Mythology’s Impenetrable Heroes: A Good Defense is the Best Offense?

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a great character, warrior, god or demigod, is nigh impervious to all forms of harm. Except…well, okay, ­almost all forms of harm. Almost impervious. User terms and conditions apply. And, well, wouldn’t ya know it, the hero has succumbed to the most unlikely of deaths due to an injury somewhere they probably weren’t as impervious as everywhere else. Or they were missing their impenetrable macguffin. So let’s break apart the history and myths of the unbreakable heroes as it were and see what’s what!

HERO 1: ACHILLES

You’ve probably heard of him, famous for his mommy dipping him in the river Styx (record scratch). Except…that’s a myth on top of the myth that’s been around for a long time and constantly retold until it’s been believed. In the original Iliad, Achilles bleeds. And, if it bleeds, you can kill it! Wait, wrong franchise. But anyways, in the earliest version of the Iliad, his mother, the witch Thetis, wants to try to drown Achilles in a cauldron to test his immortality, but his father Peleus forbids it.

So, what’s a mother to do? Well, one of the most common beats throughout the versions of the Iliad is that he has a suit of armor that is given much attention and poetic heaping upon by Homer. In most versions, the armor is made by Hephaestus, god of the forge and smithing, to be impenetrable. This will protect Achilles. In fact, in most of the original Greek artwork, Achilles is shot or pierce through the torso sideways, not from in front, meaning the gaps in his armor and puncturing most of his vital organs. That makes a lot more sense than a shot to the heel.

In fact, the Iliad originally never shows Achilles’ death. It’s only foretold.

In another write up, I mentioned how Hercules had the pelt of the Nemean lion (impenetrable skin) fashioned like a cloak to protect himself. Why does it matter though?

Well, psychologically, a sense of wonder. As a species, we love our super heroes (and make no doubts about it, our earliest mythic heroes were our super heroes) well, to be super. Impenetrable skin sans one condition? That sound familiar today? Superman has entered the chat.

It’s a very visible and testable power. The hero immune to most harm, or any that can fell them. Gilgamesh’s original quest was to seek immortality and find a way to keep from falling to harm and death.

So, how do you make a badass killing machine and soldier all the more awesome? You equip him in armor to keep him safe until the moment the story necessitates he falls for (some moral reason usually in the old epics as they were meant to teach as much as entertain) some plot reason.

I suppose you can call the impenetrable—until they’re not—hero the original plot armor. At least, after a fashion.

But, judging by the history of heroes, it’s almost always in fashion.

HERO 2: KARNA

Now interestingly enough, he’s a character who is similar in many regards to Achilles. Or perhaps it’s Achilles who’s similar to him. Jury is out.

Karna is the son of Surya, the sun god of the Vedic and Hindu tradition, and princess Kunti, making him a demi god like Achilles. In the case of Kunti, however, Karna is born in a virginal birth as she is given a boon by Surya which results in Karna. If the story of a virginal birth sounds familiar, just wait, because in the case of fearing societal backlash over her premarital pregnancy, Kunti sends Karna downriver in a basket, sending her princely son away.

Sound familiar?

Anywho. Karna is born to be an extraordinary warrior with all the qualities a character in epics should possess. This includes a suit of divine armor, bright as the sun, with all its qualities (courtesy of his father) that renders him nigh impervious to harm. He is warned however that he cannot lose these gifts (the breastplate and a pair of magic earrings).

But Karna, who has a reputation for being a generous giver, lives up to his name and does not heed his father’s warnings. His reputation for generosity means more to him, and so, he parts with his armor and earrings.

In the end, he is shot through the back and killed. A once impenetrable hero felled.

HERO 3: Sigurd or Siegfried the Dragonslayer

He’s a legendary hero from the Germanic poems. Much like the aforementioned mythic characters, he too is someone that has acquired ALMOST invulnerability and then felled by a single weakness.

In this case, it comes from living up to that mantle of Dragonslayer. Siegfried battles and slays the dragon most commonly named Fafnir (in the some of the Old Norse sources). After doing so, he bathes in the dragon’s blood to attain the same hardness in his skin as dragon’s scales. Only, this wouldn’t be an epic story if the hero didn’t have some weakness, right? In some sources, it is a Linden leaf (or the leaf of a lime tree) that sticks to the small of his back, preventing the rest of the dragon blood from touching that spot and making him invulnerable.

From that point, he’s almost invulnerable. But of course, someone must learn of his weakness. And it is his eventual wife Gudrun or Kriemhild, who does. Sadly, she is later tricked in divulging Siegfried’s vulnerability.

Alas, the dragonslayer is stabbed in the back—that very weak spot of his—by a spear used by the character Hagen.

Impenetrable heroes 0 for 3 so far.

HERO 4: Baldr/Balder/Baldur

Baldr/Balder/Baldur, stemming from the Proto-Germanic Balðraz – meaning hero or prince. You might familiar with this one. Baldr is prophesized to die and that death is the harbinger of Ragnarok—the Norse “apocalypse” as it’s often called. Though, that’s slightly incorrect as it’s a burning of the world and its subsequent sinking underwater to eventually be cleansed and restarted.

Norse mythological time is like Vedic and Hindu time in that it’s viewed as cyclical.

But, moving on. Fearing her baby boy’s death, Frigg or Frejya, takes oaths from all things not to harm her son. Only, mistletoe was deemed too young to swear such an oath, so it’s overlooked. In end the, Loki (that uppity mischievous shit) decides (when not off getting impregnated by horses) to fashion a magical spear out of mistletoe (in some versions/later ones, an arrow). The gods were hurling objects at Baldr, a favorite pastime of theirs because, well, nothing can hurt him right? Pretty fun to chuck whatever you want at the guy who can’t be harmed. Only, well, like the myths we’ve discussed, certain terms and conditions always apply.

