Eternal Image

An eternal image is an artistic image that, owing to its universal human significance and inexhaustible depth, has outgrown the bounds of its work and era, entered the cultural consciousness of humanity, and become a symbol of a certain human type, passion, or situation. Eternal images become the object of endless reinterpretations, continuations, and polemics in subsequent epochs. Classic examples are Prometheus (a symbol of rebellion and self-sacrifice), Don Quixote (the noble idealist), Hamlet (the reflecting personality), Don Juan (the seducer), Faust (the one thirsting for knowledge), and Mephistopheles. Eternal images are close to archetypes but, unlike them, have a concrete literary origin and authorship. In Ukrainian literature, Lesia Ukrainka turned to the eternal image of Prometheus (the poem 'In the Catacombs,' where Prometheanism becomes a symbol of spiritual freedom) and reinterpreted the image of Don Juan in the drama 'The Stone Host,' giving it an original national interpretation.