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Jealousy And Greed In Ancient Greece

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Jealousy And Greed In Ancient Greece
It is a part of human nature to strive for extra than what is given to one, but consequently an excess of this can lead to trouble and heartache. Midas was a rich king who “loved [gold more than anything else in the world]” (Evslin 193). He was remarkably greedy, that he was willing to cause harm to his own daughter; touching her hair and turning her into gold only to say “this is unfortunate” (195). His greed for gold led him to not care about his daughter's welfare. Another myth in which a mortal strives for more is the myth of Psyche and Eros. Psyche is married to Eros, but never gets to catch a glimpse him as he is “‘rarely [there] by day’” and “‘[returns] at night’” (101). Her greed for love and seeing him led her to peek at her husband’s face while he slept.
The jealousy and greed of Gods could harm and destroy the lives of mortals. The Gods of Greek mythology feeling excessive greed towards the mortals on Earth was destructive and never turned out good. Aphrodite was very jealous of Psyche’s beauty and in turn send her son, Eros, to strike her with his arrows of love. Aphrodite would place an ugly …show more content…
In this tale a young woman by the name of Arachne claims to be a better weaver than Athene. After hearing the girl’s pleas of repent, the goddess challenges the mortal girl who a competition in which the people would judge who the better of the two was. Athene wove terrible scenes that the mortals could not bear to see and so therefore could not judge. Arachne was so mortified by these scenes that she had hung herself. Athene’s greed for the ability to win over all things lead to the death of someone so young. So in her pity, “Athene reached her long arm and touched the girl on the shoulder. The face grew blacker, and the eyes bulged more...Than Athene touched the rope. It shriveled growing thinner and thinner...”(Evslin 14). Arachne lived but had been turned to a
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