By Lucy Morely
This article won Third Prize at the 2025 Risky Women Writing Competition, presented in partnership with Ocorian. It was originally published here.
Who wouldn’t want governance lessons from Zeus or a cautionary tale about Pandora’s Box? Ancient myths are simply modern corporate scandals waiting to be retold! After all, the gods’ blunders offer timeless insights into risk management and compliance that still resonate today.
When I tell people I work in financial services but my degree was in Classical Civilisation, I understandably get the same look every time, and then a quizzical “Really??”
However Greek and Roman myths aren’t just entertaining stories – they’re also case studies in spectacular governance failures, catastrophic risk management, and the consequences of ignoring compliance. Every cautionary tale from antiquity can be read like a modern corporate scandal!
Governance Lessons: Gods Behaving Like CEOs
The Succession of Zeus: Zeus’s rise to power reads like the ultimate hostile takeover. After overthrowing his father Cronos (who, for the record, had eaten his own children and castrated his father to prevent succession challenges), Zeus established a new governance structure of the gods. However, unlike his predecessors, he didn’t purge the old guard entirely. He gave his brothers Poseidon and Hades their own domains, created a council of twelve Olympians (gods, not athletes) and established clear spheres of influence for each.
Modern translation: successful organisational transformation requires managing existing stakeholders, not just eliminating (or eating) them.
Pandora’s Box: Zeus gave Pandora to humanity ostensibly as a gift – but in reality, it was divine revenge. She came with a jar containing every possible evil. In today’s world, every shiny new digital service or platform can carry its own box of potential problems – cyber risks, fraud issues, regulatory complications. The lesson being, innovation must be matched with risk foresight.
The Trojan War started with a beauty contest. When asked to choose the “fairest” goddess, Zeus dodged the decision (wisely avoiding the drama of picking between his wife and daughters) and delegated it to Paris. Paris, swayed by a bribe (Aphrodite promised him Helen), chose personal benefit over broader consequences — sparking a war that destroyed two civilisations!
This reflects both risk management and corporate governance failure: personal interests overriding institutional judgment, lack of transparent decision-making processes, and the failure to consider future impact. In addition, pushing difficult decisions down to people without proper authority, training or accountability frameworks.
Risk Management: Heroes and Their Fatal Flaws
Icarus and Risk Management: Daedalus created wings out of feathers and wax for himself and his son to escape imprisonment, warning not to fly too low (sea spray dampening the feathers) nor too high (the sun would melt the wax).
Icarus ignored the operational parameters and flew too close to the sun.
Modern translation: ignore risk controls, face the consequences.
Achilles and Weak Spots: Achilles was invulnerable except for his heel – the one spot missed when his mother held him by the ankle to dip him in the river Styx (which gave him invincibility). This single point of failure ultimately proved fatal.
Institutions often face robust controls everywhere except one critical vulnerability. Strong security systems with a weak password policy. Excellent credit risk management with poor operational controls. Downfall isn’t always due to widespread failure, and comprehensive risk management means identifying and fortifying your weak points. Always remember GRC is also about protecting your heels.
Cassandra and Communication: Cassandra could predict disasters accurately but was cursed so no one would believe her warnings. Every risk manager’s nightmare – seeing problems but struggling to convince others until it’s too late.
The key insight: Risk management succeeds when communication is clear, and leadership fosters a culture of openness and responsiveness.
Operational Risk (Divine or otherwise)
The Hydra: Problems That Multiply The Hydra grew two heads for every one that was cut off. Hercules defeated it by cauterizing the wounds to prevent regeneration – addressing the root causes rather than just symptoms.
Every company faces Hydra-like problems: fix one system issue and two new ones appear, resolve one complaint and discover a systemic issue affecting others. The lesson being sometimes quick fixes aren’t enough – instead, tackle underlying causes.
The Trojan Horse: Due Diligence Failures The fall of Troy came not from the decade-long siege but from a fake gift. The Trojans found a giant wooden horse outside their gates, supposedly left as an offering to the gods by the retreating Greeks. Instead of asking obvious questions – Why would our enemies leave us a gift? Is it a trap? Why is it so heavy and why’s there the sound of heavy armour and giggling from inside? – they took it into the city and celebrated.
This is a classic due diligence failure – apparent benefits blinding you to risks. The Trojans saw what looked like a victory trophy and didn’t perform basic due diligence.
Modern equivalent: opportunities with unrealistic returns or technology solutions that promise to solve everything with no downsides. When risk perception is clouded by confirmation bias, due diligence breaks down with disastrous consequences.
Modern Applications: Myths as Models
These stories are all obviously wildly fantastical, but they can also provide templates for understanding complex situations:
- Icarus: Are we innovating within safe operational parameters?
- Achilles: What is our weakness?
- Cassandra: Are risks being communicated clearly?
- Trojans: Are we conducting proper due diligence?
The myths aren’t just ancient history. Every governance failure, risk blind spot, and compliance breakdown follows scripts written thousands of years ago. The difference between success or failure could just come down to recognising which story you’re in and choosing the right ending – and trusting that even a degree in mythology can come in handy!
From the Judges
“Superb writing style, interesting angle and strong educational benefit for non-risk.“
“This was such a fun read and made the point for why we need GRC better than any regulator’s speech I have ever read.”
“The article excels in originality by transforming classical myths into vivid GRC parables that both entertain and enlighten. The relatable narratives and clear analogies capture attention and distill complex risk principles into memorable lessons.”
