The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is commonly read as a simple tale of revenge. In the German town of Hamelin, rats had overrun the city, tormenting its people. Then came a piper.

He walked through the streets playing his flute, and the rats, drawn out from every corner and crevice, followed him in a trance. At his direction, they leapt into the river and drowned en masse.

The piper then went to the mayor to collect his agreed payment. But since the work was done, the mayor acted like a politician and refused to pay.

The piper warned that he would have his revenge.

On the feast day of Saints John and Paul, when the adults were occupied in church, the piper returned. He pulled out a brightly colored flute and began to play. At the sound of this new melody, the children of Hamelin poured out of their homes in a kind of enchanted dance, following the piper as he led them away toward the mountains, never to return.

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More Than a Story of Betrayal

This is an old tale. The oldest known written source dates to around 1300, though the story is older still. Various theories exist about its historical origins, and it endures to this day. SEMrush data shows the Pied Piper still receives roughly 14,500 searches per month worldwide.

The surface message is clear enough: ingratitude has consequences. But look at the story from another angle, specifically who is the Pied Piper, and a deeper reading opens up.

What gives his flute such power? Why do rats and children alike follow him without hesitation?

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Rene Girard and Mimetic Desire

Analyzed through the framework of Franco-American philosopher Rene Girard's mimetic theory, the Pied Piper must be understood as a model, someone whom others imitate. The children of Hamelin are the imitators.

The core insight of Girard's theory is this: human beings have no desires of their own. They imitate the desires of others.

When the children followed the Piper, they had no capacity for independent decision-making. Whatever direction the model moved, they moved too.

Girard writes that we do not truly choose; the model chooses on our behalf. A person can be completely destroyed by their model. Imitation is precisely the thing that causes us to misrecognize what we are doing and why.

Who you imitate matters enormously, because in imitating someone, you are effectively handing them the authority to make your decisions for you. You are making them your own Pied Piper, and they are constructing your desires.

People look at the achievements, possessions, lifestyles, and values of others and build their own desires from what they see. If the model they follow engages in behaviors that are harmful to the imitator in the long run, the imitator will not recognize the danger. They simply follow the music.

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The Three Children Who Stayed Behind

There is one more striking detail in the Pied Piper story. Of the 130 children who followed the piper and vanished, only three remained, and it was these three who told the townspeople what had happened.

The three who stayed behind were: one who was lame, one who was blind, and one who was deaf.

Their physical conditions made it impossible for them to follow. They could not be captured by the spell.

Girard observes that the more intensely mimetic desire operates in a person's life, the more it penetrates reality, and the more thoroughly it destroys them. The person becomes increasingly unhappy, chasing desires that were never truly their own.

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How This Operates in Modern Life

To stimulate consumption and generate endless appetite, societies use those who are famous, popular, or admired, figures that people consciously or unconsciously treat as models, to create desire for products, lifestyles, and values. The film and entertainment industries and the advertising world are built precisely on this mechanism.

Complete escape from imitation is impossible. Human beings are social creatures, and mimesis is how we are formed. But we can become conscious of who we are imitating and why. If we don't, we are still imitating, only blindly. Conscious imitation helps a person understand their own psychological position: what they are doing, and why they are doing it.

This is why ancient Stoic philosophy placed great emphasis on deliberately choosing one's models. The Stoics chose Socrates, Cato the Younger, and the mythical Hercules. Many religious traditions similarly emphasize the importance of selecting models carefully, because they understood that if a person does not consciously choose, they will unconsciously choose anyway, be shaped by that model, and yet believe they are acting entirely from their own will.

A model can be harmful to the imitator. But not every model is a Pied Piper leading you off a cliff.

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Mimetic Rivalry

There is one further dimension worth noting: mimetic rivalry.

When a person imitates someone who occupies the same social level as themselves, conflict tends to emerge. What begins as admiration curdles into antagonism. The imitator becomes obsessed with the model, wanting to be them, yet finds that the very person who sparked their desire is now their competitor and rival.

If, however, the model is someone from the distant past, Socrates, say, there is no possibility of rivalry. The competition cannot exist.

Girard's solution to mimetic rivalry is direct: "To make an effective imitator, you have to openly admire the model you're imitating, you have to acknowledge your imitation. You have to explicitly recognize the superiority of those who succeed better than you and set about learning from them."

If you want to learn from someone, to develop qualities you first noticed in them, acknowledge the imitation openly. Accept that they are better than you at the very things you want. This removes the psychological barrier, invites genuine learning, and eliminates the pointless hostility. In many cases, the model will even help you. And perhaps one day you will surpass them, becoming, in turn, a model for others.

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This is the cycle. This is the game of human society.

Our desires are born from watching the desires of others.