Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire & Imperialism (Special Mention)

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The Army takes an Oath to the Emperor after the Distribution of Eagles, 5 December 1804 – 1810 painting by Jacques-Louis David (public domain)

 

 

(17) ROMAN IMPERIAL METRIC – EAGLE & CAESAR

 

But is it a Roman Empire with eagle and Caesar? Is it an eagle empire?

Yes, it’s another Roman imperial metric, but this time more narrowly by its imperial standard or symbolism, as well as the adaptation of Caesar as imperial title.

The use of eagle as symbol for imperial states, with one or two heads, both precedes its use by the Romans and also extends well beyond those adapting Roman usage, because the eagle is a pretty impressive bird. It could well be the subject of its own top ten list – or lists, one for those adapting Roman usage and one for those not adapting Roman usage. Even the Roman usage overlapped with the Christian usage of the eagle as the symbol of St John the Evangelist.

An example of the eagle being used by an imperial state preceding the Roman usage is that by the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

A clear example of the eagle being used by states not influenced by or adapting Roman usage is that of the Aztecs, subsequently adopted by Mexico for its coat of arms and flag.

Adapting Roman usage from the western Roman empire, there was the Holy Roman Empire and its various ‘successors’ – the Hapsburgs (and through them the Spanish Empire), Austria, and Germany, the last most infamously in the Third Reich. There was also Napoleonic France, which also adapted the use of the Roman aquila or eagle as a standard for legions and their military reputation.

From the eastern Roman empire, there was Trebizond, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, and imperial Russia, although that last is usually now superseded in animal symbolism by the bear.

The most famous contemporary usage of the eagle as national symbol is that of the United States – although clearly influenced by the Roman model (as it was for much of the politics of its founding), it adapted that to the bald eagle as a bird uniquely native to their continent.

As for the usage of Caesar as imperial title, that generally follows the title in German or Slavic.

The usage in German – kaiser – is best known for its usage as title in the Second Reich. That is, imperial Germany from 1871 to the First World War.

The usage in Slavic – mostly commonly translated in English as tsar and czar (but also less commonly as tzar and csar) – is best known for its usage as title in Imperial Russia. However, it was also used as Serbia, as well as commonly used in American political circles as an informal title for an overarching government portfolio, such as drug czar or energy czar.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Empires (Special Mention: Revised) (17) America – Aztec & Inca Empires

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(17) AMERICA – AZTEC & INCA EMPIRES

 

The preeminent empires of pre-Columbian America, although sadly best known to history (and myself) as foils to the Spanish Empire – albeit because of defeats unparalleled in history for just how few Spanish forces conquered such populous empires in so short a span of time.

I have more knowledge of the Aztec Empire prior to the Spanish Conquest – if only for the lurid horror stories of its imperial religion of human sacrifice on a scale unprecedented in the region, or anywhere else for that matter. However, the nature and extent of Aztec human sacrifice is often disputed as historical propaganda – as indeed is the so-called Black Legend of anti-Spanish history when it comes to the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire – with some fairness on both sides.

The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Colombian America, almost ten times larger than the Aztec Empire and perhaps two or three times as populous but not as brutal. The size of the Inca Empire is quite striking for an empire predominantly in mountainous highlands – “one of the greatest imperial states in human history” created and maintained “without the use of the wheel, draft animals, knowledge of iron or steel, or even a system of writing”. Or largely without money or markets apparently, like Star Trek but without the post-scarcity. Also one without the more characteristic grain cultivation of other agricultural states – instead cultivating potatoes.

Which makes its defeat even more striking than that of the Aztecs, particularly as the Spanish leader Francisco Pizarro started with about a third of the forces of his counterpart Cortes against the Aztecs – a mere 168 soldiers – and was over 60 years of age at the time. Now that’s how to spend your retirement years!

Although Pizarro was perhaps luckier in his timing with a civil war of succession to the Inca imperial throne – as well as capturing and holding the reigning Inca ruler hostage.

Of course, the primary factor for the fall of both empires was the disease or diseases spread ahead of the Spanish who brought them – and which ravaged the native American populations who had no acquired resistance to them. While that would seem to be the greatest scale for the role disease has played in the fall of empires, disease has played a recurring role in the decline or fall of other empires, including the Roman Empire – as is the subject of Plagues and Peoples by historian William H. McNeill.

I have less knowledge of the Inca Empire prior to Spanish Conquest, although that seems apt as it’s an empire that has a quality of mystery or at least mystique to it. That includes the legendary “lost cities of the Incas” to which they retreated as a vestigial empire – the neo-Inca state – as well as “periodic attempts by indigenous leaders to expel the Spanish colonists and re-create the Inca Empire until the late 18th century”.

