USA Features
Mythology in Christie
Written by Christie expert Chris Chan
Classic mythology plays a major role in many Christie stories. Poirot’s first name derives from the Greek god of strength, and Poirot also plays Cupid in many novels, bringing couples together. But there are many more examples.
The Labours of Hercules
The most famous example of mythology in Christie stories is The Labours of Hercules. While in the original myths, Hercules was compelled to perform these acts of contrition for committing murders*, in these stories, Poirot uses these cases as a final send-off before total retirement (Spoiler Alert: he continues solving crimes for decades).
In The Labours of Hercules, each labour has a modern parallel.
- 'The Nemean Lion' becomes a dognapping case,
- 'The Lernaean Hydra' becomes a fast-spreading rumour about a potential poisoning (which references the famous case of Dr Crippen),
- 'The Arcadian Deer' is about tracking down a missing ballerina,
- 'The Erymanthian Boar' requires the capture of a dangerous criminal,
- 'The Augean Stables' means clearing metaphorical muck from the press and government,
- 'The Stymphaelean Birds' centres around a pair of con women,
- 'The Cretan Bull' focuses on animal mutilations and a man who may be going mad,
- 'The Horses of Diomedes' looks at drug trafficking,
- 'The Girdle of Hippolyta' is the mystery of a missing schoolgirl and a stolen painting,
- 'The Flock of Geryon' has Poirot break up a murderous cult,
- 'The Apples of the Hesperides' is based around the recovery of a missing bejewelled chalice,
- 'The Capture of Cerberus' centres around the drug trade at a sinisterly-themed nightclub. The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is also referenced in that last story. An alternate version of 'The Capture of Cerberus' requires Poirot to defeat a mad dictator.**
But there are many other, often more oblique examples.
*In many versions of the myths, he was not actually morally responsible for the murders, because his jealous stepmother Hera cursed him with madness, causing him to commit the crimes, so really she should have been the one to atone.
**The original 'The Capture of Cerberus' was rejected by the UK-based Strand Magazine, so Christie re-wrote it for the 1947 collection. This original version is now published as part of John Curran's book, Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks.
Parker Pyne
The Parker Pyne mystery 'The Oracle at Delphi' references the mythological site that revealed surprising truths, often ones that could not be understood upon first impression. In this story, readers often assume a falsehood, only to learn the truth in the story’s final line.
Hercule Poirot Novels
The Big Four’s climax is set in a massive labyrinth, referencing the Labyrinth of Crete, a near-inescapable maze that housed the Minotaur. Theseus only escaped the labyrinth thanks to a magic ball of string provided by Ariadne, the namesake of Mrs. Oliver. Betrayed by the man she loved and left behind, Ariadne was later rescued by the god Dionysus, who would go on to marry her.
Perhaps Christie was reflecting her own romantic life on a fictional character?
In The Big Four, Poirot mentions his twin brother***, Achille, named for the hero from the Trojan War.
For some time we went along in silence, which Poirot at length broke by uttering a totally unexpected remark. ‘I think—I really think—that I shall have to bring my brother into this.’
Death in the Clouds features the ship the S.S. Minotaur, named for the monster. The airplane in the story is the Prometheus, a reference to the Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans, leading to years of Prometheus being tortured.
*** The existence of Achille is ambiguous, it is thought that Poirot probably made him up
Hallowe’en Party features references to a garden on a Greek island, and there is a reference to Iphigenia, a woman offered as a sacrifice to appease the gods. In the novel, Poirot sends assistants to prevent an innocent girl from being sacrificed to protect a monstrous human being.
Lord Edgware Dies features a handsome character compared to a Greek God, but the central clue to solving the mystery is a reference to the Judgment of Paris, where the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, provoked by Eris, spirit of strife, got into a major fight over who was the most beautiful and worthiest of a golden apple. All offered Paris, the mortal selected as judge, bribes, but Paris accepted Aphrodite’s offer of the most beautiful woman in the world– the already-married Helen of Troy, and Paris’s running off with her led to the Trojan War.
When a recently exonerated man has his choice of girlfriends at the end of Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, Poirot remarks that he will “award the apple,” again referencing the Judgment of Paris.
‘He shall make his choice,’ said Poirot. ‘He shall—how do you say it?—award the apple.'
Mr Quin
The mythical Helen is also referenced in 'The Face of Helen', a Satterthwaite & Quin short story about a beautiful woman who may be being targeted by a jealous suitor.
Miss Marple
Nemesis was the name of the Greek goddess of justice and retribution, and Miss Marple first declares that she acts as an agent of Nemesis in A Caribbean Mystery, right before she catches a multiple murderer. Years later, in Nemesis, she is tasked with identifying and solving an unspecified crime, and she winds up catching a triple killer and clearing the name of a wrongly convicted person. In that book, the three Bradbury-Scott sisters (Clotilde, Lavinia, and Anthea) are comparable to the Fates (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos) the mysterious figures who spun, measured, and cut the thread of life.
‘It’s me,’ said Miss Marple, for once ungrammatical, ‘though I should put it a little more strongly than that. The Greeks, I believe, had a word for it. Nemesis, if I am not wrong.’
Egyptian Myths
Though most references to mythology in Christie’s works are Greek, there are many references to Egyptian myths and religion in Akhnaton and Death Comes as the End, and Mr. Shaitana from Cards on the Table takes his name from a demonic figure in certain Middle Eastern cultures.
