The study of outlaw heroes provides an opportunity to observe the interplay between history and folklore that motivates many mythologies. While there is no shortage of historical outlaws who have received ongoing celebration, many cultures also include mythical equivalents. Robin Hood is the most familiar example, perhaps, but certainly not the only one. It is not difficult to locate representative specimens from traditions as widespread as those of Java, America, Ireland, Australia, Denmark, Cyprus and southern Italy. Different though the histories and cultures of these places may be, we can discern the same ambivalent dynamic between history and myth operating in the construction of their respective noble robbers, both real and fictional. In some of these examples, historical events become the subject of contemporary and subsequent mythologising, as with the celebrity criminals of Depression America. In other cases, countertraditions may evolve among opposing groups, as with the Hassanpoulia of Cyprus. In the case of ‘the little angel’ of eighteenth-century Italy, the historical details of Angelo Duca's life and crimes provide a perfect template of the outlawed hero and friend of the poor.

Outlaws of Myth

So powerful is the cultural need for outlaw heroes that the supply of historical figures has to be supplemented with those that never existed at all. Examples can be found in many cultures and from many periods.