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.

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## Jungian Psychology

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In Jungian analytical psychology, examples of the senex archetype in a positive form include the wise old man or wizard. The senex may also appear in a negative form as a devouring father (e.g. Ouranos, Cronus) or a doddering fool.

The antithetical archetype, or enantiodromic opposite, of the senex is the Puer Aeternus.

## Senex in literature

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Two stock characters of theater are the senex amans, an old man unsuitably in love with a much younger woman, and the senex iratus, an old man who irrationally opposes the love of the young couple.[1]

Senex is also the name of a wise old fara, a subcellular creature inside a mitochondrion, in the novel A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle (1973, ISBN 0-374-38443-6).

## References

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1. ↑ Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism, p 172, ISBN 0-691-01298-9

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