I'm kind of stuck here, for a a monstrous creature - preferably one more or less humanoid, at least with a human face - that represents treason, and would be easily recognizable as such. Pretty much any suggestions would be welcome at this point, thanks.
If I absolutely had to represent "treason" symbolically, my personal preference would be for a perfectly normal human to prove him/herself a greater threat than any of the non-humans involved.
I've read (don't quote me on it) that the scorpion represents treachery—something to do with the sting in its tail. The nearest creature I could find from there was the 'manticore' < It may be a bit OTT though for your requirements; it eats people too! Or maybe something crocodilian, you know, crocodile tears? Or something weaselly?
I like the scorpion - the fable about the scorpion and the frog, right? I'm not sure if that's well-enough known for people to get it instantly, though. Snakes, I guess. Incorporating thirty pieces of silver or a stabbing in the back somehow. Something like Janus, with two faces?
What about some form of Daemon or something that represents the influence of that which distorts and mangles the body of man into a twisted form of what they once were. Though it would seem a reptilian form would also be appropriate as they are seen as those to seduce into the much darker aspects (the serpent in the Adam/Eve story). You could make it anything you want, why stick to things that already have been thought of? Perhaps a fungus type creature, because they feed of the death and decay of things. Or some form of ravenous scavenger creature.
Both rats and weasels can symbolise treachery - to rat on your colleagues , means to grass, inform, tell tales , whilst people weasel on deals , and the vikings used "piss weasel" to mean an oathbreaker and/or someone who ran from battle.
I would argue that izzybot is right, the snake in western, christian cultures is instantly recognisable as a traitorous character thanks to Satan taking the snake's form in the Book of Genesis. Also, Sir Hiss and Kaa are good Disney examples
In Dante's Divine Comedy the devil is shown to represent treason. in the ninth level of hell the traitors are kept, encased with ice, with the devil there as an ultimate punishment for betrayin God. Also anything snakelike is usually used to depict treason. As for traitors in mythology you have Kronos who killed his dad (and Zeus, if you think about it, for doing the same thing), Loki isn't really a traitor but quite a trickster (and his son is a wolf, so that's another motive you can use), Set in egyptian mythology (whose animal hasn't really been identified) Any kind of venomous animal can really be a traitor. Also, the puca in irish mythology is a shapeshifting creature who mimics human voices to lure people outside so it can kill them, and the Kappa looks like a horse and invites people to ride it, then it takes them to a stream and kills them.
There is nothing recorded that actually has Loki as any sort of trickster. Loki could be clever or cunning, but he didn't act up in any way that was out of the ordinary for Nordic deities. His biggest issue was when he threw shade at all the other gods at a banquet he wasn't invited to because he was a melodramatic princess whose feelings were hurt, which is recorded in the Lokasenna. And maybe for orchestrating the death of Baldur. I'm okay if you wanna argue that he's a traitor though, in that he does determine upon freedom from his imprisonment/torture (as punishment for being an asshole at said party he crashed & probably greatly assisted from the grudge of Baldur's death) to start Ragnorak (the end of the world in a gloriously epic rap battle). Though that seemed inevitable, as they mention the events long before the grudges or motivations come to pass. To be frank, Odin was actually the biggest troll. The funniest story was where he disguised himself as an old farmer & argued with Thor that not only was he (his farmer persona) mightier in battle but far more importantly a better conqueror in bed. He just keeps riling Thor up more & more, and Thor just keeps falling for it. Odin was an ass—a hilarious & loveavle jackass. Though I am more fond of Loptr/Loki overall. Also, he has Jormangandr, the serpent, as well as Fenrir, the wolf. Unfortunately his children Hel & Narfi I believe are both not animals (or ever turnt into any). Those were the children of whom he was father. He was the mother of the 8-legged horse Sleipnir (you know, when he had to become a mare to lure Svaldilfari away & incidentally was impregnated in that form, although the whole predicament was ultimately his bad so he kinda deserved it).
Yep, my bad, thanks. And @NoGoodNobu thanks. That was really interesting. Guess I'm "slightly" biased by the modern interpretations of Loki (i.e Marvel, really)
Lamias - half snake, half woman, said to live in graveyards, prey on humans, and suck the blood from children.
Maybe an animal that lures in its prey through deception? That could be seen as treason I guess. A few examples (found from Google): http://listverse.com/2011/01/15/10-deadly-tricksters-of-the-animal-world/ The Margay for example, from the above article, lures prey by mimicking their mating calls. Similar to how a traitor pretends to be honest then betrays their allies.
Would it be appropriate to consider creatures that shapeshift (e.g. vampire, werewolf, leshy, puca, wendigo, aswang)? I think any mythological creature that has the ability to transform could represent treason. The dictionary defines treason as "a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state," or as "the offense of acting to overthrow one's government." Isn't that what vampires and werewolves are all about? Sure, it their allegiance isn't to a government, but their existence represents a degree of defiance toward the human race. In short, creatures that undergo metamorphosis are, in one way or another, forced to change their allegiance to the human race. If this concept fits your story, there are plenty of humanoid and non-humanoid shapeshifters in mythology that you could utilize.
Snakes are decievers, rats are unscrupulous, weasels are scheming con-artists, scorpions are back stabbers, but none of them really represent the willingness to betray ones country. A traitor may carry one or all of the above traits, but I don't know that any of those animals can represent treason. If someone reads/sees a snake in a book, they might expect the snake to deceive them, but not necessarily on the level of working to destroy the country that the characters exist in. One that comes to mind while browsing mythical creatures in the wiki, is the Kishi: "The kishi is a two-faced demon in Angola. According to legend, a kishi has an attractive human man's face on the front of its body and a hyena's face on the back. Kishi are said to use their human face, as well as smooth talk and other charms to attract young women, who they then eat with the hyena face.[1] The hyena face is said to have long sharp teeth and jaws so strong they cannot be pulled off anything it bites." Now, excluding the part about attracting young women specifically, it does have a human face (one of two), and carries with it some traits that you might associate with a traitor via metaphor. Two-faced, much like a traitor shows one face to his country, and another to those he/she is truly loyal to. The wiki articles also list the Kishi as cannibalistic, much as a traitor consumes their own country from the inside. Having sharp teeth and jaws so strong they cannot be pulled off anything it bites, much like the damage done by a traitor is often permanent (especially if they kill/assassinate a ruler such as a king). Just thoughts. Not sure it's what you are looking for, or if you've already got an answer.
