The hero/buffon theme is probably the most common in Greek mythology, along with humanity/divinity. A hero (usually the protagonist) and a buffoon (usually the antagonist) can be cited in almost every story, since most of them dealt with great adventures instead of everyday experiences. This theme has the storyline of a hero that's virtuous, successful, and shows the qualities of a near-perfect person, deafeating a buffoon who represents vice, failure, and folly.
Bellerophon and Pegasus is the first story I'll site that has the hero/buffoon theme. It's about a youth named Bellerophon who is rumored to be a son of Posiedon and is the son of one of Athena's students. This almost-immortal status was sure to bring him many adventures, and it did. He somehow killed his brother, went to Argos, and then to Lycid in Asia. The king there has him kill the chimera on Pegasus (whom he bridled before killing his brother). Then he killed the mighty Solymi warriors, and some Amazons. He got too cocky after these amazing feats, and tried to fly to Olympus. These "thoughts too great for men" were such, and Pegasus being wiser, threw his rider. Bellerophon was bound to devour his own soul in isolation until he died. Pegasus went to be Zeus's finest horse and was said to bring Zeus his thunder and lightning.
Next is the story of Perseus. He was the sone of Zeus and Danae. Danae's father put her and her son Perseus out to sea in a box when he was young, after hearing that one day Perseus would kill him. The two came ashore on an island where a tyrant ruled, and the tyrant soon fell in love with Danae. To get rid of Perseus the tyrant had him get Medusa's head for a wedding gift. With Athena's and Hermes's help, he slew the Gorgon who turned those that saw her to stone. On the way back to his mom, he save Andromeda from a giant serpent and married her in Ethiopia. With Medusa's head and a new wife, he returned and turned the tyrant and all his supporters to stone in one fell swoop. Later he went to an athletic competition and killed his grandfather when his discus flew into the crowd, as the story foretold and the start.
The third story is of Theseus. He had so many adventures that Edith Hamilton doesn't even tell them all. One big one is when he goes to Athens to meet his dad, the king. When he arrives it is time to send seven young men and seven maidens to Crete, where Minos will put them in the Labyrinth where his half-man, half-bull son the Minotaur lives. The Labyrinth was designed by Daedelus, and is thought unescapable. One maiden, Ariadne, gets the secret of how to escape and gives it too Theseus in exchange for his hand in marriage. After killing the Minotaur, Theseus ditches Ariadne by leaving her on an island and he goes back to Athens. He forgets to change to ship's sail from black to white, and seeing a black sail his father kills himself by jumping off a cliff. Theses become king and makes Athens the best city in all of Greece.
The hero/buffoon theme is bit confusing to me. In some of the myths the hero has only good times while and after fighting the buffoons, and in some myths the hero becomes the buffoon after his fighting is done. I think this is the Greeks looking at what fate can do to you. If you do tons of great stuff it doesn't matter because one little mess up can bring you down. I'm surprised the Greeks never tried to make the buffoon into the hero, just the other way around. The humanitarians were right in naming this the "Age of Fate".
