George R R Martin clearly took some inspiration for the character of Cersei Lannister from the Greek mythological figure Circe. Aside from the obvious connection with their names, there are a few other links between the two characters that will be explored in this post. Circe was an enchantress in a Greek mythology who is often thought to be a witch.
She was the daughter of Helios, the sun god, and Perse, a nymph. The parallels drawn with the sun god are significant in that the first known Lannister, Lann the Clever, was described as having “stolen gold from the sun to brighten his curly hair”, a distinctive and renowned Lannister trait.
Circe’s brothers were Aeetes, keeper of the Golden Fleece (which could potentially be interpreted as the key to winning the Iron Throne, with Daenerys representing Jason in this example):
and Perse, who, interestingly, usurped the old king and killed him.
Circe was renowned for using magic to transform those who offended her into wild beasts.
She was also responsible for the death of her husband, the Prince of Colchis:
In some versions of the mythology, she destroyed her home on the island where she lived after she was punished for her actions:
This home was a beautiful mansion on an island:
and it was reputed to be surrounded by “strangely docile lions and wolves, the drugged victims of her sorcery”, which can obviously be interpreted as a foil for two of the great houses of Westeros, Stark and Lannister.
She was also said to drink from an enchanted cup as she wove her spells around her victims:
These are just a few of the more explicit parallels between the character of Cersei from A Song of Ice and Fire and the renowned figure from Greek mythology, but there are still others, such as their daughters being shipped off to be married and having their champions restored to life after having been killed (in Cersei’s case, this obviously refers to the Mountain).
The Targaryens were the only dragonlords after the Doom of Valyria because they were the only family of dragonlords that survived the Doom and the events afterwards. That sounds like a tautology, but it’s not. 🙂 There were Valyrians and people of Valyrian blood that survived the Doom, in Volantis and elsewhere, but they weren’t dragonlords. (Note it’s specifically said that the dragonlord families were the ones to marry incestuously “to keep the blood of the dragon pure”, not other Valyrians.) In Westeros, for example, the Velaryons and Celtigars were also Valyrian expatriates, but they weren’t dragonlords, they weren’t of the forty noble families who had ruled Valyria, and they never had dragons.*
Though yes, there were some non-Targaryen dragonlords who also escaped the Doom… but only briefly:
Some accounts claim that a few others survived, too… for a time. It is said that some Valyrian dragonlords in Tyrosh and Lys were spared, but that in the immediate political upheaval following the Doom, they and their dragons were killed by the citizens of those Free Cities. The histories of Qohor likewise claim that a visiting dragonlord, Aurion, raised forces from the Qohorik colonists and proclaimed himself the first Emperor of Valyria. He flew away on the back of his great dragon, with thirty thousand men following behind afoot, to lay claim to what remained of Valyria and to reestablish the Freehold. But neither Emperor Aurion nor his host were ever seen again. –TWOIAF
Those few dragonlords to survive the Doom died soon after, along with their dragons. As for your statement about the Valyrians in Volantis who tried to claim Valyria’s mantle, TWOIAF answers you straight up:
Volantis, the mightiest of the Free Cities, quickly laid claim to Valyria’s mantle. Men and women of noble Valyrian blood, though not dragonlords, called for war upon the other cities.
They weren’t dragonlords. They didn’t have dragons. No, there were not just “dragons lying around”, all the dragons in Valyria died in the Doom. They’re not cats, random people didn’t just have them as pets. They’re dragons. You had to be a dragonlord to have and ride a dragon, that’s what the title means.
(2/2) is it just that in 300 years they couldn’t get their hands on
dragons or hatch dragon eggs? could it be because you don’t only need
Valyrian blood but also some kind of magical craft and knowledge to
birth and/or tame dragons? Which the Targs had while no one in Essos
with Valyrian blood did?
Yes, that’s it exactly. Apparently you can’t just hatch dragon eggs (if you even have one – they’re priceless, and always heavily guarded) without a dragon or without being a dragonlord. And it was believed that you couldn’t ride a dragon without having the magical “blood of the dragon”, for that matter, so if any wild or free-roaming dragon did survive the Doom, anyone who tried to catch and tame them surely died.**
The dragonlords of Valyria controlled their dragons with “binding spells and sorcerous horns.” It’s uncertain if any of that magic survived among the Targaryens (none of the stories of Aegon the Conqueror or his descendants mention them), but surely there was nobody who had that magical knowledge or those magical horns in Volantis or elsewhere in Essos after the Doom.*** So those surviving Targaryen dragonlords made do with their “blood of the dragon” to establish a connection and control of their dragons. If you didn’t have magic and if you didn’t have the magical blood, it doesn’t matter if you were of Valyrian descent, you were shit-outta-luck.
