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Archetypes In Greek Mythology Essay

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The uses of archetypes are crucial in helping in the development of a story. They come in handy in helping the writers to avoid the use of some clichés as well as negative things that may be viewed by the audience as being socially unfit and entirely unethical. Being significantly employed in the classification of characters, they play a crucial role in the determination various qualities that the characters may share. In the context of the Greek mythology, non-Greek as well as in the modern-time stories, different archetypes have been used including the heroes, shadows, mentors and much more to help in the classification of various characters. This paper will, however, focus on an in-depth exploration of shadows with a central focus on how the use of Villains and enemies have been used to classify characters in the context of Greek mythology, non-Greek mythology as well as the stories of the modern times in general. Otherwise referred to as the tragic villain, the archetype of villains and enemies come in …show more content…

In the myth “The Gift of Fire Zeus and Prometheus” Zeus was not happy with mankind so he decided to punish mankind and not give them the most essential resource of all, fire! Prometheus felt sorry for the poor humans so in return he stole Zeus’s thunderbolt and gave it to the humans and next thing you know man discovers fire. Zeus was furious with prometheus and ordered him to be chained to a rock as punishment for stealing his thunderbolt. To make matters worse Zeus ordered an eagle to eat at Prometheus liver every day. This punishment was brutal for a god who was only trying to help mankind. Over a thousand years has passed and humans have changed dramatically. At this point Zeus has found humans quite entertaining, for Prometheus Zeus no longer cared if anyone rescued him or not (Donn). Untimely Zeus made a horrible decision in having Prometheus chained to a rock for trying to save

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