Shadows in the dust: what archetypes are and why they refuse to die
Long before Freud started pointing at cigars and claiming they were something else, humans had a knack for repeating themselves — in stories, in stone, in superstition. Scratch beneath any civilisation, and you’ll find the same motley cast showing up again and again: the wise elder, the brave fool, the trickster, the tyrant, the lover, the destroyer. Different clothes, same bones. These are archetypes — not characters, but patterns. Not clichés, but deep structure. ...