One idol, across the ages
The The Trickster
The boundary-crosser who steals fire and bends the rules.
Why these are the same idol
Every ordered world needs something to disturb it, or the story never moves. That something is the trickster, the boundary-crosser, thief and shapeshifter who breaks the rules and, in breaking them, drives change.
Hermes steals Apollo’s cattle as an infant, guides souls between worlds, and patronises both merchants and thieves. Loki shifts shape and sex, engineers the death of Baldr, and sets Ragnarök in motion. Set is pure chaos against the settled order of Egypt.
The trickster is morally ambiguous on purpose: he is the disruptive intelligence a static cosmos needs, equal parts threat and renewal.