Examples Of Archetypes In The Odyssey

In the poem, The Odyssey, Odysseus and his men go through dangerous adventures. Odysseus must go through Cyclops, whirlpools, and other types of monsters to make it back home. This goes back about 1200 b.c., after the Trojan War. Odysseus’s journey home took about twenty to thirty years after the war. The author, Homer, uses archetypes throughout the poem. An archetype is a character, action, or a situation that is a pattern of human life or patterns. The Odyssey includes about three archetypes throughout the poem, these archetypes are: the hero, the mentor, and the monster.
` The first archetype shown in the poem is the hero. The hero archetype usually is a person with superhuman qualities that is on a quest of something with great value. A character in The
One example of this archetype is the Laestrygonians. The Laestrygonians were cannibals. The text reads, “... yet contrary to the basic laws of hospitality they respond to a polite greeting by attacking and devouring men.” (Richardson, Todd. “Monster Archetypes in The Odyssey”) Laestrygonians act like modern day horror stories, such as: Children of the Corn. Some other example of a monster archetype is Circe and Sirens. Circe was a seductress, she turned Odysseus’s men into pigs. They “ Transform into various creatures in an effort to escape a wrestling grip.” (Richardson, Todd. “Monster Archetypes in The Odyssey”) Like werewolves, a common in most horror stories, they can shape-shift. Sirens were very similar to Circe. They too were seductresses, however the Sirens sang to men,” … weaving a haunting song over the sea…,” ( Page 581, The Odyssey) to lure them out to sea. In The Odyssey, Odysseus and his men went through the Land of the Dead when they were on their way home. The Sirens sang songs to men to lure them out to the rocks, but Odysseus knew this was going to happen so Odysseus put beeswax in the men’s ears so they couldn’t hear the