause of the release of evil, Zeus equipped himself with two very important words -- plausible deniability. Though he had full knowledge of the box of evils and of Pandora's nature -- as she had been created at his express command and according to his explicit directions -- he can claim that he had nothing to do with releasing all of the turmoil and badness in the world by pointing the finger at Pandora. In this way, Zeus is able to abdicate all responsibility. After selfishly withholding fire from mankind and petulantly over-reacting when Prometheus managed to sneak it past him and bring t to the world anyway, Zeus is still able -- again through his ingenuity -- to avoid all direct responsibility for the issue. This is the third and final sign of his villainy, as it was with the Air Spirits and Mugulu -- not only did he behave in dastardly and villainous ways, but this villainy is in fact compounded by denial of his own responsibility in the matter.

Conclusion

The cultures that produced these myths in the Americas, Africa, and Europe were very different, just as the myths that they created show very different views of the world in some aspects. In other aspects, however, they are largely the same. Though villains and villainous behavior might be a strange area in which to find a common ground with other cultures, the similarities in the villains detailed above demonstrates how similar and common these things really are. It is not only in our good qualities but also in our bad that we humans are truly one people.