 

 

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire & Imperialism (Special Mention) (16) Roman Imperial Metric

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Napoleon in coronation robes – painting by Framcois Gerard (public domain)

 

 

(16) ROMAN IMPERIAL METRIC

 

But is it a Roman Empire?

Yes, that’s a gag, prompted by my Top 10 Roman Empires, which was also something of a gag.

But seriously, the Roman Empire endured as an imperial metric or template for subsequent empires, particularly in its former territory in Europe or Mediterranean basin – and particularly for those empires, as featured in my special mentions for my Top 10 Roman Empires, that claimed succession from the Roman Empire.

“The continuation, succession, and revival of the Roman Empire is a running theme of the history of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. It reflects the lasting memories of power and prestige associated with the Roman Empire. Several polities have claimed immediate continuity with the Roman Empire, using its name or a variation thereof as their own exclusive or non-exclusive self-description. As centuries went by and more political ruptures occurred, the idea of institutional continuity became increasingly debatable”.

So yes, there’s a recurring Roman imperial metric among empires, either comparing themselves (or being compared) to the classical Roman empire or claiming succession from it – however tenuously, as for example with the Spanish Empire (both in comparison and succession) or the British Empire (in comparison). While that is generally for European or Mediterranean empires, that metric is sometimes extended to other empires, albeit usually European in origin – as for example with the Russian Empire or the United States.

There’s arguably an even wider Roman imperial metric – its metric or template of decline and fall, that “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, retreating to the breath of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear and naked shingles of the world”.

Just as many looked to the Roman Empire as their state or imperial model, with kingdoms or states purporting to succeed or revive it in one form or another thereafter, even more look to its decline and fall. Even now, the decline and fall of the Roman Empire informs much modern discourse about state failure – from Edward Gibbon onwards, “we have been obsessed with the fall: it has been valued as an archetype for every perceived decline, and, hence, as a symbol for our own fears”.

The fashionable contemporary Roman imperial metric, particularly in decline and fall, is with the United States – as Adrian Goldsworthy noted in the introduction to his book “How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower”, where he dismisses it as cliché, one which he entertainingly relates that he is routinely accosted at dinner parties when he informs someone of his historical speciality.

There’s also another Roman imperial metric that seems to pop up in actual comparative history – that between the Roman Empire and Imperial China, whether the Han Dynasty that was contemporary with the classical Roman Empire or the continuity of China as imperial polity in general.

The Roman imperial metric in comparison with China was notably drawn by Walter Scheidel in his book “Escape from Rome” – where he distinguished the unique Roman achievement of its imperial unity in Europe and of the Mediterranean, not replicated before or since (not even by the Byzantine or eastern Roman Empire), from the more continuous and enduring imperial polity in China, albeit in successive dynasties.

And that’s a good thing. In short, the thesis of this book is that the fall of Rome led to the Great Divergence – that divergence of “political, economic, scientific, and technological breakthroughs that allowed Europe to surge ahead while other parts of the world lagged behind”. Essentially, that’s because of “competitive fragmentation”, both within states and perhaps more fundamentally between them, with “the enduring failure of empire-building” and no single state ever able to rise to Rome’s imperial predominance in Europe. The main contrast is with China as polar opposite, with its consistent unitary imperial states, with the other Eurasian civilizations between them geographically also falling between them on this political scale of Rome vs China.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Empires (Special Mention: Revised) (16) Africa – Ethiopian Empire

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The Ethiopian Empire in 1952 by Amde Michael – Wikipedia “Ethiopian Empire” licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

 

(16) AFRICA – ETHIOPIAN EMPIRE 

 

“By the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Elect of God”

Iron like a Lion in Zion!

Special mention shout-out for the empires of sub-Saharan Africa – of which there are a plethora from which to choose.

The Ethiopian Empire may not seem an obvious first choice – with the Mali Empire, under Mansu Musa, reputed to be the richest man in history, and the Songhai Empire, vying for the wealthiest and largest empires in Africa respectively.

However, the Ethiopian Empire was the longest lasting empire in Africa, enduring seven centuries from the Middle Ages in 1270(!) to the Cold War, with its messianic emperor Haile Selassie one of the last reigning emperors in history, deposed in 1974(!!) by communist revolution. Ethiopia was one of the last countries in the world to have the title for emperor as its head of state, along with Iran and Japan (as well as another empire we’ll mention later in these special mentions) – which left Japan as the only such nation after the 1970s.

Well longest-lasting apart from its enigmatic predecessor, the kingdom of Aksum, which is said to have lasted eight centuries from 100 AD to 900 AD and was styled as one of the great powers of antiquity.

Back to the Ethiopian Empire, sometimes styled as Abyssinia, it has a history that is almost literally the stuff of legend and literally the stuff of religion – starting with its imperial dynasty known as the Solomonic Dynasty, claiming descent from the last Aksumuite king and ultimately the Biblical duo of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba themselves, tracing Sheba to Ethiopia.

