The
word, archetype, is derived from the Latin archetypum and the Greek arkhetupon
(arch as in chief, and tupos as in stamp) and in context it takes on three
meanings. We can use it as a reference to a prototype, or an initial image,
something from which all the various forms of representative mythology were
based. We can choose the classical Jungian hypothesis of the primitive mental
image, inherited from man's earliest ancestors and which is supposedly present
in the collective unconscious. Lastly, we can use the definition that describes
a motif that reoccurs throughout art and literature, as presented by Joseph
Campbell.