Myths and Archetypes

Commonly Found in Literature

“Myth” (from The American Heritage College Dictionary):

A traditional story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that informs and shapes the world view of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the customs or ideals of a society.

“Myth” (from A Handbook to Literature):

An anonymous story that presents supernatural episodes as a means of interpreting natural events.  Myth makes concrete and particular a special perception of human beings or a cosmic view. . . . Myths differ from legends by comprising less of historical background and more of the supernatural; they differ from fables in that they are less concerned with moral didacticism and are the product of a racial group rather than the creation of an individual.  Every literature has its mythology, the most familiar to English readers being the Greek, Roman, and Norse.  But the mythology of all groups takes shape around certain common themes: They all attempt to explain creation, divinity, and religion; to probe the meaning of existence and death; to account for natural phenomenon; and to chronicle the adventures of cultural heroes.  They also have a startlingly similar group of motifs, characters, and actions, as a number of students of myth and religion, particularly . . . Joseph Campbell, have pointed out. . . . Since the introduction of Jung’s concept of the “racial unconscious” . . . critics have found in myth a useful device for examining literature.

“Archetype” (from A Handbook to Literature):

A term brought into literary criticism from the psychology of Carl Jung, who holds that behind each individual’s “unconscious” – the blocked-off residue of the past – lies the “collective unconscious” of the human race – the blocked-off memory of our racial past, even of our prehuman experiences.  This unconscious racial memory makes powerfully effective for us a group of “primordial images” shaped by the repeated experience of our ancestors and expressed in myths, religion, dreams, fantasies, and literature. . . . The “primordial image” that taps this “prelogical mentality” is called the “archetype.”  The literary critic applies the term to an image, a descriptive detail, a plot pattern, or a character type that occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or folklore and is, therefore, believed to evoke profound emotions because it touches the unconscious memory and thus calls into play illogical but strong responses.

Seasonal Myth (cyclical, human life patterned around the seasons):

Spring = a time of birth (or rebirth) and a time of youth
Summer = a time of growth and adolescence
Fall = a time of fruition and maturity, adulthood
Winter = a time of death

Females = represented by the earth and sea
Males = represented by the sun, sky, rain
Life = symbolized by trees, plants

East = birth
West = death

Myth of the Hero / Quest Myth ("life is like a journey"):

Birth
Childhood and Initiation
Fall from Innocence to Experience
Adulthood--the Journey and Quest
Death
Rebirth

Archetypal Characters:

The Hero
The Antihero
The Wise Fool
The Devil Figure
The Outcast
The Double
The Scapegoat
The Temptress
The Virgin or the Madonna
The Trickster