With that Biblical pedigree, it remained staunchly committed to its ancient form of Christianity, despite being surrounded by hostile forces in the Horn of Africa, often identified as the source of the European legend of the mysterious non-European Christian monarch Prester John.

It’s odd to think of Ethiopian crusades against Islamic armies to become the dominant power of the Horn of Africa but that’s effectively what happened – and not too far in time from European crusades.

It’s also odd to think of Ethiopia in decline after that then warding off Islamic invasions, firstly with the help of the Portuguese – and then on their own against the Ottomans. It lost its Red Sea coast to the Ottomans – but then had its golden age, before falling into its own version of a shogunate.

It’s again odd to think of the Ethiopian Empire as an imperial participant in the Scramble for Africa but it was – an expansionist power like the Zulus earlier, expanding into the modern borders of Ethiopia and defeating a rival European power, the Italians pushing down from Eritrea in the Battle of Adwa in 1896, but making it stick unlike the Zulus and preserving their independence, the only African nation to do so (apart from Liberia).

Of course, the Italians famously took another swing at it under Mussolini and won in a strange throwback to the Scramble for Africa, occupying Ethiopia until being defeated there by the British in the Second World War, which saw Emperor Haile Selassie return from exile.

Finally, it’s odd to see its last emperor – the same Haile Selassie – again become the stuff of legend and religion, as he was hailed as a literally messianic figure, the returned Messiah of the Bible, by the Rastafarian religious movement and reggae, hence the quotes opening this entry. To play on an old gag, they saw the God-Emperor of Mankind – and he was black.

Until of course the less poetically named Derg, essentially a military junta, decided he was not the Messiah but just a very naughty boy – and chose the religion of Marxist-Leninism instead.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire & Imperialism (Special Mention) (15) Scramble for Africa

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Otto von Bsimarck at the Berlin Conference, 1884 – magazine illustration (public domain)

 

 

(15) SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA

 

Even more so than civilizing mission or gunboat diplomacy, the Scramble for Africa – the colonization of Africa by seven European powers (Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Portugal) – almost uniquely represents the height of European colonial empires in the so-called Golden Age of Imperialism between the Napoleonic Wars and The First World War.

Indeed, the Scramble for Africa was scrambled even more quickly than that broad century timeframe suggests, as it was effectively concentrated in about thirty years from the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference to the commencement of the First World War in 1914.

As late as the 1870s, Europeans controlled approximately 10% of the African continent, with all their territories located near the coasts… By 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia remained outside European control, with the former eventually being occupied by Italy in 1936 and the latter having strong connections with the United States.”

Speaking of the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference, it is seen as emblematic of the scramble, but while it did represent to some extent agreement between the European powers to divide Africa up between themselves in an orderly fashion, there remained political rivalries between them that on occasion threatened to bubble over into armed conflict. Armed conflict between Europeans that is – the European powers were far less squeamish about armed conflict with the Africans being colonized, including the use of machine guns.

Technological advances paved the way to the Scramble for Africa, notably in transportation and communication such as steamships, railways and telegraphs, but the biggest of all was medical advances for the tropical diseases which had effectively been the great African wall protecting the continent – invisible and silent but deadly or debilitating.

I can’t help but compare the Scramble for Africa to the space race, “won” at great expense in an intense burst of time, but the expense of the former was much more of a boondoggle for the imperial powers with little benefit to anyone from it, including the powers themselves – although at least the space race didn’t have anything on the scale of exploitation to the Belgian Congo.

I also can’t help but think that the Scramble for Africa was not unique. Indeed, it seems to me that imperial scrambles are relatively common in history, albeit more so for competing imperial powers as throughout European colonialism. European colonialism might be characterized as a series of scrambles, commencing with the Scramble for the Americas, or the Scramble for trade to the Indies. The Great Game between Britain and Russia, as well as the more general competition among Western powers for spheres of influence or concessions in China, might also be characterized as imperial scrambles.

But really, when you boil it down, the rise or increase of many empires, particularly when meteoric or rapid, might be characterized as a “scramble”, whether against opposing imperial powers or not. Of course, when an empire squares off against competing or opposing empires, it might be more evocative of an imperial scramble. A substantial part of the contest between the Roman and Persian empires might well be characterized as the Scramble for Armenia.

Even the Scramble for Africa might be argued as not so unique with respect to Africa itself. The Romans had something of a miniature scramble or proto-scramble for Africa, beyond the extent of their north African conquests and trade with sub-Saharan Africa. There were Roman incursions into sub-Saharan Africa, such as expeditions to sub-Saharan Africa west of the Nile, as well as the more famous expedition ordered by Nero to find the source of the Nile – and potentially to scout out invasion of Nubia or Ethiopia.

