What Are The Archetypes In The Odyssey

Archetypes and The Odyssey The Odyssey is a gateway into the lives and minds of Ancient Greeks and their culture. It shows their fears, views on life, and things looked up upon by the Ancient Greeks through archetypes. These archetypes are some of the best tools to learn about ancient civilizations such as the Greeks. There are plenty of archetypes in The Odyssey that help it relate to real-world situations even now while it was written over three thousand years ago. Three examples of them are the hero, the monster, and the journey for love. The hero tells about a character overcoming amazing obstacles to do good and what he needs to do. That happens in life now in many different ways but overall the same idea. The monster is like a big obstacle

The monster archetype is a big obstacle in the way that needs to be overcome. An example of this is, “The fearsome creatures encountered by Odysseus exemplify the extremes of his trials, serve as foils for his ingenuity and determination, and illustrate the terrifying threats lurking in the terra incognita beyond the edges of Greek civilization.” This means that the monsters Odysseus faces are really metaphors for bigger ideas, such as when he went against Polyphemus, the dreaded Cyclops, and decided, after he had already beaten him, to jeer at him and basically try to rub in the fact that he fooled him but because of doing that and not being humble, more bad things came his way. The fact that him not being humble led to bad things shows that the Greeks valued being humble or bad things will happen much like showing hubris or humility. Another monster archetype in the Odyssey is Scylla and Charybdis, Scylla being a huge sea monster with multiple heads on a rock, and Charybdis being a gigantic living whirlpool. Odysseus is in a “in between a rock and a hard place” type of situation where he has to go through the middle of both but towards one or the other. He chooses the lesser of two evils and goes towards Scylla because she’s less bad than Charybdis. The suitors can also be an example of the monster archetype. Odysseus is in a situation where people are trying to take his home and his wife but he’s not going

This is literally the entire plot of the story where Odysseus is trying to get back to his loving wife and kid. He goes through the toughest challenges he’ll ever face such as going to the underworld and facing Scylla and Charybdis, yet he still goes on to find his way back to Ithaca when he could've easily given up. He even had a chance to be with a goddess and be safe and cared for for the rest of his life and he still chose to go