Tragic Characters In Mythology By Edith Hamilton

The twelve Olympians are not the only gods that exist but there are two other gods of the earth and they are Demeter, the goddess of harvest and nature, and Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry and are both worshipped at the prime temple at Eleusis and they were worshipped in the same period. One very important aspect about the gods is that their actions, mistakes and even blessings, has very direct impacts on the humans on the earth and the impacts are either positive or negative. Edith Hamilton, through her book ‘Mythology’, has revealed that one of the most important themes is that tragic characters have always been the instruments of suffering and even deaths of others. For instance, Hades brought suffering upon the goddess of harvest

He is raised in the south by his mother and is supposed to rejoin his father in the kingdom after he lifts a rock and retrieves the sandals and sword under it. During that time, Minos beat the Athenians in war and punished them by sending seven boys and girls to die in the labyrinth of the Minotaur. Theseus offered himself and kills the Minotaur with assistance from her lover, Ariadne. As he had promised his father, that he would change sails but clouded by the pain of losing his lover, Ariadne in a storm, he forgets and his father commits suicide in the Aegean Sea just as it was written, "Thus Athens became, of all earth's cities, the only true home of liberty, the one place in the world where the people governed themselves" (Hamilton 216). Theseus’ sadness and pains led directly to his father’s death. Hercules, the strongest to ever live, was born in Thebes by Zeus and Alceme. His greatness has been captured vividly, "Not because he had complete courage based on overwhelming strength, which is merely a matter of course, but because, by his sorrow for wrongdoing and his willingness to do anything to expiate it, he showed greatness of soul" (Hamilton 227). He marries princess Megara and bears three children after the defeat of the Minyans but because of the pains that were harbored within Hera for the infidelity of her husband Zeus with Hercules’ mother, she makes the poor Hercules go insane and he

For instance, Hades caused major pains to Demeter and as a result the world suffers droughts and famines for a third of the year causing sufferings to the people making Demeter to be a tragic character whose tragedy resulted in human suffering; Dionysus, as a result of the anger he experiences, he drives the family of King Pentheus mad and causing them to kill the king making the god of wine and revelry to be a tragic character; Pelias who killed Jason’s father and even sending Jason to his near death for the fear of losing the crown that wasn’t his in the first place, makes him a tragic character too; Perseus who was banished by his grandfather, killed all the councilmen of Polydectes by exposing them to Medussa’s head that he had carried all along in his magic bag because of the pains and anger resulting from Polydectes chasing Dictys and his mother into hiding; Hercules who is known to be the strongest was manipulated by Hera who sought revenge for the infidelity by her husband, Zeus, thus making Hercules mad and causing him to kill the whole of his family. It is only the pains that the goddess Hera was going through that causes her to bestow this plight upon Hercules, making her a tragic character; also, Theseus caused his father’s death unknowingly by forgetting to change sails as promised which was due to his own pains of losing her love in a storm. Therefore