Cercopes

Also called Kerkopes.

The Cercopes are a pair of thieving, monkey-like tricksters of Greek legend — knaves who roamed the world cheating men until Heracles caught and bound them in Lydia.

Tradition: Greek mythology
Trait family: The Tricksters
Symbols: Ape

Near this figure

Abaasy Trickery and cunning
Akhtya Trickery and cunning
Brer Rabbit Trickery and cunning
Coyote Trickery and cunning
Dinewan Trickery and cunning
Leprechaun Trickery and cunning

and 4 more

Qat Trickery and cunning
Rompo Trickery and cunning
Loathly Worm Cursed into monstrous form
Loup-Garou Cursed into monstrous form

Symbols

Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.

Ape is The ape denotes mimicry, lust, conceit, and cunning in European and Christian traditions, but Hindu symbolism instead associates it with Hanuman’s benevolence and gentleness.
why
The Cercopes are a pair of thieving, monkey-like tricksters of Greek legend — knaves who roamed the world cheating men until Heracles caught and bound them in Lydia.

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

Cursed into monstrous form
why
Their end elsewhere is less merciful: one account has them turned to stone for trying their deceptions on Zeus himself, and another strand remembers them transformed into the monkeys they had always resembled.

Utility powers

Trickery and cunning
why
An early fragment preserves their reputation in a couplet's worth of abuse: liars, cheats, accomplished rogues who wandered the whole earth deceiving whomever they met.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.