HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER CHARACTER ARCHETYPES

WORLD MYTHOLOGY HUM/105 Prof. Francisco Pesante

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Contemporary Heroines

Patria, Minerva and Mara Teresa

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES Objectives Describe universal functions and characteristics of mythological archetypes. Explain the heros quest and its broad application. Identify mythological archetypes in contemporary culture.

HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is an archetype? archetype (r-ki-tp): The original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies.

HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is an archetype? archetype (r-ki-tp): An inherited idea or mode of thought in the psychology of C. G. Jung that is derived from the experience of the race and is present in the unconscious of the individual.

Source: Archetype. (2012) Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from: www.m-w.com

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Hero

HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is a hero? The main character in a literary work. Any figure celebrated in the ancient legends of a people or in such early heroic epics as Gilgamesh, the Iliad, Beowulf, or La Chanson de Roland.

HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is a hero? These legendary heroes belong to a princely class existing in an early stage of the history of a people, and they transcend ordinary men in skill, strength, and courage.

HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is a hero? War or dangerous adventure is the heros normal occupation. He is surrounded by noble peers, and is magnanimous to his followers and ruthless to his enemies.

HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is a hero? He is a man of action rather than thought and lives by a personal code of honour that admits of no qualification.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is a hero? His responses are usually instinctive, predictable, and inevitable. He accepts challenge and sometimes even courts disaster.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is a hero? The heros ethos seems oversimple by the standards of a later age. He is childlike in his boasting and rivalry, in his love of presents and rewards, and in his concern for his reputation.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is a hero? The appearance of heroes in literature marks a revolution in thought that occurred in the new poets narrative.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is a hero? The poets narrative and audiences turned their attention away from immortal gods to mortal men, who suffer pain and death.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

What is a hero? Through their own efforts, heroes accomplishment and glory survives in the memory of their descendants. They are the first human beings in literature, and the novelty of their experiences has a perennial freshness.

Source: hero. (2012). In Encyclopdia Britannica. Retrieved

from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/263398/hero
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Quetzacoatl

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt The myth of the hero Quetzalcoatl is a combination of a creation myth and the story of the hero king. Scholars argue about whether Quetzalcoatl was one man or many, whether he was native to the Americas or a foreigner, whether he lived in one century or another.
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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES Quetzalcoatls name reveals that he was a part of both the Toltec and the Mayan cultures. The quetzalis are a rare, green-feathered bird found in the land of the Maya, particularly in Guatemala.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES Co is the Maya word for serpent, and atl is the Nahuatl word for water. Coatl is the Nahuatl word for snake. Consequently, Quetzalcoatl was a mythic being who combined earth (in the form of the snake), water, and air (in the form of a bird).
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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt He was identified with the wind, with the planet Venus, and, as a creator, with the sun. As the plumed serpentgod, he dominates the ancient monuments of Central America. On the historical level, Quetzalcoatl has been a great leader of the Toltecs tenth century-A.D., a high priest a king
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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt He taught the people how to raise corn and cotton, weave cloth, work with gold, jade, feathers, wood, and stone, and write, paint, and dance. Quetzalcoatl became famous for his moral principles. He had a great respect for all forms of life (including no human sacrifices).

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt Tezcatlipoca, who had worked with Quetzalcoatl to create the earth and to bring music to human beings, now wished to destroy his rivals power. Once Tezcatlipoca set his mind to conquering Quetzalcoatl, he was clever enough to succeed where all others had failed.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt Tezcatlipoca held a mirror up to the rulers face. Oh, Quetzalcoatl groaned. My skin is wrinkled like that of an ancient creature I am so ugly that my people will be tempted to destroy me. I must leave the world of human beings!