In which case, how will Dany control her
dragons in ASOIAF? I mean she managed this miraculous event to birth
them but if you do need further arts to control them I wonder who will
teach her…
“Daenerys made do with a word and a whip.” Drogon does obey his mother, if not perfectly. Their bond, plus her magical blood, evidently helps. However, a dragonrider can only control one dragon in their lifetime, so it’s the other two dragons, Viserion and Rhaegal, that are in question. But Euron Greyjoy has apparently found one of those magical Valyrian dragonhorns, so the possession of Dragonbinder will evidently be very important in the future. And Tyrion Lannister has studied dragons extensively, so his knowledge will also be very helpful when he and Dany eventually meet (or if he gets to a dragon before that event). Archmaester Marwyn also knows sorcery (he is the master of “the higher mysteries” in the Citadel, and has even lit a glass candle) as well as dragon-knowledge (via all the books he’s found and studied, including scraps of Daenys the Dreamer’s prophecies), and he’s on his way to Dany.**** Between all these things, Dany’s three dragons will be controlled, in one way or another.
Not really. I mean, I get why you would bring up the possibility since the premiere really framed how odd Amelia’s behavior was in the episode, and when we start the episode with DeLuca professing his worry about her and go through Jackson’s yelling about her recklessness and Amelia’s almost playful demeanor in the OR, only to end up the episode with the tumor reveal, it’s understandable that the possibility that it’s all connected occurs to some. But the things is that none of Amelia’s actions with Owen strike me as out of character, or particularly weird given her patterns of dealing with trauma. I believe we would have seen a more drastic change in personality if it’s been the tumor that was affecting her. More importantly, chalking Amelia’s relationship problems with Owen up to a medical condition would really strike me as a cop out from dealing with the actual issue Amelia is dealing with: trauma. It would not be a satisfying closure to their story, neither would it feel like natural story progression. Personally, I definitely Do Not Want a story about how the problems in Owen and Amelia’s marriage was due to a tumor or something like that because I think that denies Amelia the space to struggle with her trauma and to be lost and confused and messy out of her own volition, and skirts around dealing with Amelia’s grief and trauma, which is honestly long overdue. I’ve been waiting for the show to deal with that since that episode where Callie brought Penny and Amelia had a melt down only to be rebuffed by everyone, including Owen.
Much as I abhor the way Owen approached Amelia about it and how he phrased the whole thing, I do agree that Amelia is still suffering from the trauma of Derek’s death, which isn’t really at all surprising considering that she was never really given the opportunity to mourn and try to move on. Everyone was focused on supporting Meredith and giving her the space to grieve that they neglected to give Amelia the same courtesy. A main part of Amelia’s trouble with Derek’s death is that she was denied the opportunity to say goodbye or to be there with him which is something that Meredith is responsible for. But Amelia never could express how much that hurt her because then she sounded like she was blaming Meredith who was dealing with her own trauma due to the situation. I understand why Meredith behaved in such a way, but I also believe that Amelia had the right to be there and had the right to be monumentally upset at denied that opportunity, except that everyone ganged up on her when she tried to talk about how that pained her, and instead of understanding that she needed the space to express that pain and deal with it, they shut her down so she would not put pressure on Meredith. And when Amelia’s relationship with Meredith got tanked because of that shadow between them, the conflict ended with Meredith getting attacked and Amelia pushed to the edge that she started doing drugs again. Then it became about Meredith forgiving Amelia. So when was that woman ever given the chance to grieve freely? When did she have the proper support that demonstrated that people understood that she needed to be angry at the world for a while? When was she treated like she mattered in Derek’s death? Every time Amelia tried to talk, whoever she was talking to made it all about Meredith, as if Derek was not Amelia’s brother and she deserved the others’ sympathy and understanding just as much.
