Arche--what?!?

What's an archetype I hear you ask? Wait...you didn't ask? Someone asked. So here's the answer. According to the dictionary an archetype is:

"1.the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a modelor first form; prototype.

2. (in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present inindividual psyches."

(from dictionary.com)

Obviously #2 is what most applies here. Simply put, a mythical archetype is an idea that exists in multiple cultures across the world. For example, the flood myth. Almost every culture has some myth of a cateclismic...cate...really bad flood. The details are different, but similar in certain regions such as Central America or the Middle East.

I've divided the most universal archetypes into five categories based on books I've read (such as Parallel Myths by J.F.Bierlein) and personal opinon. Once again I don't claim to be a professional, just someone who gets bored easily.

Universal Events

Cosmic Ideas

A Pantheon of Archetypes

Legends and Lore

Elemental Creatures

I'll discuss each of these categories in the next five posts as part of the general introduction.

Introduction

I totally need a better title for this post, but it gets the point across.

Each month will be a post about some aspect of a universal theme from cultures around the world. Some of the topics to be covered in the following months will be the origin of storytelling, how death came into the world, winter holidays, the flood myth, and different categories of gods and goddesses (such as gods of the sun, gods of fertility, creator gods, divine couples, the dying god etc.)

PURPOSE OF BLOG: To give me a forum to write humorous essays on archetypes in mythology without needing to submit it for a grade. Because I'm not in school anymore. I just do this for fun. Clearly I need to get out more.

MY QUALIFICATIONS: I like mythology and I read a lot. Yup, that's pretty much it. Oh yeah, and I have a BA in University Studies with a dual emphasis in Cinema and Anthropology and an accidental minor in Classical Civilizations. Which doesn't really qualify me to make intelligent observations on the universal archetypes prevalent in world mythology, but I can throw out big words and do a little dance...so...that's something, right?