After the Romans came the Arabs with their own incursions into sub-Saharan Africa, most infamously for the Arab slave trade – equal to or exceeding the subsequent Atlantic slave trade, itself arguably a proto-scramble for Africa, in scale and duration if not in intensity.

Decolonization also arguably brought further scrambles for Africa as well as the scramble out of it, with the Cold War at times evoking a quasi-scramble or quasi-scrambles for Africa, not to mention the allegations of neo-imperialism extending well beyond the original seven European colonial powers.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Empires (Special Mention) – New Entry: (15) Napoleonic Empire

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Napoleonic Empire at its peak in September 1812, occupying Prussia and advancing on Moscow, by DannamEmpire in Wikipedia “First French Empire” licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

 

 

 

(15) NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE

 

The empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, “who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe” for a decade or so – formally from 18 May 1804 (although I would argue it effectively preceded that) to 6 April 1814, and for an encore from 20 March 1815 to 7 July 1815.

It’s referred to by historians as the First French Empire – to distinguish it from the second one ruled by his nephew Napoleon III, the perfect representation of the Marxist quip that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. Historians also distinguish both from the French colonial empire, that overlapped with and persisted through them.

18 May 1804 was when Napoleon was granted the title Emperor of the French, crowning himself on 2 December 1804 – signifying the end of the French Consulate and French First Republic, although the stated continued to be called the French Republic until October 1808. However, the reality of French military predominance in Europe and Napoleon’s predominance within the Republic preceded the formal imperial title.  French military predominance was cemented as military supremacy and hegemony in continental Europe by Napoleon’s victories in the so-called War of the Third Coalition and the War of the Fourth Coalition, with the latter representing the high point of the empire.

Napoleon distinguished himself as one of the most brilliant military commanders of history. Under his leadership, the French armies repeatedly defeated numerically superior Austrian, Prussian and Russian armies – outfighting coalition after coalition led and financed by Britain.

But in the end Napoleon lost his Napoleonic wars and with them, his empire – defeat saw his empire dismantled, France completely defeated (once and for all in a battle subsequently commemorated by Abba) and Napoleon himself exiled to progressively more pathetic islands.

Despite his strategic and tactical brilliance, Napoleon was undermined by his own flaws. One basic flaw was his nepotism in handing out kingdoms or nations as prizes to his relatives – most critically in giving the kingdom of Spain to his brother Joseph, which prompted Spain to rise up against France in the Peninsular War, the running sore or “Spanish Ulcer” of Napoleon’s empire

Of course, it didn’t help that Napoleon was relentlessly opposed by the British, who were unparalleled in magnificent bastardry – with their most cunning aspect to pose as being nice, as if they were just going about playing cricket rather than taking out almost every country on earth in the name of empire.

In fighting the world’s greatest maritime power, Napoleon was handicapped by his lack of understanding of naval strategy (or his navy’s lack of ability) as well as geopolitics. It was trying to fight outside Europe (and on the seas) that Napoleon met with his earliest (and most consistent) defeats.

For all his romping around Europe, he effectively was bottled up in Europe by the British navy, unable to project his power into the world. All his victories in Europe did not change the basic fact that true world power had moved from the center of Europe to its edges – to the maritime empire of Britain and the continent-spanning empire of Russia, which ultimately crushed him between them. And in the end, all Napoleon’s wars achieved was handing world empire over not to his own empire, but to two successive Anglo-Saxon powers, Britain and the United States (the latter not least through the Louisiana Purchase) – the real winners of the Napoleonic Wars.

The defeat of his empire also initiated the rise of Germany under Prussia – with Prussia reforming itself militarily, and then, as part of the Congress of Vienna seeking to beef it up for a better balance of power, acquiring industrial regions in Germany that transformed agrarian Prussia into an industrial leader in the nineteenth century.

Of course, Germany was to have the same fatal flaw as that of Napoleon before them, bottled up between Britain and Russia as well as misjudging the extent to which world power had moved beyond Europe. Actually, their situation was worse, as world power to their west had moved across the Atlantic to the United States, even more beyond their reach than the maritime empire and power of Britain. Indeed, only twenty years after Waterloo, another Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville predicted Russia and the United States as the two global powers – a process that visibly took shape during the Napoleonic Wars.

However, Napoleon’s empire saw the transformation of Europe and the world into their modern form– spreading French revolutionary principles over much of Europe (then identified as liberal with the same distaste as a subsequent era was to identify socialist or communist).

It “had profound consequences on global history, including the spread of nationalism and liberalism, the rise of Britain as the world’s foremost naval and economic power, the appearance of independence movements in Latin America and subsequent decline of the Spanish Empire and Portuguese Empire, the fundamental reorganization of German and Italian territories into larger states, and the introduction of radically new methods of conducting warfare.”

