The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [54]
The outstanding example of a young but ageless feminine figure is she who assists Odysseus, the `flashing-eyed goddess of wisdom' Athene, `tall, beautiful and accomplished'; who watches over and guides her protege through every peril, and fights for his cause in the counsels of the gods against the hero's chief oppponent, the vengeful Poseidon (a similar, through less intimate role is played for Aeneas by Venus, the goddess of love).
In the Quest for the Grail, the part of the `wise old man' is played by the succession of hermits and holy men, whose chief role is to interpret to the heroes the meaning of the great tests and ordeals they have just undergone, and to give warnings for the future. Similarly, at various points in the story, mysterious young women of unblemished virtue appear to guide the heroes on their way - particularly important being the beautiful maiden who at last appears to summon the three supreme heroes, Galahad, Percival and Bors, onto the ship which will take them over the sea to begin the closing stages of the Quest.
In Pilgrim's Progress, Christian is given supernatural guidance along his path by the grave `wise old man' Evangelist, and by the three angelic `Shining Ones'. He is also given more mundane assistance and hospitality by the three `grave and beautiful damsels' who live in the Palace Beautiful: and it is they at last who point out to Christian on the horizon the Delectable Mountains, the final gateway to his mysterious goal.
In modern storytelling there is no more memorable an example of these archetypal figures than the two who play such a crucial role in guiding Frodo on his mighty Quest in The Lord of the Rings, the all-seeing old wizard Gandalf and his ally, the beautiful, ethereal, visionary queen Galadriel. 4
The final ordeals
At last the heroes of our Quest stories come to the edge of the great goal towards which, through so many perils and ordeals, they have been journeying so long. Odysseus at last reaches his island of Ithaca. Aeneas reaches Italy where he is to make his new home. Jason arrives in Colchis, home of the Golden Fleece. After forty years in the wilderness, the Jews at last cross over the river Jordan and arrive in `the promised land. The rabbits reach Water ship Down, which they decide is the perfect place to settle and to make their new home.
We now discover one of the most surprising things about the Quest plot. Most people, if one talks about a `quest, will say `Oh yes, a story about a journey' (the very word `quest, from the Latin quaere, to seek, after all means `a search') But in fact the journey in a Quest only makes up half the story.
It has taken Odysseus twelve books of the Odyssey to get back to Ithaca: but there are still twelve books to go before the story is finally over. Aeneas has reached Italy by the sixth book of the Aeneid: but the poem has twelve books in all. When the Jews reached their promised land `flowing with milk and honey', or the rabbits reach Watership Down, there is still a huge part of the story left to unfold. In almost all the quests we have been looking at (and in many others), the journey turns out to have been only the first part of the tale. The second part, which begins when the hero is actually within sight of his goal, sees him having to face a final great ordeal, or series of ordeals, which may take as long to describe as everything which has gone before. It is this final struggle which is necessary for the hero to lay hold of his prize and to secure it.
The entire second half of the Odyssey, for instance, describes what follows when Odysseus arrives incognito back on his island, to find his kingdom in near-total disarray, overshadowed by the arrogance, greed and dissipation of the infesting army of suitors. We see him travel across the island to arrive at his palace, disguised as a beggar, treated by the suitors like dirt. His queen Penelope has finally despaired