Archetypes On
Meds
by Flora Jardine
Downtown I see
the Archetypes all around me. Offspring of
ancient gods and goddesses, they throng the
pavements. The weather is warm, the squares and
sidewalks full, and the mythical Archetypes
mingle with residents and the homeless. Like the
homeless they seem lost and disoriented. They
seem to be on medication -- probably disabled,
probably living on disability pensions.
Gods, of
course, can escape the laws of physics. They can
be in more than one place at a time and fill more
than one body at a time. (Trans rights are
nothing new to them.) Here on the street I see
embodiments of Dionysus (the Lover), Athena (the
Hunter), Zeus (the Ruler). I see Narcissus
staring at himself in a shop window and
Hephaestus lighting a fire in a back alley. His
wife Aphrodite, bored with his metal-working
obsession, is flirting with every man who walks
by, even with Morpheus, who is sleeping in a
doorway. Daphne lurks as a presence inside an
urban tree, where Apollo trapped her in a fit of
pique.
I sit on a
bench and watch the passing mythological parade.
The doings of these neighbours were once
legendary. Today they all want something from me:
cash, attention, a listening ear. "My
exploits were heroic," many are at pains to
tell me, "until cruel Fate brought me down."
They've fallen
on hard times, the Archetypes. Once heroic, they're
now pathological. Bullies, predators, addicts and
elitists to a god and goddess, they no longer
inspire mere mortals. Their ideology invites
disapproval, but some are excused as disabled
folk with traumatic pasts. Many agencies are
trying to help by getting them into rehab or
giving them therapy: Apollo's doing diversity re-training
and Eros is in a sex-addiction help group.
Bacchus has gone sober and works with the
Salvation Army, preaching abstinence. Hera's
running a single mothers' support group. The
Muses have applied for City Arts Grants
encouraging culturally sensitive singing and
dancing.
Hermes'
messages, never politically correct, have been
banned by the language police. The luxury mansion
Olympus, once home of the gods, is now a homeless
persons' shelter. On its roof sits a CCTV
surveillance camera, watching everyone from on
high ... so that at least hasn’t changed.
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