Obsessive Love In Greek Mythology

The Ancient Greeks had 3 things they loved more than anything: Mythology, heroes, and love. They loved to write stories of heroes, strange creatures, conquests, and, most of all, the love stories of different people. Heroes, gods, queens, princesses, and regular people all had obsessive passion about the person (or people) that they loved. Numerous cases of rejection, love stories, or wars brought on by a spouse being kidnapped are all at the heart of Greek mythology and culture. I believe that the Greeks worshipped love above all else and they valued love more than life itself. First, we see examples of obsessive love in the ancient Greek Mythological Stories. Orpheus went down into the under-world in order to retrieve his wife. Several people committed suicide or serious crimes of their day in order to be with their love. Numerous people would do terrible things for their love interests. It was very

There are multiple tales where rejection from their loves persuaded people to commit suicide. Adrastus, Dido, Erysichton, Heracles and Jocasta are some of the many, many people who killed themselves in Greek Mythology. Many others killed themselves specifically because of rejection from their loves, which shows that, in their mind, it was either have my love interest, or die. This suggests that the Greeks cared more about having someone they loved than having life. Third, the Greeks treated the people they loved differently than we do. If you truly loved someone, then you would want was is best for them, but the Greeks did not. In some cases, if someone was rejected, they would turn their loved one into something. A tree, a bear, a plant, a constellation. This is not exactly what is “best” for them. Others killed people if they were rejected by them. This is not truly loving someone. In the case of Theseus, he “loved” Ariadne and vise-versa, but he still deserted her on an island. This was an example of strange