Comparison of Jamie
Lannister and Cersei Lannister of Game of thrones to Zeus and Hera of Greek
Mythology
Game of Thrones is a fantasy modern
television series that tells the story of a medieval country and its civil war.
Although a fictional series, the program draws a lot from the history and also
from mythologies from the ancient times. A combination of these two not only
keeps history and myth alive but also renews the fairy tales and mythologies
creating a new perspective. With this understanding, we will look at Game of
Thrones in a new light where we analyze how the Greek mythology characters are
represented in the series. We will look at their similarities and differences
from their original narratives. The characters that will be looked at in this
discussion are Zeus and Hera in comparison to Jamie and Cersei Lannister of
Game of Thrones.
In both cases, the relationships were
incestuous where they were between a brother and a sister. Jamie and Cersei
although not married like Zeus and Hera, are involved in a relationship that
leads to the birth of their three children Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen. Like
Zeus and Hera who had a dangerous, wild, hectic and untamed child by the name
Ares, Jamie and Cersei also are unfortunate to have a child with the same
characteristics (Atsma, 2017). Other than being
dangerous to people, Joffrey portrays psychopathic attributes with lack of
empathy which makes him dangerous. The two are also able to have a beautiful
daughter by the name Myrcella just like the daughter of Zeus and Hera, Hebe.
The difference, however, comes with the
nature of their relationships. Although Zeus loved his wife Hera, he had
several affairs with other women which led to Hera being very jealous and
causing problems for the relationship. They were not happy with each other,
however, for Jamie and Cersei it is vice versa. Cersei is the one who has an
affair. Jamie does not display any signs of jealousy neither does Cersei when
Jamie develops feelings for Brienne (Sutton, 2013). It is
for this reason that they are at peace with each other for the entire series
unlike the unhappy marriage of Zeus and Hera.
It is clear that most of the attributes
of the relationship were drawn from the Greek mythology. The writer of the A
Song of Ice and Fire from where Game of Thrones is based tried to shape the
characters with the myth in mind even though not direct but sometimes
contradicting them.
References
Atsma,
A. (2017). ZEUS FAMILY - Greek Mythology. Theoi.com. Retrieved 18 April 2018,
from http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ZeusFamily.html
Sutton,
T. (2013). Greek Myth in Game of Thrones: Robert and Cersei as Zeus and Hera.
Unbound Worlds. Retrieved 18 April 2018, from
http://www.unboundworlds.com/2013/04/greek-myth-in-game-of-thrones-part-one-robert-baratheon-and-cersei-lannister-as-zeus-and-hera/
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