Archetypes and Stereotypes

“Which was the goddess? He couldn't say.”

~ p. 172 The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Calasso

Apparently our class had no problem with this during class on Thursday. Our group projects began and (even though I'm a little biased) I think both groups did a great job! I am impressed with the second group in trying to intervene archetypes with stereotypes by using icons in our current society. They picked a tricky topic to try to work into a short group presentation. The people they used were the following:

• Charlie Sheen – Dionysus
• Elizabeth Taylor – Aphrodite –> Suddenly Last Summer when she rises from the sea like Aphrodite when she was born
• Michael Phelps – Poseidon
• Usain Bolt – Hermes
• Oprah Winfrey – Zeus (or Hades according to Jarrod)
• Bill and Hillary Clinton – Zeus and Hera
• Adolf Hitler – Hades
• Andrew Jackson – Trail of Tears, (one of the few things I remember from AP Gov in high school) “Stonewall Jackson”, 1^st president to use the right of the veto
• Napoleon Bonaparte – conquered most of Europe, freed a number of religious minorities, “Emperor & Liberator”
• Marie Antoinette - “Let them eat cake.”, party girl, last queen of France, had her head chopped off, known as the Austrian whore

One of the main points they made was the common notion that if you do not know history, it will repeat itself. According to Sexson, if you do not know mythology, you repeat it. I, personally do not entirely agree with either one of those. As much as our school system tries to follow this teaching, history still continues to repeat itself. It is inevitable to happen. It does not matter if you know history through and through or not. Humankind has the same tendencies now as they had when they were created. They only thing that may have changed is the environment.

     I remember having this discussion in World History class sophomore year of high school. We were comparing the Vietnam War to the current war. The similarities between the two wars and how they were being fought were obvious, yet the Vietnam War is one of the most learned about besides World War II, and yet faulty military tactics which were used in the Vietnam War such as occupying an area and then leaving, therefore having to reoccupy the same area over and over again, has somehow made it's way into our current war in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, I cannot entirely state if that is the case anymore, as I, and I'm sure many, do not keep up on the war as much as I used to, now that it is not as hot of an item in the news as it used to be. But point being, history was clearly repeating itself in that circumstance, even though the Vietnam War was only 40 yrs or so ago, and well documented.

     In away it goes back to Calasso's definition of myth, “the precedent behind every action”. Every story is not original, but rather merely following someone's footprints in time. The environment may change, but the overall storyline does not. So here is my question....who made the first story which created the footprints to begin with?