Loki gives the spear/arrow to the blind god Höðr. Not sure why they decided it was okay for the blind god to be throwing anything, but, gods are wild. You can guess what happens next. The blind god’s shot/throw proves true (not surprising when you take into account his name actually means warrior, stout in war, brave, and of battle. And perhaps the rather telling, slaughter). Baldr is struck down by that one weakness.

Awkward.

HERO 5: Shoshlan

Shoshlan of the Ossetian culture is a similar character. Someone who, while being tempered in fire by the god of the forge, was held at either the knee joints, or the legs (sources vary), and thus left untampered there. So, a weak spot in his otherwise invulnerable body. Oddly, or if you’ve read till here, predictably enough, he’s shot—you guessed it—through the knee. That very weak spot and he’s killed.

That Skyrim guard may have taken an arrow to the knee and been able to walk it off, but this god couldn’t.

HERO 6: Samson

The biblical hero of the Hebrew people who had superhuman strength and could take on an army singlehanded. He had one weakness, the cutting of his long hair would nullify his abilities. He would eventually be betrayed by his lover Delilah, in another mythic beat/trope known as the Temptress, and his weakness taken advantage of and leading to his downfall.

HERO 7: Esfandiar

Esfandiar is an Iranian hero out of the Shahnameh (an epic poem). He was the crown prince and a divine warrior of ancient Iran. A Zoroastrian priest gives the crown prince a chain and armor made from heaven that makes him invincible, and the chain with the powers to bind anyone (no matter their station/birth/powers), making them unable to escape. In some versions of the story, Esfandiar is bathed in magical water that imbues him with the powers of invulnerability, only, he shuts his eyes in this version, making them his weak spot.

In either version, his eyes are a weak spot. Sound familiar? Whether bathed in water or magical armor, a weak spot remains, and one that, of course, will be taken advantage of.

In his battle with the character Rostam, he withstands all the blows that are rained down on him. Rostam eventually withdraws from the battle only to return after learning from Simurgh, the legendary bird, that the only weapon that can kill Esfandiar is a shot to the eyes from a magical arrow made from the branch of a specific tree.

It shouldn’t take many guesses to know what happens next and what befalls Esfandiar.

Loving the almost untouchable hero or antihero

The impenetrable or invulnerable hero hasn’t stopped. It’s a trait we love even today. Whether our characters are protected by their sheer physiology (sometimes alien—oh hi, Superman), or plot devices (but have that one or few foibles of character that are their undoing), we love our heroes to be ALMOST untouchable. Perhaps it’s because we’ve just become used to so many stories of that being the case, so the continued trope resonates, or perhaps the old writers just got something right about us. And, then, we just haven’t been able to let it go.

It’s a trait we love to even see in our villains.

Smaug, a very direct inspiration out of Fafnir. The nigh impenetrable dragon…but for that one weak spot.

There is Hiranyakashipu out of Hindu mythology. A character who could not be killed by a human, deva (god), or animal. He could not be killed during morning or night. Or by godly/mortal weapons. He could not be killed indoors or outdoors. Neither on earth or in the air.

Except… as infallible as catch-all coverage seems to be, like more insurance policies, there always seems to be an exploitable loophole when it comes to the customer side of things for the company to hammer you with.

In the case of Hiranyakashipu it’s in the form of Narasimha, the man-lion form/avatar of the god Vishnu. In this form, Vishnu is no longer man, animal, or only god. He is an amalgamation. All in one case, or none at all depending on how you want to read it. Regardless, that condition is satisfied. He takes Hiranyakashipu and places him on his lap during twilight, so it is neither morning light or nor day. On his lap, he is neither on earth or in the air, and neither outdoors or indoors, but on a lap. Then he is torn apart by Narasimha’s claws—his nails, which are neither mortal nor godly weapons. The asura is disemboweled.

Sauron has his remaining life force bound in the One Ring. Destroying it, destroys what’s remaining of him. Though, it’s important to note he first also fell when the One Ring was cut from his hand through the severing of his fingers. It was a singular weakness then, and later on.

Until that point, Sauron had escaped or overcome everything, even the destruction of his own first beautiful body with the downfall of Numenor.

For the same reason we love heroes that are almost unstoppable, just that hint from being too perfect—too untouchable—we love our villains to have that same one weakness. How do we defeat them? They’re too powerful…but for that one spot we pick out JUST AT THE RIGHT TIME to win the day.

The Death Star is indestructible—capable of holding the galaxy hostage one planet at a time with its awesome power to reduce worlds to dust in a single blast.

Except for the odd exhaust port design that, you know, lets in one single shot to blow up the whole thing. Kinda like a chink in the ole armor or dragon’s scales.

Wow.

I mean, it’s not like the Death Star is symbolically a dragon, functioning as the big bad of an epic operatic story that also happens to have a princess captured on board and has a single weakness for the plucky hero to use to defeat it and save the day.

Oh…

Huh, look at that.

Anyways, this functioned as a small primer to the idea of the almost invulnerable/impenetrable hero, and obviously villains (the archetype–depending on usage).

They’ve been around forever, and often some very similar/nigh identical ways in the telling. Much like a lot of other myths and stories that often feel isolated, but in reality, and upon further inspection, they seem to mirror one another.

But, the point here is: sometimes a great defense isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Because you’ve usually left yourself one weakness for someone to exploit. Just ask any pvp’er in any video game. Please don’t, they’ll have pages of how to one-shot your build ready.

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