- Senex
Senex is
Latin for "old man". In Ancient Rome, the title of Senex was only awarded to elderly men with families who had good standing in their village.Jungian Psychology
In Jungian
analytical psychology , examples of the senexarchetype in a positive form include thewise old man or wizard. The senex may also appear in a negative form as a devouringfather (e.g.Ouranos ,Cronus ) or a dodderingfool .The antithetical archetype, or enantiodromic opposite, of the senex is the
Puer Aeternus .enex in literature
Two stock characters of theater are the
senex amans , an old man unsuitably in love with a much younger woman, and thesenex iratus , an old man who irrationally opposes the love of the young couple. [Northrop Frye , "Anatomy of Criticism ", p 172, ISBN 0-691-01298-9]Senex is also the name of a wise old fara, a subcellular creature inside a
mitochondrion , in the novel "A Wind in the Door " byMadeleine L'Engle (1973, ISBN 0-374-38443-6).Sir
Alan Lascelles used the pen-name "Senex" when writing to "The Times " in1950 setting out the so-calledLascelles Principles concerning the monarch's right to refuse a prime minister's request for a general election.References
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