Even in this season’s premiere, we got the disconnect between Teddy expressing her condolences to Meredith, but criticizing Amelia for not being there for Owen, completely brushing off the fact that, oh yeah, Amelia was Derek’s sister and the whole situation is just a tad too close for comfort. I’m not surprised that Amelia is pissed off at Owen right now, not just because of how he framed his worry, but also because he was supposed to understand. Owen went through a similar trauma with Megan and dealt with it by blaming Riggs, that’s one of the main reasons why Amelia could relate to him that easily when all of that was going down, so he should have understood why being there with him is difficult for her, he should have stood up for her. Instead he comes to her to talk about how his family does not see her the way he does and that is why he thinks she is not over Derek’s death. Really?
It’s really not for nothing that Amelia had that line about avoiding Owen because his sister came back from the dead and her brother did not at the beginning of the episode. She was denied the space to properly grieve and express her pain and struggle even by the people closest to her. That makes Derek’s death an open wound that she can not get past even more than what’s normal in her case. Amelia can not move on, and the situation with Megan and how Owen handled things only trudged those memories up more, in addition to her struggle last season with the thought of pregnancy that brought up the trauma of losing her first baby. The reason behind Amelia’s marital struggles is not a tumor, it’s trauma that was compounded by how everyone around her treated her, and framed with her own trauma response of fleeing. Amelia deals with trauma by running and pushing it all away lest she comes apart, and there always comes a moment where she does fall apart because of it, especially when it relates to Derek. That’s been her trauma pattern since Private Practice
Yeah they need to tie it together next week or I can see myself fading like with Hotel.
I’ve already lost interest tbh but I’ll stick it out for a couple more episodes to see if things get better. But honestly, the fact that I can’t find a reason to keep watching this season is telling. I’ve always found some saving grace that kept me hooked. I powered through the mess of Hotel because Denis O’Hare and Kathy Bates were amazing, and I liked the love story between Liz and whatshisface, Finn’s character. This season it’s all very meh. I don’t really care about anyone and what little interest I had in the source of Aly’s phobia and Colton’s character faded fast.
I really wanted to like AHS: Cult but it’s shaping to be my least favorite season, steadily shouldering Hotel off the way as the story progress. They keep swinging between over-exaggeration to the point of being downright cartoonish, and being unbearably repetitive and dull. There is only so much I can take of Sarah Paulson screaming and sobbing at the camera as weird clowns prance around. Billie is painful to watch (apparently that deadpan emotionless delivery is her default and not her conception of a character. I feel like someone snatched Chanel from Scream Queens and dumped her in another Murphy show with a wardrobe change), Evan is so over the top he’s inducing uncontrollable giggling from me, and I feel like the story trajectory is a goddamn mess. I don’t understand why the “cult” is so damn invested in some random woman that they are putting that much energy and that many people into making her think she is insane and discrediting her. What makes her so special? And what reason did they have to murder that random couple at the beginning of the episode? Sure, that pointed to Cheyenne’s character’s involvement but it does not really fly with the motive for the Chang murder.
Only all the time. I have a lot of feelings about how Ned chose the name Jon for the boy who wasn’t the son of his body but whom he raised and loved as his own son, to honor the man who wasn’t his father by blood but who raised and loved him, Ned, as his own. The two father figures also parallel each other in their fierce protection of their chosen sons that makes them defy their kings: Jon Arryn by refusing Aerys’ call for Ned’s head and protecting his foster son from the king’s tyranny and paranoia, and Ned by concealing Jon as his own child to protect him from Robert’s blind vengeance.
Needless to say, this is one of my favorite minor tidbits in the series because I love how something as simple as a namesake holds weight in the story, and what it says about Ned’s relationship with Jon Snow.
He ate. It had a bitter taste, though not so bitter as acorn paste. The first spoonful was the hardest to get down. He almost retched it right back up. The second tasted better. The third was almost sweet. The rest he spooned up eagerly. Why had he thought that it was bitter? It tasted of honey, of new-fallen snow, of pepper and cinnamon and the last kiss his mother ever gave him. The empty bowl slipped from his fingers and clattered on the cavern floor. “I don’t feel any different. What happens next?”
I think this is my second favorite passage in ADWD. There’s such a quiet beauty here, such thematic resonance, like that moment of expectant silence before the symphony begins.
Sam speaks 