Archetypes
Archetypes defined
• Archetypes are often represented in literature and in art by SYMBOLS.
• Some common archetypes include the following:
ARCHETYPES
Water Sun Colors Circle Women Wind /
Breath
Ship Garden Desert
WATER
• Water represents several ideas: the mystery of creation; birth-death-resurrection; purification and/or redemption; fertility and growth.
– The SEA = the Mother of Life; spiritual mystery and infinity; death and rebirth; timelessness; eternity; the unconscious.
– RIVERS = death and rebirth; baptism; the flowing of time; transitional phases in the life cycle; incarnation of deities.
Water – What do these images represent? What emotions/connotations do they evoke?
SUN (Fire and sky are closely
related)
• The sun represents creative energy; law in
nature; consciousness (thinking,
enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual vision);
father principle; passage of time and life.
– Rising Sun = birth, creation, enlightenment.
– Setting Sun = death
SUN – What do these images represent? What emotions/connotations do they evoke?
COLORS
• Black = darkness, chaos, mystery, the unknown, death, the unconscious, melancholy (sadness)
• Red = blood, sacrifice, violent passion, disorder, beauty
• Green = growth, sensations, hope, nature
• Blue = calm, the sea, water, peace, cold
• Purple = royalty
• Yellow = light, the sun, hope
• White = good, peace, spiritualness
Colors – What do these images represent? What emotions/connotations do they evoke?
Circle
• Circle represents wholeness; unity; God
as infinite; life in primitive form; union of
conscious and unconscious.
• The circle is also a form associated with
the female.
Archetypical WOMEN
• The Great Mother, Good Mother, or Earth Mother = associated with birth, protection, warmth, fertility, growth, abundance, the unconscious.
• The Terrible Mother = the witch, the sorceress, the siren; associated with fear, danger, death, evil power.
• The Soul Mate = the princess or beautiful lady, incarnation of inspiration (the muse) and spiritual fulfillment.
• The Temptress = alluring woman who impedes the hero; distraction, diversion, evil power.
Women – What do these images represent? What emotions/connotations do they evoke?
Wind and Breath
• Wind and breath = inspiration, conception,
soul or spirit.
Ship
• Ship = a microcosm of mankind’s voyage
through space and time.
Garden
• Garden = paradise, Eden, innocence,
unspoiled beauty, fertility.
Desert
• Desert = lack of spirituality, death,
hopelessness.
Archetypal Motifs: Patterns of
symbols
1. Creation
2. Immortality
3. Hero Archetype
4. Seasons / Life Cycles
1. Creation
• Perhaps the most fundamental of all
archetypal patterns. Almost every
mythology is built on some account of how
the Cosmos, Nature, and Man were
brought into existence by some
supernatural Being/Beings.
• Example: Ancient Babylonian Myth –
Marduk OR Creation story from Genesis.
2. Immortality
• Another fundamental archetype, generally taking
one or two narrative forms.
– A. Escape from time: the return to Paradise (state of
perfect timeless bliss enjoyed by man before his
tragic flaw into corruption/mortality)
– B. Endless Death and Regeneration: man achieves a
kind of immortality by submitting to the vast,
mysterious rhythm of Nature’s eternal cycle,
particularly the cycle of the seasons.
3. The Hero Archetype
• The Quest – The hero (savior or deliverer)
undertakes some long journey during
which he must perform impossible tasks,
battle with monsters, solve unanswerable
riddles, and overcome insurmountable
obstacles in order to save the kingdom
and, perhaps, marry the princess.
3. The Hero Archetype cont’d.
• Initiation – The hero undergoes a series of
excruciating ordeals in passing from ignorance
and immaturity to social and spiritual adulthood
(achieving maturity and becoming a full-fledged
member of his social group). The initiation most
commonly consists of three stages:
– Separation
– Transformation
– Return – Like the Quest, the transformation is a
variation of the Death and Rebirth archetype.
3. The Hero Archetype cont’d.
• The Sacrificial Scapegoat: The hero, with
whom the welfare of the tribe or nation is
identified, must die to atone for the
people’s sins and to restore the land to
fruitfulness.
4. Seasons (Cycles/phases of life)
1. The Dawn, Spring, and Birth Phase
2. The Zenith, Summer, and Marriage or
Triumph Phase
3. The Sunset, Autumn, and Death Phase
4. The Darkness, Winter, and Dissolution
Phase
4-1. The Dawn, Spring, and Birth
Phase
• Myths of the birth of the hero, of revival
and resurrection, of creation and of the
defeat of the posers of darkness, winter,
and death. Subordinate characters
include the mother and father.
4-2. The Zenith, Summer, and
Marriage or Triumph Phase
• Myths of the second marriage, of entering
into paradise. Subordinate characters
include the companion and the bride. This
is the archetypal pattern connected with
the comedy, the pastoral, and the idyll.
4-3. The Sunset, Autumn, and
Death Phase
Myths of fall, of dying God, of violent death
and sacrifice, and of the isolation of the
hero. Subordinate characters include the
traitor and the siren. This is the
archetypal pattern of tragedy and elegy.
4-4. The Darkness, Winter, and
Dissolution Phase
• Myths of the triumph, of these power
myths, of floods and the return of chaos,
and of the defeat of the hero. Subordinate
characters include the ogre and the witch.
This pattern is associated with satire.