Four Horseman Archetypes

In literature, there are many archetypes including temptress, hero, trickster, transgressor, and many more, major and minor. One of the most prominent of these literary devices is the destroyer, who is usually the antagonist, who has an unquenchable thirst to kill, and avenge whatever wrongs they have received in the past. The destroyer in modern day literature is most often described as having the basic instinct to kill everyone and everything from the moment it is birthed, or it is wronged, and is best portrayed by such villains as The Chimera, The Apocalyptic Horseman, and Bane.
The Chimera is one of the most feared creatures in all of Greek history, causing fiery devastation and deaths in whatever lands it occupied at that time. The Chimera,

in most accounts, is depicted as a grueling monster with the body of a goat, the head of a lion, and the tail of a serpent, although sometimes it is portrayed with an extra head, one of a goat, sprouting from its back next to the lion’s head. Mythology states that this monster is the spawn of Typhon, a son of Gaea the Earth Mother, who is considered to be “the father of all monsters”, and Echidna, likewise, a daughter of Gaea, and the “mother of all monsters” (Chimera). In one time period, the Chimera is said to have been seen roaming, causing great havoc the lands of Lycia, raised from the Underworld by King Amisodarus of Caria to terrorize the surrounding areas, as it spewing fire and devouring all living things around it from humans to animals to mythical creatures. It was eventually vanquished and returned to the Underworld by Bellerophon who speared the Chimera in its undercarriage with a lead tipped spear, piercing its vital organs and bleeding to death (Chimera). The Chimera resembles a Greek destroyer in such a way that it literally destroys everything and everyone in his path. It stops for no mortal, and only select few immortals to whom it owes service to, and spreads fear, panic, and devastation in the land it is in, has been in, will be in, and all surrounding areas. The Chimera is truly a destroyer of worlds.
Another group of infamous destroyers are the Four Horsemen of the Christian Apocalypse.

The horsemen are described as beings whose entirety of their existence is to destroy all sinners and non believers of Christ in their way, in God’s name. There are four different colors for the four horsemen, representing different aspects of the second coming of Jesus Christ, corresponding to their colors. The first horseman, the color white, kills all non believers in Christianity, and all humans who do not follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. In some instances it is thought that the white horseman is a representation of the Messiah himself, with a crown to represent his conquering of sinners, and a bow and quiver of arrows to represent his military power against all believers in other gods and Anti-Christs (Crier). The second horseman, red, is said to be symbolic of the blood shed during wars, and is permitted to eliminate all peaceful affairs and treaties from Earth, causing nations of men not committed to Christ to kill each other one by one, until all men are deceased, or to a point of no return. To help with the effort of taking peace permanently from the world, a third horseman, of the color black, was created to spread earthquakes throughout the lands, causing inflation in nations, famines through rising cost in food, and a larger separation between rich and poor, which often leads to civil wars, or stronger conquering nations to invade (Crier). The final horseman, the pale

horseman, is indeed the most solemn of the horsemen. The pale color of the horseman represents all the pale colored corpses of the dead men after the apocalypse. As the white horseman is said to be the representation of Jesus Christ, the pale horseman is supposed to represent the embodiment of Death itself. He was given a large portion of Earth, and the same powers as the red and black horsemen: to cause wars and earthquakes, and famine due to the inflation of food prices (Crier). The horseman, although in a different culture than Ancient Greek, still depicts the destroyer in an obvious way, as they ruin all life in their path, endlessly slaughtering men, with no mercy, nor a second thought. They spread terror to believers and nonbelievers alike, making even the strongest of men fear for their life.
One final modern day destroyer is Bane, a supervillain forged in darkness, who is known to have one of the most infamous death drives known to Gotham City, who is forever trying to avenge the wrongs thrown upon him by his dad during his childhood.

In the box office hit Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, Bane plays the main antagonist, who uses his physical strength and mental wits to bring Gotham City, as well as the seemingly untouchable Batman, to their knees. Before his eventual rise to power Bane escapes his childhood prison, Pena Dura, or “Hard Rock”, where he was serving his absent father’s life sentence for revolutionary charges. When he was little, Bane had nightmares of a “Bat-like” demon, which meant that when his journey took him to Gotham City, it was probably not to defeat Batman himself, but to vanquish his childhood tormentor, or at least representation of it (Peaty). Throughout the movie Bane uses his will to kill to senselessly beat and terrorize Batman, cops, and civilians alike with anything from his bare fists, to bombs the size of football fields. He snaps batman like a twig, and then forces him into the same prison that Bane himself was once in, and although he eventually escapes, it takes years of training to heal his back and escape (Dark). There is no end to the pain, destruction, and mayhem Bane caused in the world of Gotham. He is one of Batman’s most formidable arch nemeses, and the single villain to bring Gotham City to its knees. He is truly a

destroyer, solely through his will to avenge his childhood spent in despair, wasted by his father, haunted by bat-demons.
The destroyer archetype in all literature, Greek, Christian, and even modern comics, is described as having an unending instinct to vanquish all men, women, and creatures in their path. They do not care whether you are rich, poor, mortal, immortal, good, evil, crazy, or sane. If you stand in the way of their task, or if you are their task they will not hesitate to end your existance, and they will have no second thoughts to who are what you are. Destroyers do exactly what their name implores: destroy.