Posted by Jan den Breejen (213.75.43.98) on July 26, 2002 at 01:50:42:
Mythical archetypical characters: Hera and Medea
Hera was the greek goddess of women and marriage, married to Zeus for 300 years and very jealous of Zeus other wives and children; scheming against them, so that they would hide in fear.
The archetypical character (as described by dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen) we can see with this goddess suffers from abandonment fears. She idealizes her husband or she gets sad and hateful/vengeful/agressive as well as jealous for her husband being not loyal to her. Marriage gives the ‘Hera woman’ ‘someone to be’. She can drop friends or even children’s interests to preserve the marriage. Therefore she’s especially attracted to competent, succesful men.
The destructive part of the Hera character (Medea syndrome) can be associated with the movie Fatal Attraction (Glen Close playing the role of borderline disordered woman trying to prevent her lover from ‘just walking away’ by cruel hateful agression)
Assessment: Mercurial Style of character
Jan