The Androktasiai

This one is tricky because the Androktasiai aren’t one thing.

It’s not “here’s an interesting monster, isn’t it cool.”

This is a bit more complex than that.

I mean - it’s from Greek mythology, so naturally.

The ancient Greeks liked to embody ideas as actual living beings. It seemed like it was one of their favourite things to do in their downtime.

So, at some point, they embodied strife and discord and called it Eris. According to Hesiod, she was the daughter of Nyx, the embodiment of Night.

And, given the way ancient peoples usually viewed the dark of night, it’s no surprise that when Eris had children, it seemed they were born from darkness, too.

And Eris had A LOT of children. I don’t have a definitive count - there may not be one - but just the number of kids Hesiod attributed to her is … significant.

I guess there wasn’t much to do back in Ancient Greece.

Collectively, the children of Eris were known as Androktasiai.

And, confusingly, Androktasiai is also the singular personification of slaughter.

Ah… they loved to make things complicated.

Anyway.

The Androktasiai were often considered daemons (which is a bit more neutral than the modern word “demon”, even if it looks and sounds about the same), and were also the personifications of terrible things.

Like Kydoimos, the personification of Battle-din.

Prioxis, the personification of Pursuit.

Homads, the personification of Tumult.

And those are just a few of them.

There were LOADS of them.

And sometimes, things get even more confusing. Some of these personifications could be treated as either a single being or a collective.

Phonos/the Phonoi, the personification of Murder/Murders.

Hysminae/the Hysminai, the personification of Battle/Battles.

Machae/the Machai, the personification of War/Wars.

And, according to Hesiod’s Theogony, they were the forces that act upon the battlefields, dragging men by the feet.

Some don’t seem quite so terrible on the face of it—like Palioxis, the personification of Rally (or Flight?)—but the one I think is really interesting is Fate. Ker.

For Ker is described as “deadly”, and Hesiod had this to say about her:

“Around her shoulders she wore a cloak, purple with the blood of men, and she glared terribly and bellowed with a clanging sound.”

But Fate is not inherently a bad thing.

Fate works just as hard for the victors in battle as for those slain.

But Hesiod was a bit of a drama-puss.

Now… I’m not a huge fan of Greek mythology, purely because it’s just a bit too cruel for my delicate, horror-raised sensibilities. It always feels like it’s never the bad guy who gets punished. It always feels like the innocent are the ones who suffer the worst - and the gods are gleeful about it. And sometimes, the mortals, too.

But I did find the idea of the Androktasiai interesting. This concept that they could be singular or plural, not exactly villains but certainly not heroic and oh, so many of them.

So … yeah. Maybe I worked one or two into my series.

I’m not telling you where or how, though.

You have to figure that out yourself. 🤫