Mythology/culture of Ancient Greece

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/