Anyone can prompt ChatGPT to produce an image of a warrior. Indeed, the manosphere abounds with muscular figures baring their teeth. I thought we’d take a different approach here.
The image above depicts a scene from Homer’s Odyssey, an epic poem recounting the travails of Odysseus, archetypal Man par excellence, on his return home from the war with Troy.
In this particular scene, Odysseus washes up, shipwrecked on the isle of the Phaeacians. Exhausted, vulnerable, needing help, he must use strategy, sensitivity and careful observation of boundaries rather than deception or force to get his needs met.
There are plenty of scenes where Odysseus uses deception or force. Washing up on Phaeacia, where he is not in charge, looks ahead to our next archetype, The Lover, whose yin qualities balance the yang of the Warrior…