First off this is not for homework. (I am not even enrolled in any schools) However, I am putting together a love story set in the far future. I wish it to have some mythical elements to it, which got me to wondering if there are any love stories with bad, or tragic endings to them in mythology. I am not necessarily looking for Romeo and Juliet, they all die or anything. More like love stories that cause an empire to topple, destroy the city they live in, cause a war, etc.
Any stories with somewhat tragic or catastrophic consequenses caused by two lovers, from mythology to present I guess. Mythological stories would be preferred, but more modern works are ok. Poetry would work too. Didn’t Byron have a well known piece with lovers that has a tragic ending?
Pretty much just looking for Ideas and inspiration. What I am working with right now is, IMO, lacking. (Don’t want to detract this thread with a description of what I have though)
Did Byron have a well-known piece with lovers that didn’t have a tragic ending?
Sorry, I’m not trying to be flippant, but there are so many stories like those which you describe that it would be extremely difficult to list ‘em all. And, I mean, they go way back. Think The Illiad back. Or Hades and Persephone. Orpheus and Eurydice are perennial favorites. Or Hero and Liander. I dunno. Pick up a mythology book. It’ll be chock full o’ the stuff you’re looking for.
I realize that love stories have been around for awhile, and not all of them end happily. I am not really looking for stories where the main characters die, lose each other etc. More along the lines of the choices they make, to get each other, bring about the fall of a civilization, city, empire, start a war, etc. I’m not really looking for death here. At least not death to main character(s).
Well, Oedipus solved the riddle and married his mother (without knowing it), thus giving Thebes another plague several years later.
Antigone did funeral rites for one of her brothers, was entombed, and commited suicide by hanging. When her fiancee went to rescue her (the gods told the king that he should liberate Antigone), he realized what happened and killed himself with his sword.
Paolo and Francesca.
It has the mythical quality, in that Dante saw them in Hell. Their story can be found in the opera, “Francesca da Rimini”.
Sir Lancelot and Lady (later Queen) Guenevere.
Aurtherian characters always have mythic qualities. Their love was one element that poisoned Camelot.
Tristan and Isolde.
Similar to the preceding example.
Prosine and Melliadore.
A classic tale from the “Chanson de Geste” genre, if I’m not mistaken.
Try those.
Paolo and Francesca.
It has the mythical quality, in that Dante saw them in Hell. Their story can be found in the opera, “Francesca da Rimini”.
Sir Lancelot and Lady (later Queen) Guenevere.
Aurtherian characters always have mythic qualities. Their love was one element that poisoned Camelot.
Tristan and Isolde.
Similar to the preceding example.
Prosine and Melliadore.
A classic tale from the “Chanson de Geste” genre, if I’m not mistaken.
Try those.
Dido and Aeneas. She dies…he doesn’t. Well, if you think about it, it helps an empire to be born, so not tragic in that sense. But still, sad in a way.
Heloise and Peter Abelard.
She was his student, he seduced her. She ended up in a convent; he ended up in a monastery AND one of the first members of the Castrati.
Obligatory Simpsons quote:
Milhouse (on the abrupt end of his first romance): How could this happen? We started out like Romeo and Juliet, but it ended up in tragedy.
Check out Waking the Dead with Billy Crudup and the beautiful Jennifer Connely.
In the early 70’s, a young conservative lawyer falls for a revolutionary chick. It’s a hot, but contentious affair. They clash often. She dissappears under mysterious circumstances (helping a South American dissident)and is presumed murdered. After a long search, he is left empty.
Years later, as he is running for public office, he begins to see her. Almost as if she’s stalking him. he tries desperately to reach her. One night she shows up at his hotel room, and in the morning she’s gone. Even he is not sure if she was really there at all, or if, in his grief, he imagines her there
You might also want to check out some Tolkien, Beren and Luthien is in the Silmarillion, off the top of my head. Ooh, (if anyone has not read Lord of the Rings halt and go no further: That said, what about Arwen’s choice to give up her immortality??