# Kill the Bearer of this Message **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [December 15, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613 "2022-12-15T20:59:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613/1 "2022-12-15T20:59:05Z")
I’ve been reading L. Sprague de Camp’s **Queen of Zamba** (also titled **A Panet named Krishna** and **Cosmic Manhunt** , but “Queen” was his preferred title.) It’s essentially de Camp’s take on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ _A Princess of Mars_ the way he’d write it (right down to the title, when you think about it). At one point the hero, Hasselborg, opens the sealed letter of introduction he has been given to present to the alien ruler and finds that it denounces him as a spy. He manages to doctor the letter so that it favors him, and considers whether the one who gave him this letter had been influenced by Shakespeare’s _Hamlet_. But as I (and surely de Camp, who was very familiar with ancient literature also knew) knew, this is an old trope. In Hamlet, his old schoolmates (and toadies to the usurping king Claudius, Hamlet’s step-father) carry a letter to the King of England that tells him to kill Hamlet. But Hamlet opens the letter mid-voyage and rewrites it to instruct the King to kill Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern, while Hamlet returns to Scandinavia. The same trope shows up in the Biblical story of Uriah the Hittite. King David, stricken over Bathsheba, recalls the soldier Uriah back from battle, hoping he’ll have sex with Bathsheba, but Uriah holds to his pledge of celibacy while at war. So David sends him back to the front with a letter for his commanding officer, which tells him to place Uriah i the front lines and to withdraw support, clearly trying to get Uriah killed. This succeeds, and David married Bathsheba. Uriah doesn’t open the message. Not only was it against orders, but he might have not even been able to read. Even earlier, it’s in the myth of Bellerophon. King Proetus, told by his wife that Bellerophon tried to seduce her (A lie-- as in the story of Joseph, it was she who tried to seduce, but was turned down), but unwilling to abuse the laws of hospitality, sent Bellerophon to king Iobates in Lycia with a message asking him to kill Bellerophon. Iobates, not wanting to defy the rules of hospitality either (Bellerophon was his guest, too), sent him off on quests that were potentially lethal (most famously, the one about killing the Chimaera). Bellerophon didn’t open and read the message, but he was so good a hero that he succeeded in all the quests. (What’s interesting is that this is an extremely old Greek myth, and might predate the Greek alphabet. The letter might have been written in Monoan or earlier script. In fact, the very idea of a written message that would possibly be unreadable by the bearer itself resonates here as in the story of Uriah.) Since it seemed such a popular trope, I figured it might be in TV Tropes, and it is, giving lots of more recent examples, along with a few historical ones I hadn’t heard of > **[Please Shoot the Messenger - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PleaseShootTheMessenger)** > > The plucky, eager young messenger has been ordered to deliver a message to the queen. The messenger, desperately wanting to please his superiors, runs along as fast as he can and hands over the envelope before the wax has dried. He watches, … ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613/2 "2022-12-15T21:22:37Z")
I remember this sort of thing in _[The Road to Perdition](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPWRoCkmaQU)_. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613/3 "2022-12-15T21:24:11Z")
This happened with Pompeii’s killer in HBO’s _Rome_ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613/4 "2022-12-15T21:35:59Z")
I was unaware of these two examples until I saw them listed on the TV TRopes page (otherwise these entries in the thread would have been my first exposure to them. Pompey was killed in Egypt, as has been depicted in many tellings of the story. But the exposure of his executioner in this classic way is, I think, unique to the HBO series. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613/5 "2022-12-17T10:10:27Z")
Yup [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/T7cQk-QWb5Y/maxresdefault.jpg "Rome Septimius giving letter HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7cQk-QWb5Y) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613/6 "2022-12-17T13:29:41Z")
It (sort of) actually happened to me once. When I was in grade school, I was sent to bring a message to the principal. Apparently the teacher wanted me out of the classroom for long enough to tell the class to stop bullying me. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613/7 "2022-12-17T19:43:23Z")
Well, don’t keep us in suspense: Did the principal kill you? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2022, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613/8 "2022-12-18T01:03:36Z")
Well … we know @kaylasdad99 survived the encounter. So apparently the principal didn’t. Q.E.D. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2022, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613/9 "2022-12-18T01:09:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, don’t keep us in suspense: Did the principal kill you? Ha (smartass). I said “sort of.” I was reminded of it when reading the TV Tropes page linked to by **CalMeacham** Under the _Western Animation_ variations: \* In _[The Simpsons](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons)_, Bart campaigns for class president. Mrs. Krabbappel gives Bart a note that she wants brought to Principal Skinner. The note reads “Keep Bart distracted for a few minutes”. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kill-the-bearer-of-this-message/976613/10 "2022-12-18T17:59:04Z")
" A Roman knight once making some bustle, he sent him, by a centurion, an order to depart forthwith for Ostia and carry a letter from him to king Ptolemy in Mauritania. The letter was comprised in these words: “Do neither good nor harm to the bearer.” Suetonius, _Caligula_, [53]