To which might have been added other things, such as the relative peace in continental Europe during the nineteenth century, and the territorial expansion of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase. And my own pet theory that the destruction of indigenous nations or peoples in the Americas and Australasia can be traced to Napoleon. Not directly, of course, but indirectly through the Louisiana Purchase, consolidation of British “settlement” in Australia and Latin American revolution or independence, which accelerated the impending destruction of indigenous peoples or nations.

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythology Horror (Complete)

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This almost looks like a cheerful party, except for the dead babies – Francisco Goya’s “Witches’ Sabbath”, oil painting 1798 (public domain)

 

 

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.

 

 

A particularly horrific scene, as depicted in William-Adolphe Bougeureau’s 1850 painting “Dante and Virgil in Hell” (publlic domain image)

 

 

(1) UNDERWORLD

 

Chthonic horror!

God is a hole in the heart of the world and he’s hungry – omnipotent, omniscient, omnivorous.

Yes, I know my top entry for mythology horror is a common denominator across mythologies – dare I say lowest common denominator in a different sense – rather than any specific mythology.

But you don’t get more horror in mythology than chthonic horror, the horror of the underworld.

Even when it isn’t literal hell or pandemonium, the underworld is a bleak and dark place, that hole in the heart of the world.

Even when its gods aren’t literal demons or devils, they are those hungry gods representing the force of death in a world of the dead. The underworld lies between death and destruction or between the proverbial devil and the deep blue sea – the adversarial forces of nature between predation and parasitism, between evolution and entropy. Or is that devolution (heh)?

And of course its denizens are the dead.

While there tends to be mythic horror in descent into the underworld, literally or metaphorically, particularly if one remains there for good or rather for evil (heh), mythic horror usually involves the underworld or its supernatural forces moving in the other direction, invading our own world. For that matter, that’s usually the default plot or premise of horror fiction, literally or metaphorically.

Hell, even the intrusion or invasion of mythic worlds other than the underworld into our own can be terrifying. “Be not afraid” as Biblical angels say to soothe the terror from their appearance.

 

 

 

The bedsheet ghost – that common visual representation of ghosts in Western popular culture. And what better illustration for one than a Scooby Doo villain – Phantom from “Hassle in the Castle”, Season 1 episode 3 “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” (fair use)

 

 

(2) GHOSTS

 

Ghosts – shades, shadows, apparitions, haunts, phantoms or phantasms, poltergeists, spectres, spooks and wraiths – the stuff of folklore, as belief in ancestral spirits or spirits of the dead is nearly universal in world folklore or mythology.

And ghost stories or hauntings are nearly universal as the default plot or premise in horror. Even when the plot of horror fiction does not involve an actual ghost, it tends to involve haunted house or place in one way or another – giving rise to the so-called haunted house problem so that the plot can occur, or why don’t they just leave? (Usually the answer is some variant that they can’t).

The only reason ghosts aren’t in the top spot is because they are a subset, albeit a large one, of my top spot entry of the underworld.

Note their incorporeal nature, which distinguishes them from my next entry for the hungry, corporeal dead.

Not all ghosts are equal. There’s nice or benign ghosts – something you might expect for your own ancestral or familial spirits. And some ghosts are just a**holes. I guess being dead can do that to you. Japanese ghosts – those stringy-haired ghost girls – are particularly nasty, attacking people for no particular reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And then you have the weirder, otherwordly “ghosts”, that aren’t even people but things – haunted houses or locations (which are ghostly entities of themselves, apart from any individual ghosts that may be hanging around), ghost ships, ghost trains, and phantom vehicles.

 

 

Santanico Pandemonium poster art Season 2, From Dusk Till Dawn TV series – one of my favorite female vampires. Yes – it’s not Salma Hayek from that scene in the film but Eiza Gonzalez is more vamped up in the poster here

 

 

(3) VAMPIRES

 

And now we get to the hungrier folklore of the dead, distinct in their corporeal form from ghosts – back from the dead as revenants. They came back wrong. Not much good comes out of coming back from the dead as a rule. It usually involves preying upon life to sustain one’s unnatural, undead being – treading water, but in blood, as it were.

There is a whole host of vampiric or ‘vampire adjacent’ beings or creatures in folklore and mythology, going all around the world and back to the dawn of history or beyond.

While the archetypal vampire of European folklore – “the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire” – is relatively recent, originating “almost exclusively from early 18th-century southeastern Europe”, the broader archetype of the hungry corporeal dead goes back at least to ancient Mesopotamia, as John Blair points out in his book Killing the Dead.

And so too does killing the dead (again) as per the book’s title – the various means of preventing vampires (as in the various means of preventing a corpse from becoming a vampire, or at least causing too much trouble as one), identifying vampires, and most importantly of all, protecting against or destroying them.

