Autolycus - Cultural References

Cultural References

Although not as well known as many other Greek mythological figures, Autolycus has appeared in a number of works of fiction.

• A comic thief in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale boasts that he is named after Autolycus and, like him, is "a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles".
• Autolycus appeared in Diana Wynne Jones' book The Game as a very mischievous brat.
• In the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, Autolycus appeared as a comical antihero, portrayed by cult actor Bruce Campbell, who has a kinder heart than he lets on. As the self-proclaimed "King of Thieves", he was depicted as a thief of great cunning but even greater ego, which typically resulted in him getting in over his head in one scenario after another.
• Autolycus is also the name of a fictional racehorse in the 1934 film The Clairvoyant, starring Claude Rains.
• Autolycus is the name of Debbie Aldridge's horse in the BBC Radio 4 series 'The Archers'.
• Autolycus is the name of a midget submarine owned by the Lost Boys, the thieves of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series of books.
• Autolycus is the name of a pet Jackdaw belonging to the fictional detective Albert Campion in the novels by Margery Allingham.
• Autolycus appeared in an episode of the Canadian television series Class of the Titans, stealing Hercules's last surviving arrow for Cronus.
• The superhero/trickster figure of Uncle Sam in Robert Coover's The Public Burning (1977, New York, Grove Books) is described in the following terms (p. 7): "American Autolycus, they called him in the Gospels, referring to his cunning powers of conjuration, transmutation, and magical consumption (he can play the shell game, not with a mere pea, but with whole tin mines, forests, oil fields, mountain ranges, and just before Thanksgiving this past year made an entire island disappear!)”.
• Autolycus the penname Aldous Huxley used when writing the 'Marginalia′ column in the Athenaeum.
• In the game Age of Empires Online, an army of computer-controlled opponents, who call themselves the Followers of Autolycus, must be defeated during several quests.