Game of Thrones: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Introduction

Each Monday, I will post on the Season 8 Game of Thrones episode that premiered on HBO the night before. Each blog will be constructed in three parts: a) a synopsis of the selected episode, b) the hidden (or not-so-hidden) motifs, and c) how it all relates to the field of psychiatry (e.g. family dynamics).

Synopsis

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the second episode of the 8th season of Game of Thrones (and the 69th overall). From Wikipedia:

"Daenerys visits Jon in the crypts, where Jon is standing in front of Lyanna Stark’s statue. Jon reveals what Sam and Bran told him of his parentage. She questions whether this information, having come from Jon's brother and best friend, is reliable. She further notes that, if it is true, Jon would have a claim to the Iron Throne, implicitly alluding to a potential conflict between them. Before Jon can respond, they are interrupted by horn blasts signaling the approach of the White Walkers and the Army of the Dead."

Motifs

The “Abduction" of Lyanna Stark” chronicles the story of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne, and his abduction of Lyanna Stark, the daughter of Rickard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. Since Lyanna was betrothed to Lord Robert Baratheon, the event set off a period in Westeros history known as “Robert’s Rebellion” (1).

It was later revealed that Lyanna had not been kidnapped but instead had run off with Rhaegar (the two were secretly married). The Abduction of Lyanna Stark parallels that of Helen of Troy. Following the “Judgement of Paris” (Tourney of Harrenhall in Game of Thrones), Prince Paris traveled to the court of Menelaus where he was honored as guest. As told by Ovid, Paris defied the ancient laws of hospitality, seduced Helen, and fled with her. ‘The face that launched a thousand ships’ then sparked the Trojan War that parallels Robert’s Rebellion.

Like Robert's Rebellion, the Iliad isn’t without controversy. The Cypria chronicles that after giving Helen gifts, “Aphrodite brings the Spartan queen together with the Prince of Troy” (2). Sappho further argues that Helen willingly left her husband, Menelaus, to be with Paris (3). When Paris and Helen arrived in Troy, Paris’ wife, Oenone, lamented that he had abandoned her. Similarly, Lyanna Stark in fact secretly ran off with Rhaegar after he had annulled his marriage with Oenone Elia. Rhaegar and Lyanna wed in secret and settled in the Tower of Joy (wouldn’t its abbreviation sound a bit like ‘Troy?’).

How it relates to the field of psychiatry

What Jon Snow reveals to Daenerys in episode 2 cuts to the heart of the Iliad (and its origins). In the form of a swan, Zeus seduced Helen’s mother Leda. On the same night, Leda slept with her husband, Tyndareus, and laid two eggs. From one egg came Helen and Pollux. From the other egg sprung Clytemnestra and Castor. The brothers are the brightest stars in the constellation Gemini while the sisters figured prominently in Greek mythology.

In another myth (2), Helen’s parents were Zeus and Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance. What’s interesting about this version is that a modern day recreation of Nemesis is Pinhead from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser franchise. The Cenobites – “Angels to some, demons to others” – are incarnations of the Furies; with Pinhead as the modern manifestation of the goddess of vengeance. This interpretation transforms the character of the chief Cenobite and parallels the other main characters of the film with Aeschylus’s Oresteia, a trilogy built on the trials of Helen’s sister, Clytemnestra.

As anyone who has read the works of George RR Martin or watched the HBO series can attest, like the House of Atreus, the warring families that lay claim to the iron throne are fraught with dysfunction. While it’s beyond the scope of this blog to detail the level of dysfunction, framing A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Season 8, Episode 2) in the context of Greek mythology adds another layer to Martin’s byzantine mythos.