To Catch a Thief
Famed for his cunning, agility and vanity, Autolycus is the world's undisputed 'King of Thieves.' But as K. Stoddard Hayes reveals, there's far more to this lovable rogue than meets the eye.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 04
Autolycus was originally propelled towards a life of crime by a series of personal tragedies. He never knew his father and was orphaned at the age of eight when his mother died. His older brother, who raised him, was then swindled and murdered by a greedy merchant. Driven by an understandable need for justice, Autolycus became an outlaw by robbing his brother's killer and leaving him a pauper. The experience demonstrated an obvious gift for thievery which was destined to keep Autolycus on the wrong side of the law for years to come.
The self-proclaimed “King of Thieves” has an ego the size of Mount Olympus, and he is never shy about letting others know just how good he is. It’s not vain, glorious boasting either; he really is as good as he says (well, almost, anyway!). Even when he is alone, Autolycus feeds his vanity with a constant stream of self-praise and encouragement. A tricky stunt will invariably be followed by his familiar exultation: “Oh, boy, you are good!”
He rather fancies his good looks as well, especially the moustache he so often preens. Autolycus confidently assumes that any personable female will be attracted to his charm and his handsome face. Even Xena, when she first works with him in The Royal Couple of Thieves, can feel Autolycus’ allure, though to his great disappointment, she never shows the slightest inclination to succumb to it.
Autolycus is most proud, though, of his reputation as the King of Thieves. His ingenuity as a pickpocket and cat burglar is simply unmatched. He can pick any lock, outwit any security system and get himself in and out of any treasure room virtually ever)- time.
He is also an unrivalled escape artist, who seems capable of extracting himself from any sort of confinement. When Hercules wraps him in so many ropes that his body can hardly be seen, Autolycus clicks open a hidden blade on his belt and saws through his bonds in no time. When Xena binds his wrists and pins the rope to a table using her dagger, he needs only a moment to free himself, without disturbing the napkin covering his hands. It’s too bad Autolycus doesn’t notice that while he was freeing his hands, Xena ducked under the table and bound his ankles. He may be good, but Xena and Hercules are better!
Being a thief requires a high level of physical fitness and agility. Not only do you have to perform those daring break-ins and escapes, but you also need to be able to fight off guards, soldiers and indignant citizens. Autolycus demonstrates his physical prowess from his very first appearance in The King of Thieves, when he escapes Hercules by somersaulting over his head and catapulting himself through the trees with his trademark grapple and line.
Autolycus is also a good man to have on your side in a brawl. He’s agile, athletic and strong enough to vanquish half a dozen baddies (provided they follow the rules and attack him only one or two at a time). Indeed, he is such an able and entertaining fighter that in The Key to the Kingdom and Genies and Grecians and Geeks, Oh My!, he carries the fight sequences all by himself.
Being the King of Thieves is actually more important to Autolycus than the riches he steals, and his attempts to defend his reputation have landed him in trouble more than once. Just tell him that he's not as good as another thief, or that some treasure is impossible to steal, and he will take on the job out of pure pride, even if he was emphatically refusing to do so five minutes earlier. Tellingly, when the genie offers him a wish, he doesn’t actually wish for treasures, because no treasure is worth having unless he has stolen it by his own ingenuity. So instead, he wishes for invisibility, the only thing that can make him a better thief than he already is. Nothing matters more to him than being the best.
Hiding behind the cocky veneer of the King of Thieves lies a different Autolycus, who is not really sure of his own worth. We only sec this side of him when something important is at stake, such as an innocent life. Yet when his friends try to praise his good heart in Tsunami, he responds, “Spare me, Xena, we both know what I am... Someone who would let a friend walk straight into trouble, all for the chance to steal a few lousy stones... I’m an opportunist, plain and simple.”
Perhaps he feels this way because his mother and brother did not raise him to be an outlaw, and he still feels some guilt for abandoning law and respectability. Although Autolycus may not be able to see his true worth, his good heart has been apparent from the beginning. When Hercules battles with the monster serpent in The King of Thieves, Autolycus has a chance to escape before the door falls; indeed, Hercules shouts at him to run for it. But Autolycus can’t bring himself to abandon Hercules in the serpent’s lair, even to save his own life.
Autolycus’ appearances usually herald light-hearted adventures full of verbal fencing and, in the cases of Porkules and One Fowl Day, slapstick comedy. Even when the stakes are high, as they are for Xena in The Quest, Autolycus still carries the comic action, as he struggles with Xena for control of his own body. So it suits the nature of his comic character that no matter how clever he is, he never wins big in the end. The girl he likes always ends up with someone else. Similarly, the treasure he desires either remains in the hands of its rightful owners or is given away by Autolycus to someone who is in greater need.
Yet he never really loses, either. Autolycus always walks away with his reputation, his freedom and his happiness intact. After all, he is the King of Thieves. What more could anyone want.