The wise old man (also called senex, sage or sophos) is an archetype as described by Carl Jung, as well as a classic literary figure, and may be seen as a stock character. [1] The wise old man can be a profound philosopher distinguished for wisdom and sound judgment.
This character is typically represented as a kind and wise elderly father figure who uses personal knowledge of people and the world to help tell stories and offer guidance that may in a mystical way impress upon his audience a sense of who they are and who they might become, thereby acting as a mentor. He may occasionally appear as an absent-minded professor, seeming absent-minded due to a predilection for contemplative pursuits.
The wise old man is often seen to be from a different culture, nation, or occasionally time, from those he advises. In extreme cases, he may be a liminal being, such as Merlin, who was only half human.
In medieval chivalric romance and modern fantasy literature, he is often presented as a wizard. [2] He can also or instead be featured as a hermit. This character type often explained to the knights or heroes—particularly those searching for the Holy Grail—the significance of their encounters. [3]
In storytelling, a few times the character of the wise old man is in some way removed for a time in order to allow the hero/heroine to develop on his/her own.
In Jungian analytical psychology, senex is the specific term used in association with this archetype. [4] In ancient Rome, the title of Senex (Latin for old man) was only awarded to elderly men with families who had good standing in their village; the title senator derives from this. Examples of the senex archetype in a positive form include the wise old man or wizard.
In the individuation process, the archetype of the Wise old man was late to emerge, and seen as an indication of the Self. 'If an individual has wrestled seriously enough and long enough with the anima (or animus) problem...the unconscious again changes its dominant character and appears in a new symbolic form...as a masculine initiator and guardian (an Indian guru), a wise old man, a spirit of nature, and so forth'. [5]
The antithetical archetype, or enantiodromic opposite, of the senex is the Puer Aeternus.
Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Methuselah, Simeon, Joseph and Paul the Apostle and many others are considered wise old men in Judeo-Christian tradition. The basic sentence of the New Testament and Old Testament gerontology, which is equally binding for the Jewish and for the Christian religion, is: A long and fulfilling life is a gift from God. [6] Those who die "old and full of life" are happy. [7] In the Books of Moses a long life is promised, among other things, to those who honor father and mother and who do not use false weights.
Many of the notions of old age that are widespread in the western world have their origins in the Old Testament (and New Testament), without being aware of it today. Their age is associated with strengths such as prudence, experience, insight and wisdom, [8] but also with weaknesses such as declining ability to love, sensory performance and health. [9] Although wisdom is a gift of old age, even the elderly are not protected against youthful folly. [10] In addition to statements such as "Gray hair is a splendid crown / one finds it on the path of righteousness."
Jesus as a child debated religious issues side by side with wise elders. [11]
In fiction, a wise old man is often presented in the form of a wizard or other magician in medieval chivalric romance and modern fantasy literature and films, in the style of Merlin. Notable examples include Gandalf from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter and Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars .
"Senex" is the name of a wise old character in the novel A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle.
Around the 1850s, the antiquarian Robert Reid used the pseudonym "Senex" when contributing articles on local history in the Glasgow Herald . These were later published in a series of volumes. Sir Alan Lascelles used the penname "Senex" when writing to The Times in 1950 setting out the so-called Lascelles Principles concerning the monarch's right to refuse a prime minister's request for a general election.
Merlin is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a magician, with several other main roles. The familiar depiction of Merlin, based on an amalgamation of historical and legendary figures, was introduced by the 12th-century British pseudo-historical author Geoffrey of Monmouth and then built on by the French poet Robert de Boron and prose successors in the 13th century.
A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. It serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of every nation and ethnic culture. In literature, the object of a quest requires great exertion on the part of the hero, who must overcome many obstacles, typically including much travel. The aspect of travel allows the storyteller to showcase exotic locations and cultures. The object of a quest may also have supernatural properties, often leading the protagonist into other worlds and dimensions. The moral of a quest tale often centers on the changed character of the hero.
In folklore, a crone is an old woman who may be characterized as disagreeable, malicious, or sinister in manner, often with magical or supernatural associations that can make her either helpful or obstructive. The Crone is also an archetypal figure or a Wise Woman. As a character type, the crone shares characteristics with the hag. The word became further specialized as the third aspect of the Triple Goddess popularized by Robert Graves and subsequently in some forms of neopaganism. In Wicca, the crone symbolizes the Dark Goddess, the dark side of the Moon, the end of a cycle; together with the Mother Crone, the Light Goddess and the Crone Maiden, Day Goddess, she represents part of the circle of life. The Handsome Warlock or Beautiful Witch, good or bad may change a Crone or Hag to normal looks, appearance if so desired.
