1 post tagged “penelope”
Hallmark propaganda is everywhere today so I thought it might be fun to recap a few fathers from Greek mythology. These chaps definitely would not be seen with a baby bjorn or pushing a Bugaboo to the farmers' market.
Odysseus: Absentee husband and father
Spouse: Penelope
Offspring(s): Telemachus
Left his pregnant wife to go fight in the Trojan War for ten or so years, and then on the way back had an run in with a god which kept him away from Ithaka for another ten years. Penelope was left fending off suitors with her wits and a spinning wheel, and Telemachos went emo. On the plus side Odysseus never stopped pining for his family, and eventually returned home (after romancing his way around the Med) to kick some serious ass.
Agamemnon: Infanticide
Spouse: Clytemnestra
Offspring(s): Orestes, Iphigenia, Electra and Chrysothemis
On his way to Troy he incurs the wrath of Artemis and his fleet is left stranded without sufficient wind to get moving. To appease Artemis he sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia, whom he lured to the island under the false promise of being married to Achilles. As you can imagine this does not go down well with Mrs. Agamemnon. Upon Agamemnon's return she kills him (and his captured concubine Cassandra), and then eventually is murdered by her son Orestes. This is of course the classic example of the "cycle of violence" being transmitted down the generations.
Priam: Indulging his son to the detriment of everybody else
Spouse: Various (inlcluding Hecuba)
Offspring(s): Many (including Paris, Hector and Cassandra)
Priam's son, Paris, has a holiday romance with the wife of the king of Sparta, he smuggles her home to Troy, and instead of knocking some sense into his playboy son Priam welcomes Helen into his home. This action seals the deal for the destruction of his kingdom and family by the Greeks who have come to rescue Helen (and all the booty that Paris nabbed alongside her).
Laius: Attempted infanticide
Spouse: Jocasta
Offspring(s): Oedipus
An oracle warns Laius not to father a child with his wife as his future son will kill him, and marry Jocasta. Upon the birth of their son they order for him to be left on a mountainside to die of exposure. Of course, a meddlesome shepherd comes across the baby and saves him. Laius has tried to side-step a prophercy but as with all Greek myths there is no escaping your destiny.
Daedalus: Child indangerment
Offspring(s): Icarus And Iapyx
Daedalus was the original mad inventor, and was locked up in a tower by Minos to keep him from blabbing about the labryinth he'd built. In order to escape, Daedalus fashioned wings made of feathers and wax for him and Icarus. Sadly Icarus did not listen to his father and flew too close to the sun. Extreme heat and wax are not the best combination, and Icarus fell into the sea.
Heracles: Familicide
Spouse: Megara
Offspring(s): Therimachus, Deicoon, Creontiades
Driven mad by Hera, Heracles murders his family as he is under the delusion that they are the family of his enemy, and it of course is fine to murder the family of your enemy.
Helios: Child indangerment
Spouse(s): Various
Offspring(s): Many (including Phaethon)
Once again a father is only too willing to indulge his son and gives him the keys to the turbo charged charriot. It all ends in tears wwith Phaethon falling into a river, and his sisters weeping for him so much they were turned into trees.
