5 Super Villains Who Became Gods

It ain’t how you start out, it’s how you finish

“Flee and your bad behavior will be fixed in people’s minds. Return, seem in goo spirits, and everyone will doubt their own memory of events.”

— Jo Beverley

The Ancients have always had a process of deification (apotheosis) which made it possible for mere mortals, other living things, or even an abstract idea to gain god status.

Membership to the divine club was conferred on many who had served humanity in some grand fashion or they had otherwise proven themselves. Some got in by getting hitched to a god and a few just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

However, there are a few (the main focus of this list) that got to cross the line between man and god regardless of their seeming horrid antecedents. Though they were mortal-born with unsavory pasts they still made the cut. Without further ado let us go down the list:

The first school mass killer

Kleomedes was an ancient Greek boxer who crashed out of the Olympics by fighting dirty. He killed his opponent, Ikkos in the ring by plunging his fingers into his chest! What that meant for Kleomedes was that Ikkos won because back then the rules were that if a fighter lost his life in the ring, he was declared the winner.

So the bummed out, sore loser that Kleomedes was, he went home to Astypalaia and punched out the pillar holding up the roof of the local school and it came crashing down killing many of the poor children of the school.

An angry lynch mob quickly formed. As they began to throw rocks he ran to a temple and hid in a giant chest. Lo! and behold when the mob eventually got into the temple and opened up the chest Kleomedes was gone.

When the befuddled citizens hurriedly consulted the oracle. Imagine their surprise when the oracle declared that Kleomedes being the last true Astypalaian was to be worshipped as a hero and a god. And that was that.

The Rich Call Girl who played a jury

Phryne (aka Mnesarete) was an Ancient Greek prostitute who was rumored to be the richest woman in Athens. Not only was her clientele rumored to include the who’s who of the city at the time, but she was so rich she offered to rebuild the wall of Thebes which, was destroyed by Alexander the Great decades before she was even born. However, she did have one condition which was that the builders install a plaque to commemorate the generosity of “Phryne the Courtesan”.

The people decided that in that case, it was thanks but no thanks! They probably couldn’t bear the thought of such a revered monument destroyed by Alexander the Great being rebuilt by a high-priced hooker who was also going to rub it in their faces.

Phryne was eventually brought before the court for her sinful ways although some say it was because she was profaning the Eleusinian mysteries. Anyhow, as she was on trial for a capital offense a guilty verdict meant she would have to drink poison. This appears to be the practice in Ancient Greece if you lose a capital case.

As the trial progressed the evidence against her was very overwhelming that it was certain she would be convicted. Well, she was a prostitute after all. So she (in some accounts it was her rich lawyer/lover, Hypereides) in one last effort to sway the jury, tore off her dress to reveal her beautifully sculptured yellow-toned body to the jury in all its glory.

These wise old men took one long look at her and realized that only the gods could mold such a flawless body and killing her would certainly be an affront to said, gods. Thus they declared her a prophetess of Aphrodite and set her free.

“They probably couldn’t bear the thought of such a revered monument destroyed by Alexander the Great being rebuilt by a high-priced hooker…”

The first Frankenstein monster maker

Asclepius was born to a Triccaean princess although it almost did not happen because his mother, princess Coronis died while trying to give birth to him. He was, however, saved when his father, Apollo, cut the unborn child out from her lifeless body. The child was thereafter raised by a centaur named Chiron who taught him the fine arts of medicine.

Though Asclepius learned well the arts he really came into his own after a certain snake licked his ears and taught him the very secret stuff. The ancient Greeks had long believed that snakes were sacred beings imbued with many secrets including how to bring back the dead. And Asclepius’ crime was just that: bringing back the dead.

Zeus, who is actually Asclepius’ grandfather determined this was a serious crime against the natural order of things but it was also thought that Zeus was afraid Asclepius could very well teach this secret to the other humans. By other accounts, Asclepius’ fate was sealed because Zeus’ brother, Hades was pissed that he was taking away his subjects by resurrecting them away from his domain, the underworld.

In any case, Asclepius’ punishment was death by thunderbolt and Zeus ordered it. This execution angered Asclepius’ father who in turn killed not Zeus, but the Cyclops who crafted said thunderbolt. Zeus subsequently had to punish Apollo by banishment.

In the end, it appears the dysfunctional Olympian family reconciled and as a favor to his son Apollo, Zeus resurrected Asclepius and assigned him a place on Olympus. Thus, a god was born …again.

“Zeus, who is actually Asclepius’ grandfather determined this was a serious crime against the natural order of things but it was also thought that Zeus was afraid Asclepius could very well teach this secret to the other humans.”

The Heisters

Prince Trophonius was the son of Erginus, the king of Orchomenus. He along with his brother, Agamedes built a treasury chamber for the king of Boetia named Hyrieus but what the king didn’t know (or should have) was that the brothers desired the treasure for themselves. To this end, the brothers built a backdoor that only they knew about.

You might have guessed it from the subtitle above at this point but yes, according to Pausanias’ account the two brothers proceeded to wipe Hyrieus out by stealing his entire fortune.

When the wily king laid a trap for the thieves it was only poor Agamedes that was caught in it. Not wanting to leave any damning evidence behind, Trophonius promptly cut off his brother’s head to forestall any chances of a positive i.d being made of the body.

Trophonius then fled to a cave in Labadaea and was never heard from again. That is until a Delphic Oracle told a plague-ridden Labadaeans to search for his final resting place and worship him if they wish to be rid of the plague. After many futile attempts, they eventually found Trophonius’ final resting place, did as they were told and the plague was lifted.

Hence the Labadaeans gained a god, even if he was no saint.

Another Child Killer makes the Cut

Daedalus, no not the cryptocurrency wallet, the father of Icarus, was another mere mortal that was promoted to godhood.

He was reputed to have fabricated the wings he and his son used to escape their imprisonment from Crete. How exactly that riveting scenario played is a story for another post.

Daedalus was known as a very skilled craftsman with many monuments to this credit he is even reputed to be the first man to create life-like statues with inbuilt mechanisms that allowed them to move and among his students was his nephew, a very promising lad called Talos (or Calos).

It was said that Daedalus sensing that Talos would one day rival or even overshadow him in craftsmanship grew so jealous that he killed the lad by throwing him off the Acropolis. For this murder, Daedalus was tried and convicted and consequently banished from Athens so he fled to Crete.

Daedalus is thereafter reputed to have created some other pretty amazing stuff like the Labyrinth on Crete for King Minos and a lifelike but hollow wooden bull covered in real cowhide for Minos’ wife to mate with.

Later in Sicily, after his great escape from Crete and where he lived out the remainder of his days, he also built a temple in honor of Apollo. Inside the temple, he hung the wings from his great escape as a tribute to the god.

Daedalus was worshipped by artists’ guilds of Attica as the mythical representative of all handiwork, and by other accounts, Diodorus’ in particular, Daedalus was also worshipped as a god in Egypt. I guess they don’t do any background checks.

So there you have it, from killers to thieves it seems anybody can morph into something else or in their case, something divine. Lending credence to the age-old wisdom that maybe “it ain’t how you start out, it's how you finish”.

To become a member and enjoy unlimited access to stories? Please sign up to join Medium using this link. Your membership fee will directly support me and all the other writers you read.