The absent-minded professor is a stock character of popular fiction, usually portrayed as a talented academic whose academic brilliance is accompanied by below-par functioning in other areas, leading to forgetfulness and mistakes. One explanation of this is that highly talented individuals often have unevenly distributed capabilities, being brilliant in their field of choice but below average on other measures of ability. Alternatively, they are considered to be so engrossed in their field of study that they forget their surroundings. The phrase is also commonly used in English to describe people who are so engrossed in their own world that they fail to keep track of their surroundings. It is a common stereotype that professors get so obsessed with their research that they pay little attention to anything else.
GrailQuest is a series of gamebooks by J. H. Brennan. The books are illustrated by John Higgins. The stories follow the adventures of a young hero named Pip, who is often called upon by Merlin to right wrongs and save the realm from evil. The series is light in tone and does not take itself seriously, often spoofing the fantasy genre and inserting slapstick humour or nonsensical elements.
Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses techniques of traditional oral storytelling, it was disseminated in written form.
Puer aeternus in mythology is a child-god who is eternally young. In the analytical psychology of Carl Jung, the term is used to describe an older person whose emotional life has remained at an adolescent level, which is also known as "Peter Pan syndrome", a more recent pop-psychology label. In Jung's conception, the puer typically leads a "provisional life" due to the fear of being caught in a situation from which it might not be possible to escape. The puer covets independence and freedom, opposes boundaries and limits and tends to find any restriction intolerable.
Alazṓn is one of three stock characters in comedy of the theatre of ancient Greece. He is the opponent of the eirôn. The alazṓn is an impostor that sees himself as greater than he actually is. The senex iratus and the miles gloriosus are two types of alazṓn.
Two Essays on Analytical Psychology is volume 7 of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, presenting the core of Carl Jung's views about psychology. Known as one of the best introductions to Jung's work, the volumes includes the essays "The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious" and "On the Psychology of the Unconscious" (1943).
A magician, also known as an archimage, mage, magus, magic-user, spellcaster, enchanter/enchantress, sorcerer/sorceress, warlock, witch, or wizard, is someone who uses or practices magic derived from supernatural, occult, or arcane sources. Magicians enjoy a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction, and folklore, and are common figures in works of fantasy, such as fantasy literature and role-playing games.
Merlin the Magician is a superhero in the publications of Quality Comics in the 1940s and, briefly in the 1990s, by DC Comics. Merlin first appeared in National Comics #1. The character is a direct descendant of the Arthurian wizard Merlin and spent most of his time fighting Nazis, using, as his title page frequently read, "occult powers to aid democracies in their fight against oppression".
Stories involving the mythical wizard Merlin have been popular since the Renaissance, especially with the renewed interest in the legend of King Arthur in modern times. As noted by Arthurian scholar Alan Lupack, "numerous novels, poems and plays center around Merlin. In American literature and popular culture, Merlin is perhaps the most frequently portrayed Arthurian character."
In Jungian psychology, the Wise Old Woman and the Wise Old Man are archetypes of the collective unconscious.
The personification of wisdom, typically as a righteous woman, is a motif found in religious and philosophical texts, most notably in the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish and Christian texts.
Senex is a Latin word literally meaning a man of old age.
The fool is a stock character in creative works and folklore. There are several distinct, although overlapping, categories of fool: simpleton fool, wise fool, and serendipitous fool.
Ratscalibur is a 2015 children's novel written by Josh Lieb and illustrated by Tom Lintern. It is a humorous fantasy set in New York City and loosely based on the Arthurian legends. It is the first book in the Chronicles of the Low Realm series.
Character pairing in The Lord of the Rings is a literary device used by J. R. R. Tolkien, a Roman Catholic, to express some of the moral complexity of his major characters in his heroic romance, The Lord of the Rings. Commentators have noted that the format of a fantasy does not lend itself to subtlety of characterisation, but that pairing allows inner tensions to be expressed as linked opposites, including, in a psychoanalytic interpretation, those of Jungian archetypes.
J. R. R. Tolkien's presentation of heroism in The Lord of the Rings is based on medieval tradition, but modifies it, as there is no single hero but a combination of heroes with contrasting attributes. Aragorn is the man born to be a hero, of a line of kings; he emerges from the wilds and is uniformly bold and restrained. Frodo is an unheroic, home-loving Hobbit who has heroism thrust upon him when he learns that the ring he has inherited from his cousin Bilbo is the One Ring that would enable the Dark Lord Sauron to dominate the whole of Middle-earth. His servant Sam sets out to take care of his beloved master, and rises through the privations of the quest to destroy the Ring to become heroic.
Scholars, including psychoanalysts, have commented that J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth stories about both Bilbo Baggins, protagonist of The Hobbit, and Frodo Baggins, protagonist of The Lord of the Rings, constitute psychological journeys. Bilbo returns from his journey to help recover the Dwarves' treasure from Smaug the dragon's lair in the Lonely Mountain changed, but wiser and more experienced. Frodo returns from his journey to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom scarred by multiple weapons, and is unable to settle back into the normal life of his home, the Shire.
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