When the dead aren’t ghostly in horror, they’re hungry. The corporeal dead, and killing them, is a substantial part of horror fiction.

 

 

“The Vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones” by Gustave Dore in 1866 – from the Book of Ezekiel 37:1-14, a passage evoking horror fiction (public domain)

 

 

(4) BIBLE & BIBLICAL MYTHOLOGY

 

Wait – what? The Bible or Biblical mythology as horror?

I mean, have you read the Bible?

In fairness, the Bible and Biblical mythology tend not to be directly horror, except perhaps for the book in my next entry.

Rather, they tend to be more indirectly horror – that is, they or elements within them tend to be tropes of, or readily adapted to, horror. Indeed, there’s a whole sub-genre of horror fiction that just does the latter – religious horror.

Of course, the focus of religious horror tends to be the figure literally named as the adversary in the Bible, Satan, or the other lesser adversarial figures under him. Satan and his demons are somewhat muted (and mostly absent) for horror in the Old Testament, but the New Testament ramps them up in horror, not least in its stories of demonic possession or exorcism which continue to be tropes in horror fiction. The story of the demon Legion remains genuinely terrifying, not unlike The Exorcist film in its narrative.

The underworld of the Bible and Biblical mythology remains the most horrific of any mythic underworld, both of itself and for its demonic denizens, although again this is muted or mostly absent in the Old Testament and ramped up in the New Testament.

Mind you, even the supernatural force of God or forces of Heaven can be terrifying, whether in visions or intruding into our own world. “Be not afraid” as Biblical angels say to soothe the terror from their appearance – and it does not take too much to reimagine encounters with angels, such as Jacob wrestling with the angel (or whatever you interpret it to be), as horror.

Outside the supernatural elements, the Bible or Biblical mythology leans more towards slasher horror with its human violence – or inside its supernatural elements for that matter, with God as arguably the biggest slasher of all. The Plagues of Egypt – or cycles of punishment for Israel – can read like the Saw films.

Finally, there are many episodes, passages or stories within the Bible that are easy to reimagine as horror in one form or another – for example, the Levite’s concubine or the Witch of Endor, I’m struck by how often that has effectively been done by artists – and by just how many artists have done Biblical horror art, as it were. Durer, Dore, Bruegel, Dali, and so on – enough for the subject of its own top ten list.

 

 

 

“Death on a Pale Horse” (and all hell followed after him) – Death as the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, 1865 engraving by Gustave Dore (public domain)

 

 

(5) APOCALYPSE

 

As I said in my previous entry, the Bible and Biblical mythology tend not to be directly horror, except perhaps for the book in this entry – the Book of Apocalypse.

The Book of Apocalypse pretty much reads as horror fiction, with faithful Christians as the final girl.

Beyond that, it has many elements or figures that recur as tropes in horror fiction, not least the Beast, the Antichrist figure most famously adapted in The Omen film franchise. Even Apocalyptic Jesus can present as a terrifying figure, what with that sword coming out of his mouth and all.

Of course, these tropes loom largest and in their most literal form in religious horror – but they recur in more metaphorical form in other sub-genres of horror fiction.

For a quick apocalyptic roll call, it’s literally one damned thing after another – or one beast after another, as the Great Beast or Beast of the Apocalypse as it is called, is not the only beast in the Apocalypse. You have the Four Horsemen, Star Wormwood, Abaddon, the Locusts of the Bottomless Pit, the Dragon and the Woman Clothed in the Sun (the latter something of a final girl herself), the False Prophet, and Mystery Babylon.

O – and whole swathes of humanity die.

 

 

Yeah, they tear him apart after what we see here – and one of them is his mother. Pentheus being torn apart by maenads in a Roman fresco in Pompeii (public domain)

 

 

(6) CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY

 

Remember my introduction’s reference to modern horror fiction prompting to mind Greek dramatic tragedy and its catharsis – its intense feelings of fear and pity?

Well, here we are, as classical mythology was the usual subject of that Greek dramatic tragedy and catharsis. Or for that matter, the usual structure of Greek dramatic tragedy of hubris followed by nemesis, with the latter usually personified as the goddess Nemesis or similar figures such as the Furies.

And as I said, it wouldn’t take too much to tweak most Greek tragedies into horror films.

The Bacchae by Euripides demonstrates the horror inherent in classical mythology. The tragedy is based on the myth of Pentheus, king of Thebes, who is opposed to the new god Dionysus and his cult. It’s easy to see it as modern horror fiction, from the folk horror of The Wicker Man to cosmic horror – Dionysus as Yog Sothoth, perhaps?

