Idiot Ball/Oral Tradition

Examples of characters holding the Idiot Ball in Myth, Legend and Folklore include:


 * In The Bible, Delilah asks Samson how to take away his Super Strength. Samson tells her that he can lose his strength if he is bound with new ropes or if his hair is braided, both of which are lies. Delilah tries both of these and fails. Then, after she tries to take away his strength twice, Samson tells her to cut his hair, which works. Memorably pointed out by Orson Scott Card's character Alvin Maker.
 * Then again, Samson is established as not the sharpest knife in the drawer to begin with.
 * Abraham is traveling through Egypt with his lovely wife, Sarah in tow. He fears that the Egyptians would kill him and take her away because of her beauty. So, what does he do? He stuffs her into a box. He didn't stop to think that maybe, just maybe that box would, you know, have to pass through customs. Then when she is discovered, he tells them that she's only his sister, which results in Sarah being taken into the Pharaoh's harem. The real icing on the cake? This happens twice!
 * Hey, Eve, don't eat the apple.
 * Probably not the only case in Greek Mythology, but the biggest: Rhea fooled her husband Kronos from devouring little baby Zeus by giving him a stone in diapers. To be fair, she did get him drunk first.
 * "Orpheus, you vanquished every obstacle in your path and made us weep, you love your girl so much. She can come back to the living world, just don't look back, okay ?" "Derp!"
 * Being fair to Orpheus, that was a case of bastard referee. Orpheus had already made it out of the cave and so thought it was safe to look back, but Hades went 'Nope, you both have to be outside the cave before one of you can look back, and she was still one step inside the door. So, fuck you.'
 * In Norse Mythology, Frigg went on a pilgrimage throughout the world and extracted a promise from everything in existence that they would not harm her beloved son Balder. The other gods even made a game out of it, putting the amused Balder in the middle of a circle and throwing things at him just to watch the things dodge him. That's not the Idiot Ball; that's cute. The Idiot Ball shows up when Loki disguises himself as an old woman who manages to get Frigg to explain that she didn't get this promise from one thing - mistletoe, because she deemed it "too young" to be bound to such a vow. He immediately gets mistletoe and tricks Balder's blind brother into throwing it at him, resulting in Balder's death. Frigg, you twit, why would you tell anyone about that, especially knowing that there's a nasty trickster god running around who's really good at disguises?