THE TOP EIGHT NEGLECTED MONSTER-SLAYERS IN WORLD MYTHOLOGY

Heng

When it comes to gods and/or demigods who slay monsters Hercules, Thor and Gilgamesh get the bulk of the attention. Vishnu and Shiva’s roles slaying monsters in Hindu myths are well-known, too. Balladeer’s Blog as usual will show some love for those figures who get neglected simply because their pantheons are not as familiar to most of the world.

8. HENG

Pantheon: Iroquois

Chief Weapon: Spears made of lightning.

Rogues Gallery: This storm god destroyed an enormous porcupine with tree-sized quills, a giant bird with feathers made of wampum, a worm large enough to engulf an entire village, cannibalistic wizards plus a gigantic horned serpent and its army of equally large serpents.

For more Iroquois deities: https://glitternight.com/2013/01/28/the-top-fifteen-deities-in-iroquois-mythology/

7. LAC LONG QUAN

Pantheon: Vietnamese

Chief Weapon: His ability to transform into a giant sea-dragon.

Rogues Gallery: This son of the sea god killed a gigantic carp, an enormous fox with nine tails running up its spine, a huge tree-monster which used its long branches like tentacles to seize and devour people, a giant black vulture, an enormous tiger, a 100 foot long sea serpent and a giant with snakes for arms and two more snakes that would emerge from its ears.

For more Vietnamese deities: https://glitternight.com/vietnamese-myth/

Balladeer’s Blog

6. FAYETU

Pantheon: Muscogee Creek

Chief Weapon: A bow and arrows plus a flute-like instrument which could summon any and all animals.

Rogues Gallery: This hunting god slew a man-eating cougar, a gigantic flying turkey, witches who turned into human-sized owls, a stench-ridden and club-wielding giant, a tusked bear whose head and genitals were switched, a herd of killer cows that were deadlier than wolves, and killer lizards who grew inside hollow trees.

For more Muscogee Creek deities: https://glitternight.com/2013/03/05/the-top-nine-deities-in-muscogee-creek-mythology/

5. KIVIOQ

Pantheon: Inuit

Chief Weapon: A harpoon.

Rogues Gallery: Kivioq, a powerful hunter and shaman who could hibernate and thus “regenerate” himself periodically, was noted for destroying whale-sized caterpillars, a giant clam, a huge omnivorous head on two legs, giant spiders with the heads of human females, a ten-legged polar bear, a monster who strangled people with its exposed intestines, and a magical boy who could draw pictures of creatures and bring them to life.

For Inuit deities: https://glitternight.com/2011/06/06/the-top-12-deities-from-inuit-mythology-2/

4. HATAKACHAFA

Pantheon: Choctaw

Chief Weapon: A blowgun and a bow and arrow.

Rogues Gallery: The hunting god killed a one-eyed forest monster, a giant baby-devouring eagle, a headless ghost that decapitated people, a telepathic shape-changer, a creature with a shriveled face, the body of a human and the legs of a deer, a giant black cow (yes, more bovine trouble), fish people who stole children and an evil medicine man with a deadly menagerie of bears, cougars and alligators.

For more Choctaw deities: https://glitternight.com/2012/06/03/the-top-twelve-deities-in-choctaw-mythology/

3. YI THE DIVINE ARCHER

Pantheon: Chinese

Chief Weapon: A bow carved from the bone of a giant tiger and arrows formed from a dragon’s tendons.

Rogues Gallery: Nine of the ten giant crows who carried suns across the sky, a giant tiger, a dragon, a huge leopard with a dragon’s head, a bi-pedal creature with indestructible teeth, a nine-headed cave monster, a monstrous boar, a serpent as long and thick as a tree, a gigantic six-headed bird and a swarm of giant bees.

For Yi’s full story: https://glitternight.com/2012/03/17/mythology-the-neglected-epic-myth-of-yi-the-divine-archer/

2. MAUI

Pantheon: Hawaiian and other Polynesian Island groups

Chief Weapon: Magic and a large mace.

Rogues Gallery: Maui became a sun god by roping and overpowering the sun-beast, and was famed for slaying a giant eight-eyed bat, the eel god Tetuna and his entire legion of sea monsters, cannibal cultists, giant lizards and other monsters while racing through the realm of Milu, the death goddess.

For more Hawaiian deities: https://glitternight.com/2011/02/20/the-top-eleven-deities-in-hawaiian-mythology/

1. NAYANAZGENI

Pantheon: Navajo

Chief Weapon: A bow with lightning bolts for arrows and a knife made of solid sunlight.

Rogues Gallery: This Navajo god of war destroyed a two-faced giant who rode a gigantic cougar, a forest of living cacti, a living canyon that crushed wayfarers, a giant serpent made of rock which bled water, an enormous cloud-devouring antelope, two thunderbirds and all their hatchlings, a cannibal monster with long hair rooted into the side of a mountain plus the cannibal’s wife and children, subterranean creatures who killed with lightning from their eyes, a gigantic polar bear and the evil deity Yeitso, the powerful chief of all the dark gods called the Anaye.

For more Navajo deities: https://glitternight.com/navajo-myth-clear/

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.