An Ancient Greek Solution For Dealing With Mass Killers
Destroying the names of villains and creating hero schools
The Temple Of Artemis (1866) — By Ferdinand Knab Via Wikimedia Commons
In 356 BC, one of the most iconic structures of the time — an ancient wonder of the world — turned into a blazing inferno. The Temple of Artemis was destroyed by an arsonist. But while the crime took place in a time long ago, its reason was all too modern.
The man with the torch wanted to be noticed and remembered forever.
David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim in their book The Intellectual Devotional: Biographies, mention little is known about the arsonist except he was young. They also point to the fact the criminal carefully picked the target. It was a structure larger than life, so it would get him the attention he wanted. This continued during his public torture and execution.
The arsonist also turned himself in willingly, and knew he was going to die before he started the fire. No details exist on deaths. Although one would imagine in a structure so massive, many were likely injured if not killed. Although the man seeking fame didn’t care.
So let’s review:
There’s a young man who desires above all things to be noticed
He plans out a heinous act to get attention
It involves destroying something so precious it shocks the public to their core
The greater community is left to pick up the pieces and figure out how to stop a repeat performance
Sound familiar? While it’s not the exact scenario we see on TV, it shares many of the pillars. There’s even a word for it: Herostratic fame, which is fame gained by destruction. It’s named after the man who set the fire, Herostratus.
So, the ancient Greeks weren’t untouched by the mass killer we know in today’s age. I say mass killer, instead of mass shooter, because this person is the same individual. Their method just changes.
As you’ll see, they’ve been with us longer than any could imagine, changing operational tactics and evolving.
The Evolution Of The Mass Killer
In 1927 a mass killer blew up a school in the Bath School Massacre, killing nearly forty children. Afterwards, he drove a truck loaded with explosives to the school and detonated it, killing rescue workers and himself. Luckily, hundreds of pounds of dynamite within another wing of the school didn’t explode.
While cars and trucks are also a popular method, planes are widely used too. A quick search shows thirty-four suicidal pilots are thought to have crashed their planes since 1972. These include the following:
EgyptAir Flight 990 killing 217 in 1999
LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 killing 33 in 2013
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 killing 239 in 2014
Germanwings Flight 9525 killing 150 in 2015
China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 killing 132 in 2022
This also doesn’t include terrorist induced suicides by plane, which would drive the numbers up much higher. Although technology writer Rob Reid hints at an even more sinister tool for future mass killers — synthetic biology.
Reid explains guns can kill many, bombs dozens, planes hundreds, but a virus designed cheaply in a future lab by a misanthrope could kill millions. As lab equipment gets cheaper, the possibility only increases.
Fortunately, while mass killers use different tactics, they do share some common threads which allow us to recognize these individuals.
Common Threads
“In the lives of too many teenagers, recognition is more meaningful than accomplishment, and…recognition is available through violence. With the pull of a trigger, a young person whose upbringing has not invested him with self-worth can be become significant and “unignorable.”
— Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear
Dr. Warren Farrell, author of The Boy Crisis, in a recent interview notes nearly all mass killers are male, usually young, and have the same life profile. Also, mass killings are a method of suicide.
Farrell says most don’t have a father in the home or a good father figure in their lives. So, they search one out. In a way, it’s similar to reasons boys might be pulled to gangs. Except this clique finds darker inspiration through a grand violent act.
Like Herostratus, performing a heinous act gets them attention. It also serves a dual purpose on getting revenge on a world that wronged them. Moreover, like a gang, they’re highly likely to copy the terrible behavior of another (in this case a mass murderer).
Security expert Gavin de Becker also agrees mass killers often copy and learn from other mass killers and violence they study. He recounts his surreal first-hand lesson in his book listed above.
As a defense witness in a trial, he listened to the testimony of a teenager obsessed with the heavy metal band Judas Priest. The boy survived a suicide attempt in which he blew most of his skull apart with a shotgun. He spoke with a rag covering his face to catch saliva and needed an interpreter.
The boy and now deceased friend, who killed himself first, planned a mass killing originally, but settled on suicide in front of a church on Christmas Eve.
