The Light at the End of the Abyss

By Sadhika on

The Cave is a symbol of the unknown, the chaos, the platform for the explorer to showcase his heroic deeds. It is concomitant with the idea of confrontation. Recall Nietzsche's words:

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”


It is not a surprise that the archetypal image of a cave is analogous to the opening jaws of a predator. It is also analogous to the archetypal idea of the underworld, a dark and dismal place, the very residence of chaos and evil. It is the agent of transformation for the hero. It is only by the confrontation of the chaos and delving into the depths of the darkness that the hero is able to transgress his own fears and inadequacies and emerge victorious.


Perhaps the evolutionary basis of this archetype might be that prehistoric man often lived in caves. Although it was a safe haven for man and protected him from the forces of nature, it was also fraught with danger, especially if the cave in question was an unexplored one. It could have been inhabited by predators such as big cats or snakes or be home to a hostile tribe of other humans, who may have perhaps even been of a different species. Mating with this other species could have proved costly if they carried genetic vulnerabilities or disease-causing pathogens.


Some prominent examples of the representation of this archetype from literature and mythology include:


1. The cave in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Harry and Dumbledore enter the cave to destroy Voldemort’s Horcrux, so it literally harboured the soul of evil within its confines and required the hero to make a sacrifice (Dumbledore’s blood) to enter it. The hero emerges victorious from the cave, albeit significantly weakened, but transformed to engage a new challenge before him at Hogwarts.


2. The cave-like haunted pass in the Lord of the Rings that was inhabited by the Army of the Dead, which was summoned by Aragorn (the hero) who ventures into its depths to confront the king of the dead who was cursed for having broken his oath. 


3. The cave of the defeated King Robert (the hero) who watches a spider repeatedly attempting, after successive failures, to build a web across the cave’s entrance. As per the fable, the king was “transformed” after witnessing the determination of the spider and decides to return to war.


4. The cave in Goethe’s poem, The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus - Although this cave offers protection to the seven sleepers from religious persecution, it too, in a sense, is a symbol of transformation as it is only through its habitation that the landscape of Ephesus changes to one where Christianity becomes prevalent, and the sleepers transform from fugitives to heroes and are gifted with eternal youth.


5. The cave in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves - Ali Baba masters the trick of getting the cave to yield before him and open up to allow his entry, marked by the words “Open Sesame”. The mastery of the trick by Ali Baba is itself symbolic of his entrance into the underworld, a den of thieves and is representative of the fact that Ali Baba must become “one of the thieves” to enter the cave. He then proceeds to steal from the loot of the thieves, and is soon confronted by them, eventually succeeding in vanquishing them. Perhaps this is most representative of Nietzsche’s cautionary words about the risk of turning into a monster when one fights one.



Explore more:

1. Beyond Good and Evil - Friedrich Nietzsche

2. Robert the Bruce and the Spider

3. The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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