Game of Thrones as Myth: Daenerys Targaryen as the Archetypal Hero
What is an archetype? In fantasy and myth, certain types of characters constantly reappear: stalwart Heroes, odd Mentors offering talismans, Threshold Guardians and their tests, and more. In this series, we take a fast and fun look at Game of Thrones characters and what traditional archetypes they fall into. This time: Daenerys Targaryen.
This series examines how Game of Thrones characters fit into the archetypal frameworks developed by mythologist Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces) and the more modern version by Christopher Vogler (The Writer’s Journey). Both Campbell and Vogler employ the works of psychiatrist Carl G. Jung who, along with many other academics, suggested that the archetypes of myth and legend sprang from a human collective unconscious, since they appear in so many different cultures separated by space and time.
"“In describing these common character types, symbols and relationships, the Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung employed the term ‘archetypes,’ meaning ancient terms of personality that are the shared heritage of the human race.” —Christopher Vogler."
Campbell argues that human beings are biologically hardwired to understand the symbolism and expression of character archetypes. Otherwise, we would be incapable of participating in the shared human experience of storytelling.
"Summoned or not, the God will come. —motto over the door of Carl G. Jung’s house"
As we segue into Game of Thrones, it is important to remember that archetype is not a straightjacketed category but a flexible function of storytelling. Any individual character can (and usually does) express various archetypal traits or even moves from one category into another as the story unfolds.
So let’s tackle our Hero, Daenerys Targaryen. The word ‘hero’ is derived from the Greek word hērōs, which means something along the lines of ‘warrior’ and ‘defender.’ A hero is someone who is ready to sacrifice to protect the greater good. In fact, the Hero must sacrifice in order to transform herself and the world she is attempting to save, for “the mythological hero is the champion not of things become but of things becoming.” (Joseph Campbell)
As an exile of undisputed royal lineage, Daenerys Targyen is an overconfident, naïve young woman with an idealistic mindset who suffers the harsh realities of the world with a surprising toughness. The history and nature of archetypes changes a bit when applied to female rather than male characters (“…there are no models in our mythology for an individual woman’s quest.”—Safron Rossi, ed. The Goddess), but the female hero must still fulfill the basic requirements of the monomyth figure.
A female hero can fit into the traditional Hero’s Journey—we prove that Daenerys’ experiences match up quite nicely here—but the lack of ancient questing female hero myths forces us to construct our archetype more from the old idea of the great goddess. Joseph Campbell recognized this necessity:
"“While Campbell’s work reached wide and deep as he covered the world’s great mythological traditions, he never wrote a book on goddesses in world mythology. He did, however, have much to say on the subject.” —Safron Rossi, ed. The Goddess"
What is The Goddess? The Goddess was the central mythological figure during the early agricultural period of Old Europe. That was, until the arrival of the male-dominated Indo-European warrior culture, when the Indo-European conquerors revamped their mythologies so their male gods defeated and destroyed or marginalized the female ones. The creator role is taken from the Mother Goddess and masculinized, as seen in the Semite myth of Tiamat, where Tiamat, the ancient earth-mother, is turned into a demon and ripped to pieces by the male hero and solar/sky god Marduk.
"“We have seen the deep archeological roots of the Goddess in Old Europe, where from the very earliest times of the agricultural community she is the dominant figure as both the cosmic center and the surrounding protector. The Indo-European warrior people invaded in the fourth, third and second millennia, B.C., bringing a collision of two totally contrary mythologies—one in which the matrilineal or mother line is dominant and one is related primarily to the mother, and the other, the patrilineal line, in which one marks one’s identity through one’s father. In the Greek tradition, this collision comes to a climax in the Oresteia story, The Eumenides, when Apollo and Athena, representing the male line, cleanse Orestes of the guilt of matricide.” —Joseph Campbell, Goddess"
The power of the female reappears in force with the rise of the classical Greek pantheon, where the great myth Goddess returned to manifest in well-known forms such as Hera, Athena, Artemis and Aphrodite, with Artemis perhaps being the most ancient and powerful form of them all.
"“Take a glorious deity like Artemis, for example. What is wonderful about the Greek world is that she is manifested in no end of different ways in the different cults. Martin Nilsson, the great authority on classical Greek religion, says that she was the prime goddess.” —Joseph Campbell, Goddess"
In Greek myth, Artemis is most closely related to nature. She is associated with the bear, probably the first animal ever worshiped by man. The character of Daenerys Targaryen has many parallels with Artemis, one of the Greek versions of the earth-mother. Where Artemis, Mistress of the Beasts, is with her bear and all the animals of the wild, Daenerys is the Mother of Dragons. Manifestations of Artemis include a bathing water nymph, and one of the first times we see Daenerys, she is slowly wading into a bathing pool. Artemis was also the Hellenistic goddess of childbirth and protector of young girls—one of Daenerys’ principal goals is to protect the vulnerable, downtrodden, and enslaved, and she considers those she rules to be her ‘children.’