He testified that he learned a lot from the news, particularly focusing in on the violence. In his own words, it excited him. But it wasn’t enough to watch, he practiced it in games with his friends.
The Judas Priest song “Heroes End” also echoed his belief one must die to be recognized. Especially since he’d been ignored for so long. Again, sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
However, despite harboring Herostratus, the ancient Greeks would have seen this idea as perverse. A hero looked much different to them.
Ancient Greece: Raising Heroes And Erasing Villains
“The art of the hero wasn’t about being brave, it was about being so competent that bravery wasn’t an issue. You weren’t supposed to go down for a good cause; the goal was to figure out a way not to go down at all…A hero’s one crack at immortality was to be remembered as a champion, and champions don’t die dumb.”
— Christopher McDougal, Natural Born Heroes
In WWII, a group of Greek shepherds and sheep thieves on the island of Crete ground the Nazi war machine to a near halt for months. In fact, before his execution after the war, General Wilheim Keitel blamed these nameless Greeks for delaying Germany’s Russian invasion and the collapse of the Reich.
To an outsider, these shepherds might have been the most unlikely heroes in history.
However, author Christopher McDougal notes the Cretans were close to their ancient Hellenic heritage. And the one thing Greeks understood was heroes.
He explains heroes in the Greek classics, like Odysseus “hated the thought of dying and scratched for every second of life.” Furthermore, the culture didn’t wait for heroes, they made them. McDougal says, “It was a multidisciplinary endeavor,” which included nutrition, mental, and physical training.
While it wasn’t a physical building, there was a “hero school.” The hyperactive children we medicate today would have been prime candidates to be these champions. This training was also passed on by parent to child.
But the Greeks didn’t just create a path for recognition, they also destroyed villains a lost youth might be tempted to emulate.
After the destruction of the Temple of Artemis, Kidder and Oppenheim mention there was fear of copycats seeking their own Herostratic fame. So, the Greeks erased his name.
In a practice the Romans later called Damnatio Memoriae or “condemnation of memory,” mention of the arsonist’s name was punishable by death. Effectively, it disappeared, destroying the mass killer’s one wish.
Both de Becker and Dr. Farrell recommend modern media stop publishing manifestos, pictures, and names of these killers due to mass killer’s glorification of other mass killers. De Becker takes it further in his book, recommending media and authorities refer to them as losers instead of loners.
Give nothing that can be formulated into a “Heroes End.” But that’s only one piece.
Dealing With Our Own Arsonists At The Temple
In a recent interview, former Navy SEAL and MMA star Tim Kennedy talked about the recent disaster in Afghanistan. A few former combat vets, charities, and wealthy individuals took matters into their own hands. These volunteers personally pulled many refugees out where the government couldn’t.
Kennedy also talked about a time in his young life when he tried to kill himself. He says he found martial arts and the military. His description of the positive forces sounded like…a hero school. Similar to Crete, a graduate of this school played an admirable role in Afghanistan.
While Dr. Farrell talks about repeating cycles of boys growing up without fathers, finding terrible role models, and creating new generations of boys without fathers. He finds a connection between this, larger prison populations, suicides, and mass killers.
Farrell also mentions receiving a letter from a youth in Texas who planned a mass murder and stopped after hearing the doctor’s description of the characteristics of a mass killer. Seeing he matched all, he sought out help.
A cycle of fatherless homes is a societal problem that’s hard to crack. But an alternative to suicide isn’t, and it starts with more heroes and less Herostratus. Hero schools aren’t gone with the ancient Greeks. They exist in martial arts dojos, the military, cub scouts, and sports clubs.
These schools teach “the art of the hero” and remind the student “champions don’t die dumb.” Also, achievement tops recognition. Furthermore, Farrell’s letter shows media can use a mixture of Damnatio Memoriae and information to stop repeated cycles of violence.
Our present problem with mass killers requires an ancient solution:
Create alternatives to suicide and self-destruction through hero schools.
Destroy the memory of villains.
- Originally published on Medium June 25,2022