By: Ursula

Ursula — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 20:16:00 +0000

What, if Shireen does not die and emerge from the pyre – as did Daeneyris? This episode – a king sacrifying his own daughter to a god(dess) by burning her for the purpose of good success in a war – is actually based upon a Greek myth, “Iphigenia”. She was King Agamemnon’s daughter, who was the principal warlord of the united Greek armies during the Trojan War. There are different stories about what happened to Iphigenia in the end, but in nearly all of them she gets saved by the gods for her innocence (e.g. by becoming a priestess of the goddess Artemis). Agememnon, on the other hand, faces a truly sinister fate: Upon his return home as a triumphant warlord after finally conquering Troy following a 10-year siege, he is murdered whilst taking a bath by his wife Klytaemnestra and the lover she’s taken during his absence. She obviously takes revenge for her daughter’s death by condemning him to an ‘unheroic’ end.
Personally, I would totally not be astonished if Shireen’s and Stannis’ destinies had some more parallels to Iphigenia’s and Agememnon’s stories – there just has to be a terrible end for Stannis and, certainly, the creepy Melisandre.

Comments on: ‘Game of Thrones’ season 5, episode 9 debate: Can Stannis or Melisandre be redeemed?

By: Ursula