Pyrocles: A Villain in The Faerie Queene

Jason

July 7, 2022

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Pyrocles is a hot-headed knight who shows up in book 2 of The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser.

He is constantly looking for a fight, seeking out violence, and it gets him into trouble.

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First, he fights her Guyon and loses, then he fights Furor and loses again. This time he is beset with an enchantment that makes him feel like he is entirely on fire (not surprising since his name literally means “troubled with fire”).

He represents the theme of having too much desire for action, a clear extreme in book 2, where the theme is temperance. He is a contrast to his brother, Cymochles, who is the exact opposite.

Both Pyrocles and Cymochles are eventually killed by Prince Arthur.

See our complete list of Arthurian characters for more entries like this one.

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Author

Jason is a huge storytelling nerd devoted to cataloguing storytelling in all its forms. He loves mythology, history, and geek culture. When he's not writing books (see his work at MythHQ.com), his favorite hobbies include hiking, spending time with his wife and daughters, and traveling.