The Winter's Tale: A Pagan Perspective. Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale depicts a family torn apart as a result of the jealous actions of Leontes, the King of Sicilia. The actions and personality of Leontes can also be observed in Greek Tragedies by Homer and Sophocles. The relationship between the members of the royal family portray direct and subtle parallels to the Classical works before it. Louis Martz comments on the parallels between The Winter's Tale and Greek tragedies in his article: Shakespeare's Humanist Enterprise: The Winter's Tale. Martz draws several subtle parallels to Greek Tragedies with references to location, religion, syntax, speech, chronological actions of a character and the concept of the tragic hero. Comparisons are drawn to the tragedies of Agamemnon, Oedipus Rex and Antigone. Martz places emphasis on the characters of Leontes and Hermione, but also to more subtle characters like the Shepherd and Autolycus. The concept of The Winter's Tale as a trilogy is also introduced by Martz. The defiance of the Oracle, the death of Mamillius, and the miraculous rebirth of Hermione are also vital aspects of the tragicomedy discussed by Martz. In Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, King Leontes is introduced as a jealous ruler, acting as a good host. His jealousy and suspicion toward his Queen Hermione and to his guest, King Polixenes is rooted in the fact that Hermione is expecting a child. Leontes does not trust his Queen's faithfulness and suspects that the unborn child is the son of Polixenes. Martz argues that the jealousy in Leontes was present even before the opening of the play, but none-the-less, escalated to it's heightened state during the course of act one. Martz comments: "Leontes has been in the grip of jealousy before the play has opened, and that the play is best presented when he is shown to be so gripped by disease, the madness that...destroying his deepest affections and turning all to hate, as Clytemnest...
