Gods in Everyman

The God-Archetypes That Shape Us All

ZEUS, the most powerful of the Olympian gods, was adept at consolidating power: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Ross Perot, Lee lacocca, and Aristotle Onassis.

POSEIDON, the god of the sea, personifies the domain of deep, primal emotions: Beethoven, Dylan Thomas, Eugene O'Neill, and Tennessee Williams.

HADES is the god of the Underworld, the realm of the unconscious, the soul, and the invisible: C. G. Jung, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, and Dante.

APOLLO, sun god and law-giver, is the embodiment of a logical mind that observes and acts from a distance: John Glenn, William Rehnquist, and George Bush.

HERMES, the messenger god, embodies the capacity to communicate well. Hermes is traveler, diplomat, and quick-witted trickster: Marco Polo, Alexandra David-Neel, Carlos Casteñeda, Sting, and Lynn V. Andrews.

HEPHAESTUS, the lame-footed god of the forge, rejected and unlucky in love, was also a creative genius who worked in solitude: James Joyce and Michelangelo.

DIONYSUS, the god of wine and ecstasy, is present in some men who are mystics and ecstatics: Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, D. H. Lawrence, or Charles Manson, who was a mystic, a lover, and a killer.

ARES, god of war and passionate lover, is present in intense, impulsive, and physical reactions: John McEnroe, Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Robert Kennedy.