Mythological Monsters Killed Via Trickery

[tofor]

@terentii

IIRC, Perseus turned Medusa into stone by getting her to see her reflection off his shield.

I thought he looked at the reflection on his shield himself, so he could see her without turning to stone, and fought backward.

[Jophiel]

@flurb

Or “mythological.” Or “trickery.” Such is the way of these kinds of threads.

Indeed. Since there doesn’t seem to be a straight up “Tricked the giant into falling into the volcano” type answer, I’m cool with letting the definitions be hazy and people responding whatever they think broadly fits.

[CalMeacham]

@tofor

I thought he looked at the reflection on his shield himself, so he could see her without turning to stone, and fought backward .

This is indeed what is the usual form of the myth. Although in a lot of ancient artwork Perseus is depicted as simply not looking at the Gorgon he is supposed to be fighting, as if fighting “by touch”, not needed a reflective shield to keep him from looking directly at the monster.

This is a modern wood carving based on a temple image:

This item is unavailable - Etsy

Here’s a vase with Perseus cutting off the head of a Medusa-Centaur, very definitely lookng away
https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/R47.2.html

Here he is on another vase, looking away as he cuts off the head of a “beautiful” medusa

Attributed to Polygnotos | Terracotta pelike (jar) | Greek, Attic | Classical...

Here’s a pretty famous one in the British museum showing his head averted

olpe | British Museum

Such images, with Perseus looking so clearly elsewhere than at Medusa, may have given rise to the idea of his having not to look directly at her. You’d be hard-pressed to find an ancient image of Perseus looking into a mirror to cut off her head in classic art.

[Jackmannii]

Greek mythology has numerous examples of horrible monsters overcome by subterfuge, including the man-eating mares of Diomedes, and the Colchian Dragon which guarded the Golden Fleece.*

*Jason killed or at least neutralized the dragon with the help of Medea, who put it to sleep. Afterwards, Jason went on to found a chain of delicatessens.

[Jophiel]

@Jackmannii

Greek mythology has numerous examples of horrible monsters overcome by subterfuge, including the man-eating mares of Diomedes

I looked at a couple accounts just now and it looked straight forward. Hercules is supposed to get the horses so he gets some guys together, they take out the guards and drive the horses onto the beach. Hercules needs to fight someone else so he leaves the mares with a young companion who gets eaten. Then he brings the horses to Eurystheus, completing the task.

[Jackmannii]

Hah.

“Heracles (Hercules) defeated these monsters in his eight labor. He fed Diomedes, their master, to his own horses and while they were occupied with their human meal, Heracles found the opportunity to bind their mouths shut.”

Greek Mythology Monsters: Full list and description

Trickery!

[carnivorousplant]

Wotan and Loge trick the shape changing Albriech into assuming a form so that he can easily hide and spy on his enemies. Albreich changes into a toad, and is tied up and made to give up the rhinegold.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

You can’t get much better than Jack the Giant-Killer. There are a lot of different tricks by which he murders giants, but here’s my favorite:

The giant wondered more and more at this; yet he did not answer a word, but went to bring two great bowls of hasty-pudding for their breakfast. Jack wished to make the giant believe that he could eat as much as himself. So he contrived to button a leathern bag inside his coat, and slipped the hasty-pudding into this bag, while he seemed to put it into his mouth. When breakfast was over, he said to the giant: “Now I will show you a fine trick; I can cure all wounds with a touch; I could cut off my head one minute, and the next, put it sound again on my shoulders: you shall see an example.” He then took hold of the knife, ripped up the leathern bag, and all the hasty-pudding tumbled out upon the floor. “Ods splutter hur nails,” cried the Welsh giant, who was ashamed to be outdone by such a little fellow as Jack, “hur can do that hurself.” So he snatched up the knife, plunged it into his stomach, and in a moment dropped down dead.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

And, of course, the Brave Little Tailor kills giants with trickery:

Leaping into the woods, he looked to the left and to the right. He soon saw the two giants. They were lying asleep under a tree, snoring until the branches bent up and down. The little tailor, not lazy, filled both pockets with stones and climbed the tree. Once in the middle of the tree, he slid out on a branch until he was seated right above the sleepers. Then he dropped one stone after another onto one of the giant’s chest. For a long time the giant did not feel anything, but finally he woke up, shoved his companion, and said, “Why are you hitting me?”

“You are dreaming,” said the other one. “I am not hitting you.”

They fell asleep again, and the tailor threw a stone at the second one.

“What is this?” said the other one. “Why are you throwing things at me?”

“I am not throwing anything at you,” answered the first one, grumbling.

They quarreled for a while, but because they were tired, they made peace, and they both closed their eyes again. Then the little tailor began his game again. Choosing his largest stone, he threw it at the first giant with all his strength, hitting him in the chest.

“That is too mean!” shouted the giant, then jumped up like a madman and pushed his companion against the tree, until it shook. The other one paid him back in kind, and they became so angry that they pulled up trees and struck at each other until finally, at the same time, they both fell to the ground dead.

Then the little tailor jumped down. “It is fortunate,” he said, “that they did not pull up the tree where I was sitting, or I would have had to jump into another one like a squirrel. But people like me are nimble.”

[Thudlow_Boink]

Shouldn’t the cat’s tail be fluffed up?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

If you’re interested in “Defeated”, not just “killed,” the Egyptian gods defeated one of their own through the trick of getting that one completely wasted:

In a myth about the end of Ra’s rule on the earth, Ra sends the goddess Hathor, in the form of Sekhmet, to destroy mortals who conspired against him. In the myth, Sekhmet’s blood-lust was not quenched at the end of battle that led to her destroying almost all of humanity. To stop her Ra poured out beer dyed with red ochre or hematite so that it resembled blood. Mistaking the beer for blood, she became so drunk that she gave up the slaughter and returned peacefully to Ra.

[Shoeless]

Since the OP isn’t interested in consumer media examples, I guess the ending of “Tremors” is right out.

[Dendarii_Dame]

If a bully counts as a “monster”, there’s a story from Turkey about a character named Nasreddin Hodja who defeats a bully by claiming to be stronger. Specifically, “I can throw something farther than you can.” The much bigger bully laughs. Hodja hands him a handkerchief. Turns out the secret is to tie a knot in it and then throw. The bully leaves town.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Talos

[CalMeacham]

Although in the Harryhausen movie Jason undoes the stopper on his single vein and lets out his ichor (or whatever that’s supposed to be), I don’t think that happens in any version of the myth. In one, Talos himself is responsible, scratching his heel on a rock and breaking the vein open.

Only one version , the cited one from Apollodorus’ library, has Talos dying of trickery, and that’s not the dominant version.