As Daenerys moves through her journey, she repeatedly takes on the role of rescuer, one of the most important aspects of both the Goddess and the Hero archetype. Daenerys moves through an illusory otherworld to rescue her dragons from the warlocks of Qarth in Season 2, and she later rescues the slaves from the cities of Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen.
Daenerys also takes on the title of ‘Mhysa,’ which means ‘mother’—this plays into the earth-mother/goddess element of her female hero archetype. She constantly casts herself in the role of mother, in relation to both her dragons (“A mother does not flee without her children”—”The Prince of Winterfell,” S2/Ep8) and to the slaves she has freed (“I don’t want another child’s bones dropped at my feet.”—“The Wars to Come,” S5/Ep1.)
Two modern examples of female heroes taking on the mother-rescuer role are Ellen Ripley, who saved Newt in Aliens, and Hana the Canadian Army nurse in The English Patient, who remains behind to tend to a severely burned soldier who can no longer travel. Both female heroes are also in the process of rescuing themselves.
It is also important to note that human history provides many real-life examples of heroic female figures, such as the Rome-defying Syrian Zenobia, the British Boudica, or the Indian rebel Lakshmibai. But, as mentioned before, it is more difficult to find such heroic figures and journeys in the female mythic tradition.
Queen Zenobia’s Last Look Upon Palmyra by Herbert Gustave Schmalz
Daenerys possesses great empathy for others, especially those she believes are under her protection. Along with her successes, she has had many failures, such as her vain attempt to save Drogo and her son with dark magic in Season 1, and her inability to stem the rebellions in Slaver’s Bay. Yet there is no doubt Daenerys believes that once she takes the Iron Throne she will make the world a better place.
"“The hero is someone who has given his life for a cause or for others. And this giving of life is here represented in the female role as the wife who goes into the underworld for her husband because she is one with him, and brings him back to eternal life. We find this is in the great story of the underworld journey of Ishtar to bring the god, her spouse Tammuz, back to life. This is the great myth of the Goddess, how She descends to the underworld to bring immortal life to her spouse and herself. This image of the woman’s role not only as the creator of the cosmos but as rescuer within the cosmos is the basis of the old traditions.” —Joseph Campbell, Goddess"
As opposed to the male hero, who often strives to destroy the evils threatening his world, the hero Goddess strives to take a world which is broken and restore it to wholeness once again, as Campbell states: “. . . where the male comes in you have division, while where the female comes in you have union.” (Goddess)
"“When Goddesses embark on heroic journeys, it is to restore what is broken or injured. Isis searched for the pieces of Osirus’s body to resurrect him; the Shekhina gathers up Jewish souls in exile. And NuKwa (Nüwa), a Chinese Goddess, went through the world after the holocaust, repairing the cosmos.” —A. B. Chinen (Waking the World: Classic Tales of Women and the Heroic Feminine)"
When Daenerys explains to Tyrion Lannister what she wants to achieve by winning the Iron Throne in “Hardhome,” (S5/Ep8), it is a vision of stopping an endless cycle of destruction and making the world whole once again.
"Daenerys: “Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell; they’re all just spokes in a wheel: this one’s on top and then that one’s on top and on and on it spins, crushing those on the ground.”Tyrion: “It’s a beautiful dream—stopping the wheel. You’re not the first person who’s ever dreamt it.”Daenerys: “I’m not going to stop the wheel. I’m going to break the wheel.”"
Looking at all of these factors, it appears that the character of Daenerys Targaryen embodies many of the elements of a truly female Hero Archetype. Like any great hero, she is flawed, but she has also gained the support and counsel of two of the greatest players of the game—Tyrion Lannister and Varys the Spider—and if she listens to them, they will help her steer through the danger-fraught waters of governing, gathering intelligence, and espionage. And if her great quest is to take the Iron Throne and save the people of Westeros, then she will do so only by overcoming nearly every one of the great Westerosi houses. But with the White Walker army looming in the north, a Westeros divided would stand no chance at all. Perhaps it is time for a hero to rise, a leader who can unite humanity in the face of its greatest threat.
The Hero Daenerys Targaryen: Specifics
House: Targaryen
Sigil: Three-headed red dragon
Animal: Dragon
Weapon: Dragonfire
Nemesis: Almost every House in Westeros
Sidekick: Jorah Mormont, Missande (now add Tyrion Lannister and Varys)
Greatest Love: Khal Drogo
Greatest strength: Confidence
Greatest Weakness: Overconfidence
Greatest Mystery: How long can the Mother of Dragons control her dragons?
Color: Silver
Tarot Card: The Empress
Ice Cream: Blondie Ambition (Ben & Jerry’s)
Future Prospects (Season 6): Prisoner, but she seems to always find a way out of tough spots
OTHER WIC GAME OF THRONES AS MYTH ARTICLES in the ARCHETYPE and HERO’S JOURNEY series:
Hero’s Journey: Daenerys Targaryen
(Anti) Hero’s Journey: Tyrion Lannister
Alliser Thorne as Archetypal Threshold Guardian