A conflation of folk and cosmic horror pretty much sums up the horror of classical mythology, particularly the latter with brutal divine punishments or cruel divine wrath. There are also monstrous creatures and the body horror of metamorphoses, often combined – and both tend to be instruments of divine punishment or wrath. Even when your adversaries or antagonists are human rather than supernatural in classical mythology, it often resembles slasher horror.

As for the Bible and Biblical mythology, modern horror fiction tends not to adapt classical mythology directly – few or no minotaurs, sphinxes, chimeras, or hydras for example – but instead draws on its themes, tropes, and above all its templates of dramatic tragedy.

 

 

Arguably the most horrific scene of the 2026 Nolan film from the promotional trailer, evoking Goya’s painting Saturn Devouring His Son (fair use)

 

 

 

(7) ODYSSEY

 

Let’s face it – the Odyssey is essentially monstrous survival horror.

And divine survival horror – or slasher horror, with Poseidon as the slasher and Odysseus as the final girl.

As some observed upon watching Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey film, some of its scenes – particularly the Cyclops and Circe, although I think that overlooks the underworld – evoked horror, prompting speculation of Nolan’s untapped potential as a director of horror.

Certainly, however, the original epic evokes much of the same horror as elsewhere in classical mythology, not to mention that it is the literal epic template for horror fiction, as it is for all Western literature.

It prompts to mind the interpretation of Robert Graves that the Odyssey is one underworld scene after another, including the actual descent into the underworld. For that matter, that descent into the underworld – or katabasis – is reminiscent enough of horror, what with setting out the blood for the dead to feed and all. Who are these coming to the sacrifice, indeed…?

 

 

“Odin and Fenris” 1909 illustration by Dorothy Hardy in Myths of the Norsemen by H.A. Guerber – I own the book with this image (public domain)

 

 

(8) NORSE MYTHOLOGY

 

Norse mythology is essentially the cabin in the woods, metaphorically as the horror trope.

Arguably even literally as the 2011 film of that name, as elaborate and deceptive machinations behind the scenes – primarily by Odin – for ritual sacrifice to keep the world-destroying eldritch abominations at bay.

But certainly at the metaphorical level of the horror trope, Norse mythology is the cabin in the apocalyptic woods.

The apocalypse, that is of fire, ice and darkness – embodied or represented by giants, monstrous wolves or serpents, and the evil dead of Hel. An apocalypse that the gods can only hope to keep at bay but will ultimately overwhelm them and destroy the world – an apocalypse where even the greatest of gods will be swallowed up by wolves or drowned in venom.

Sure, Asgard and Valhalla might be much grander places than the usual cabin in the woods to bunker down and party up in preparation for the apocalyptic horror.

Sure, the gods are much more powerful than the average horror protagonist in the cabin of the woods. Well, with the exception of Ash Williams in the Evil Dead franchise, but we all know he’s a dead ringer for the god Tyr, even down to the sacrificial loss of his hand.

The gods can even have a bit of fun and adventure before the metaphorical lights go out, aided to some extent by limited co-existence or détente with antagonists that are not quite as adversarial as the average horror antagonists, at least for a while.

But in the end, Norse mythology is the cabin in the woods, besieged by apocalyptic eldritch abominations.

As with the Bible and classical mythology, modern horror rarely adapts the eldritch abominations of Norse mythology directly – with the notable exception of the 2017 film The Ritual (and the book it adapted)– but instead adapts its ambience, template and tropes for the cabin in the woods.

 

 

 

Illustration of Grendel by Joseph Ratcliff Skelton for “Stories of Beowulf” in 1908 – love the handbag! (public domain)

 

 

(9) BEOWULF

 

Haunted Heorot – haunted by monsters.

After the Odyssey (as the epic template of everything), Beowulf is the epic template for horror fiction, endlessly adapted for dark fantasy horror ever since.

It has the classic horror fiction scenario – where humans have trespassed into the territory of something much older and darker, that now emerges at night to prey upon on them.

It even has the classic horror fiction twist – that the first monster Grendel is not the last and the initial victory of slaying him is only a brief illusion, the eye in the storm, as an even more dangerous monster takes its place. In Beowulf, that’s Grendel’s mother, seeking vengeance for her slain son – and unfortunately she does not usually look like Angelina Jolie.

O – and there’s a dragon but that doesn’t come close to the horror or suspense of Grendel and his mother, even when Beowulf dies to slay it.

 

 

Cover art for the Blu-Ray Collector’s Edition of the 1988 film by horror director Wes Craven The Serpent and The Raiinbow – a lot of Hollywood voodoo going on in that art (fair use)

 

 

(10) VOODOO

 

What else to round out my top ten mythology horror list but voodoo? The very name evokes horror, at least in the Hollywood version of voodoo. There’s even the trope for it of Hollywood Voodoo – Baron Samedi, voodoo dolls, and even shrunken heads.