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt Nonsense, Tezcatlipoca replied. I can make you look handsome. Then you will be proud of yourself! Tezcatlipoca dressed Quetzalcoatl in splendid clothes... he added a wig and a feathered beard Quetzalcoatl was delighted. He looked so young and handsome that he gave up the idea of living a secluded life.
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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt However, Tezcatlipoca had planted the seeds of fear in Quetzalcoatls mind. Tezcatlipoca encourages this fear by offering Quetzalcoatl an intoxicating beverage.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt Once Quetzalcoatl tasted the wine, he could not resist it. He drank bowl after bowl, Quetzalcoatls sister and his servants followed his lead, Quetzalcoatl no longer thought about living an honorable life. He forgot his religious practices and did whatever his senses enjoyed, without caring about the consequences.
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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt When the effects of the wine eventually wore off, Quetzalcoatl realized that, among other immoral deeds, he had had sexual relations with his sister. He felt terribly ashamed. But althoug ashamed, he remained king of the Toltecs

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt Tezcatlipoca destroyed Quetzalcoatls people and forced their king to leave the city of Tula. Quetzalcoatl reached the shore of the eastern sea. He wept with joy as he put on his feathered cloak and his turquoise mask. He climbed on a raft woven of snakes and set off toward Sun, who was beginning his morning journey across the heavens.
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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Quetzacoalt Some observers heard Quetzalcoatl exclaim, Someday I will return to my people and my land!. Hernan Cortes (1519)

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Trickster

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities The Trickster is perhaps the most vital, most alive, even most recognizable character in the array of mythic narratives.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities Tricksters, are figures a rather rough sort of play. If we approach them in a spirit of play (as well as intellectual rigor), they are likely to reward us even through the process of fooling us.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities He possesses a funny, absurd, iconoclastic sort of playfulness, yet the Tricksters playfulness can carry with it serious, even tragic or transcendent, overtones.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities Tricksters provide the comic relief in the worlds mythologies, but they do so by embodying all the infinite ambiguities of what it is to be alive in the world.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities Some adjectives to describe the Tricksters: characters with attention deficit disorder, sacred clowns, carefree as children, obscene lechers, and generous companions.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities No single character type embodies so many, often contradictory, qualities. Tricksters are more than representations of the illogic of a universe in which we simultaneously experience good and evil.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities They also act as moral examplesor, to put it more accurately, as moral counterexamples. Thus they can be seen as agents of chaos in a society of order.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities The main character transgresses the most fundamental rules of any society, including breaking taboos against incest and cannibalism.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities What is the moral of the story? The moral of the story often seems to be: laugh at but do not imitate the Tricksters foolishness.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities What is the moral of the story? In Western moralizing fables (dichotomist cultures), the transgressor must be punished for the message to be safe for public consumption.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities What is the moral of the story? Even though, such myths are more realistic than instructional tales usually are. Trickster myth are very difficult to pin down.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities What is the moral of the story? They remind us of our mundane needs (as animal with culture). Trickster teaches us to reach for what we desire, and to laugh at ourselves when we fall short.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Wtewael, J. (1615).

Judgment of Paris

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Homer, The Iliad Hera said, If you give the apple to me, Paris, I will give you extraordinary wealth and will make you ruler over all mortals.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Homer, The Iliad Athena said, If you give the apple to me, Paris, I will make you the bravest and wisest of mortal men, victorious in war, and skillful in every craft.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Homer, The Iliad Finally, Aphrodite said, If you give the apple to me, Paris, I will give you Helen the most beautiful woman in the world, as your wife. (It did not matter to Aphrodite that Helen was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta.)

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Homer, The Iliad Which of the three would you choose?

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Homer, The Iliad Paris liked Aphrodites gift best of all, so he awarded the apple to her, and from that time on Hera and Athena hated all Trojans. Paris then sailed to Sparta, where he was the guest of Menelaus and Helen for nine days.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Homer, The Iliad When Menelaus left on a trip, Paris convinced Helen to return to Troy with him. She left her nine-year-old daughter at home, took all of her possessions, and sailed away on Pariss ship that night.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Homer, The Iliad When Menelaus returned to Sparta and heard that Paris had carried Helen away, he went to wide-ruling Agamemnon, his powerful brother, and asked him to raise an army to bring her back.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

Homer, The Iliad Paris lives to see his brother murder and the destruction of his land and kingdom.

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HEROES, HEROINES, AND OTHER ARCHETYPES

The Embodiment of Ambiguities Joseph Campbell on the Trickster

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REFERENCES Leonard, S., McClure, M. (2004). Myth & knowing: An introduction to world mythology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Rosenberg, D. (2006). World Mythology. New York, NY: McGrawHill.

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