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Heroes, Divas, Virgins and Mothers
Have you noticed we cannot have heros without villains? We cannot have light
without dark?
Some interesting points to make about heroic archetypes are that they usually
come of humble means and rise to the occasion. In most of the stories the
Hero hasn't had the best of childhood's, most often marked with loss and disappointments.
Take for example Hercules. His childhood was vague and he didn't know his
own father.. Or in the Christian beliefs... Jesus in a family who are always
moving around, never settling down.
The hero's in many of these stories are often children who do not know their
fathers or they deny their mother's husbands saying that they are not their
fathers as they are creatures of divine purpose.... which may or may not be
true.
The stories of the heroes of the Celtic myths such as Pwyll, we do not know
his origins but we do know things about him and how he had a great sense of
honour... so much so he found himself in the duty of a great king and became
a ruler of a vast land due to his conduct and rightful behavior.
Even in our sci-fi stories... our modern world has created such heroes such
as "Flash Gorden" and "Dr. Who" ..Isn't it ironic and yet so cool?
Apollo was and his sister Diana were also these types, the mother was mortal,
the father divinity, however missing from the scene. Stormy and troubled youth
who rise to glory are stereotypical of this idea of what a heroic archetype
is.
Haven't they some similarities to the myths of other heroic figures?
When we dream of a Hero, what qualities do we feel are best shown by this
archetype?
Is he/she your best friend? Is he/ she a motherly or fatherly figure? Is he/she
a known figure that you attribute special abilities to, in order to dramatize
the idea of idealistic good?
Mothers, that is to say good ones, usually the one that is in all the fairytales...
the one that dies when the child is still young, those are good examples..
They are not real but idealized, if Snow White's real mother had lived on,
I'm certain there would have been some conflict between the two of them eventually,
and then there would be no "wicked step mother", just a conflict with a real
one!
Cinderella is also the same... their real mothers are gone, idealized in some
saintly sort of way like the "virgin Mary" or some other idealistic portrait
of what a mum should be and what she should act and look like. Even in the
real world.. The idea of a Queen is still stereotypical... for being quite
unapproachable, almost cool but always looking the part, and for mostly being
a mum, as most in our past certainly were.
(definitely the Queen of Sweden...some Brazilian/German woman who was ideally
beautiful enough to win the heart of a known "jet set" prince.. And get him
married and suddenly a good father.. Wow how do they do it?)
Even in our most recent modern history/mythology, Princess Diana filled that
roll so very well... ironically the scandals that followed which brought the
system of monarchy in the UK under considerable amounts of critique never
tarnished her cool and friendly image and we still see her idealistically
that way, as a beautiful, perfect, wife and mother... her image lives on long
after her passing.
I get the feeling we need these ideals so badly in our collective psyche that
we keep creating new ones...heroes to take the place of the old ones..even
in our dreams.
Yet these heroes coexist in a world of "dark and light"..For example if you
think about the nemesis they have, "The Doctor" of Dr.Who had "The Master"
and even Princess Diana had the media, and the royal family. Think about how
your heroes function in their world? It may even surprise you..
Still it's a good start to read Man and his Symbols by Carl Gusav Jung.. Just
to get some kind of idea where I was going with this.
Dorian is an artist from Sweden. Dorians
website