Even when it reflects its more religious elements, voodoo still evokes horror – such as with its ritual spirit possession. I mean, you don’t get more horror than a religion in which The Exorcist is a sacrament, right?

But voodoo’s here for one thing above all else, particularly in its Hollywood version – zombies. Of course, the voodoo zombie is very different from the viral zombies of modern zombie horror films and their tropes of zombie apocalypse, although I would love to see a voodoo zombie apocalypse. Even so, the voodoo zombie is the origin of the name and concept, albeit the voodoo zombie was reanimated by magic (or a living person enslaved into a zombie-like state by various means).

 

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythology Horror (10) Voodoo

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Cover art for the Blu-Ray Collector’s Edition of the 1988 film by horror director Wes Craven The Serpent and The Raiinbow – a lot of Hollywood voodoo going on in that art (fair use)

 

 

(10) VOODOO

 

What else to round out my top ten mythology horror list but voodoo? The very name evokes horror, at least in the Hollywood version of voodoo. There’s even the trope for it of Hollywood Voodoo – Baron Samedi, voodoo dolls, and even shrunken heads.

Even when it reflects its more religious elements, voodoo still evokes horror – such as with its ritual spirit possession. I mean, you don’t get more horror than a religion in which The Exorcist is a sacrament, right?

But voodoo’s here for one thing above all else, particularly in its Hollywood version – zombies. Of course, the voodoo zombie is very different from the viral zombies of modern zombie horror films and their tropes of zombie apocalypse, although I would love to see a voodoo zombie apocalypse. Even so, the voodoo zombie is the origin of the name and concept, albeit the voodoo zombie was reanimated by magic (or a living person enslaved into a zombie-like state by various means).

 

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythology (Horror) (9) Beowulf

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Illustration of Grendel by Joseph Ratcliff Skelton for “Stories of Beowulf” in 1908 – love the handbag! (public domain)

 

 

(9) BEOWULF

 

Haunted Heorot – haunted by monsters.

After the Odyssey (as the epic template of everything), Beowulf is the epic template for horror fiction, endlessly adapted for dark fantasy horror ever since.

It has the classic horror fiction scenario – where humans have trespassed into the territory of something much older and darker, that now emerges at night to prey upon on them.

It even has the classic horror fiction twist – that the first monster Grendel is not the last and the initial victory of slaying him is only a brief illusion, the eye in the storm, as an even more dangerous monster takes its place. In Beowulf, that’s Grendel’s mother, seeking vengeance for her slain son – and unfortunately she does not usually look like Angelina Jolie.

O – and there’s a dragon but that doesn’t come close to the horror or suspense of Grendel and his mother, even when Beowulf dies to slay it.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire & Imperialism (Special Mention) (15) Anti-Imperialism

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“Washington Crossing the Delaware”, iconic 1851 painting by Emanuel Leutze of the founding anti-imperialism of the United States (public domain)

 

 

(15) ANTI-IMPERIALISM

 

Wait, what?

Anti-imperialism is opposition to imperialism – how is it one of my special mentions for types of empire and imperialism?

Well, these are special mentions so arguably it is a lens through which to view empire or imperialism – but there are two more fundamental arguments that, ironically and paradoxically, anti-imperialism can be a guise for empire or imperialism, similarly to defensive or democratic imperialism as oxymorons.

The first and perhaps lesser argument is that while anti-imperialism has origins throughout history in resistance to empires, usually on the basis of being “foreign” or causing some loss to their subjects, it only assumed its full force through modern political ideologies – primarily nationalism, liberalism, and socialism – that were in turn spread by and a product of Western empires, ironically and paradoxically as the seeds of their own destruction yet also the harvest of their cultural propagation.

The second and more fundamental argument is that empires from ancient history onwards have always had an element of anti-imperialism – against other empires as rivals, including to the extent of encouraging or supporting civil wars or revolts within those rivals. While they could collaborate, as in the Scramble for Africa, the modern European empires were often fiercely “anti-imperialist” against each other – occasionally propping up or supporting non-European peoples or states from being formally annexed by rival European empires, or any single European empire in the case of China.

Germany was perhaps most distinctive among European empires in pursuing an anti-imperialist policy against its rivals, particularly against the British during both world wars, albeit not very effectively.

However, there are three modern imperial powers that stand out in pursuing imperialism, ironically while styling themselves as anti-imperialist or even doing so in the name of anti-imperialism, and even more ironically, each against the other two as among its most formidable opponents – Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States.

Of course, in contemporary history and world politics, it seems to be de rigueur for nations to engage in imperialism while claiming to be doing so as “anti-imperialist” against the “imperialism” of their opponents – and even for movements or proponents of “anti-imperialism” to have moral myopia so that they only see imperialism from their direction of choice.