>>Who is your favorite mythical character, and why?
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>>Mine is probably Procrustes. He ruled a forest and trespassers were punished by being tied to a bed of a certain length. If they were shorter than the length of the bed, they were stretched out until they fit. If they were taller, some of them was chopped off. We still see references to Procrustean bed arguments.
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>>Honorable mention: Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun.
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>Odysseus. Thinking around his enemies, even if he lives in interesting times.
>The small Ajax: Holds his head up even if he then gets the full load of Poseidon's wrath.
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>Or Iason: even if you get the job done and *don't* leave the girl, there will be repercussions later on.
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>For the more typical greek way $hit happens, I'd hate to be in the shoes of Prometheus or Tantalus - helpless no matter how noble or despicable the "offense" was. Sysiphus should just go on strike: what can a dead man be threatened with ?
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>Hector, who did everything right for his home town except loosing to Achilles. Achilles does not survive him by much, but gets much more PR placement due to the stupid things he's involved in and the connections from his ma's side.
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>Paris, shooting the mightiest of the enemies while having 10 years of fun with his favorite arrow and Helena...
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>Sigurd: would have been less trouble if he stayed with Brunhild having fun mostly, but he had to fall for Krimhild and marriage.
>Goes to show that marriage and heroes is a bad combination.

Now here is a man who knows his mythology. And your line about Paris made me smile.

I left Tiresius off my list. He was not one of the major characters like Zeus or Apollo but he turned up repeatedly in Greek theater. He had done something to anger the gods and they exacted retribution. They blinded him and they also gave him a curse -- that he would be able to foresee the future but no one would believe him. He was the one who met Oedipus at a crossroads and told him he would kill his father and marry his mother. "Get out of town, Tiresius, you knucklehead." But what happened?