Mythological archetypes

upright|thumb|Portrait of a woman holding her young child, upright|thumb|Statue of a mother with children at the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in [[Genoa]] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestational surrogacy.

thumb|Achilles during the [[Trojan War, as depicted in an ancient Greek polychromatic pottery painting (dating to ).]] thumb|upright|Joan of Arc is considered a medieval Christian heroine of France for her role in the [[Hundred Years' War, and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint]] thumb|upright|William Tell, a popular [[folk hero of Switzerland.]] thumb|upright|Giuseppe Garibaldi, celebrated as one of the greatest generals of modern times, is considered an Italian national hero for his role in the [[Italian unification, and is known as the "Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military e

goddess who represents or is a personification of nature, motherhood, fertility, creation

thumb|right|A dragon-like ouroboros in a 1478 drawing in an alchemical tract

thumb|Count Dracula is an example of a villain in classic literature and film. thumb|Theme from Mysterioso Pizzicato, a [[cliché silent movie cue for villainy ]]

sky deity who represents the Sun

motif in art and culture

thumb|The trickster figure Reynard the Fox as depicted in an 1869 children's book by [[Michel Rodange]] In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior. Such a character may be a god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation.

thumb|350px|right|Hervor dying after the Hlǫðskviða by [[Peter Nicolai Arbo]]

deity representing the Moon

common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed

concept in several religions and mythologies

deity or spirit who is a guardian, patron or protector of a particular place

mythological hero specific to some group

mythological object, stolen or hidden by an antagonist

hypothesis that Proto-Indo-European society had 3 castes—priests, warriors, commoners—corresponding to the 3 functions of the sacral, the martial and the economic

three deities that are worshipped as one

In Etruscan mythology, Tyrrhenus (in ) was one of the founders of the Etruscan League of twelve cities, along with his brother Tarchon.

religious motif in which a deity dies and is resurrected

In structuralism-influenced studies of mythology, a mytheme is a fundamental generic unit of narrative structure (typically involving a relationship between a character, an event, and a theme) from which myths are thought to be constructed—a minimal unit that is always found shared with other, related mythemes and reassembled in various ways ("bundled") or linked in more complicated relationships. For example, the myths of Greek Adonis and Egyptian Osiris share several elements, leading some scholars to conclude that they share a source, i.e. images passed down in cultures or from one to anoth

archetypal figure

type of hero

mythological character

child-god who is forever young, in mythology and as an archetype

leading or primary god of a polytheistic pantheon

deity associated with the sky

in cosmogony, the primordial state of the universe or cosmos

archetype

motif in folklore and mythology

thumb|right|Saint George slaying the dragon, as depicted by [[Paolo Uccello, ]]

giant turtle supporting or containing the world

motif in ancient art showing a human between and grasping two confronted animals

myths related to longevity

supposed twin gods in early Proto-Indo-European mythology, children of Dyēus

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notion of a conception by miraculous circumstances in several religions and mythologies

Monarch with a religious significance

short-grown people in mythology and fiction

significance of trees in mythology and folklore

deity depicted with horns or antlers

in literature and poetry, spirit or ghost of a dead person

sacred tree in Zoroastrian legend

twins appearing in mythical stories

Scandinavian tradition

religion

motif in folklore and stock character; woman who appears to be hideous, often cursed

archetype of the witch in Jungian psychology