#odysseus = arya jon catelyn

[dyannawynnedayne]

Feel so bad for the starks. U are either assigned helen or odysseus and you dont get a choice which one

[queenaryastark]

which greek gods would you match asoiaf characters to

Let me start by saying that there is a huge difference between the deities of Greek mythology and the characters in ASOIAF. But here goes:

Catelyn

Demeter, Hera, and Athena

Demeter is an agricultural mother goddess responsible for making the earth bountiful and controlling the seasons. Since the gods were interpreted and worshiped in different ways depending on the region and the time period, there is also a darker version of Demeter that is connected to death. Not only is she responsible for creating life but also for receiving the dead and being a guardian of ghosts. Her most popular myth is of the kidnapping of her daughter Persephone and how in her grief, she didn’t allow the earth to be fertile until her daughter was returned to her. Catelyn’s motherhood and longing for her children is a hugely significant part of her character. In a lot of ways, it drives her choices, both positive and negative. The parallel of her seeking the return of her daughters while Westeros goes from summer to fall to winter is pretty obvious, especially now that she’s become one of the living dead.

Hera is the goddess of women (particularly married women), marriage, family fidelity, and childbirth. She’s most known for her anger and jealousy over her husband’s affairs and illegitimate children, the most mainstream being Heracles. I’m hesitant to compare Catelyn’s treatment of Jon with Hera’s treatment of all the women her husband tricked/coerced/slept with and their children. While Cat undeniably mistreated Jon, it’s not even close to the extent that Hera goes to. What’s similar is her devotion to marriage and family.

Athena may seem like an odd choice for Catelyn since she’s been groomed to fit her cultural’s patriarchal ideal for femininity, though we see her straining against those ideals or even outright discarding them from time to time. Athena is the goddess of warfare, wisdom, women’s crafts and arts, justice, and politics. While she was the goddess of war, she didn’t revel in it like her brother Ares. She was strategic, championing and advising multiple heroes.

Arya

Persephone, Artemis, and  Odysseus 

I have a partly written meta about Arya and Persephone that I will hopefully finish someday. But here are the broad strokes. Persephone is a vegetation goddess of death and rebirth. She descends into the underworld every autumn and ascends into the world in the spring, impacting the changing seasons with her mother. She is both the queen of the underworld and the goddess of spring and vegetation. This duality can be seen very clearly in Arya who is a young girl who counts and collects flowers, tells directions with moss, and loves the outdoors while also being a young girl who descends into the underworld twice so far during her story, first in the war torn Riverlands and again the House of Black and White. All of the death she is witnessing, causing, and giving as a gift of seems to be leading to a significant role in a death worshiping religion. Similarly with Catelyn’s connection to Demeter, Arya actively seeks her to reunite with her mother like Persephone.

Artemis is the goddess of the wild, the hunt, the moon, animals, childbirth, virginity, and protector of young girls. Her statues often depict her wearing chiton that only reaches to her knees, something only men wore, as women wore theirs down to their ankles. Arya loves animals and the outdoors. She is able to tell direction based on moss. During her arc, there are several connections to the moon. Just as Artemis is depicted wearing a short chiton for convenience of movement, Arya also wears pants, typically associated with men in her culture, for convenience. 

Odysseus was a Greek hero known for his cunning who fought in the Trojan War for ten years and spent another ten trying to get home. Like all Greek heroes, he also descended into the underworld. A more detailed essay paralleling Arya with Odysseus can be found here.

Daenerys

Athena and Aphrodite

As already noted above, Athena is the goddess of  warfare, wisdom, women’s crafts and arts, justice, and politics. She is more about strategy and diplomacy than her battle lusting brother, Ares. Athena also created the justice system with a trial and jury. Dany’s story is brimming with politics and diplomacy through all five novels whether she’s with the Dothraki, in Qarth, or dealing with Slaver’s Bay. Not only did we see her waging war and being skilled in strategy, but we see her dealing with the intricate politics of Meereen. She’s also in charge of enforcing justice. 

Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty, pleasure, and sexual passion (usually interpreted as love). Of the Greek goddesses, she had the most sexual autonomy. She is also described as “laughter loving”. Dany is considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world and is hyper-sexualized from her very first chapter and onward. So far in the story, she has had three sexual partners, two of whom were her husbands. But the fact that her lover is the battle loving Daario definitely gives their dynamic an Aphrodite/Ares feel.

Bran

Hermes and Apollo

Hermes is a trickster god who flies on winged sandals. He was the herald of the gods and the god of travelers, thieves, sleep, athletics, shepherds, and trade. He also guided souls to the underworld. He is a god that appears in several myths and seems to get along with most of the other gods. Bran is able to fly through skinchanging winged creatures and is told that he will never walk again, but he will fly. Bran is known as a happy, loving boy who everyone loves. We also have a couple memories of Bran being a trickster, whether its him outsmarting and outrunning the castle guards who are trying to stop him from climbing or if he’s ambushing people with snowballs with Arya. 

Apollo is the god of the sun, archery, prophecy, music, youth, healing, disease, and rationality. As characters, they aren’t that similar in personality. I’m mostly putting Apollo under Bran due to the prophecy and sun aspects of the deity.