Companion (Friend, Sidekick, Right Arm, Consort)
The Sidekick's qualities of loyalty, tenacity, and unselfishness are the positive
aspects of this archetype. A Sidekick/Companion
provides a service, symbolically speaking, to a personality that often has
a stronger nature or a role in life that carries more
authority. Secretaries and personal assistants are examples of Right Arms,
taking care of the day-to-day details of life. You might
have an inner Companion that takes care of the details and allows another
archetype to focus on work central to your mission.
Companions are associated with providing emotional rather than sexual support.
Platonic or friendship bonds are more in keeping
with that particular archetype.
Betrayal is a common example of the shadow side of the Companion, which damages the soul.
Films: Eve Arden in Mildred Pierce, The Lady Takes a Sailor, The Kid from
Brooklyn; Frank Sinatra and Montgomery Clift in From
Here to Eternity; Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in Thelma and Louise.
Television: My Friend Flicka; Lassie;
Fiction: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Dr. Watson) by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Drama: Iago in Othello by Shakespeare (shadow).
Religion/Myth: Damon and Pythias (in Christian lore, two young men whose loyalty
to each other won their freedom after Pythias
was condemned to death); Enkidu (companion created by the gods for Gilgamesh,
a natural man who proved a perfect match for
the godlike hero king); Eris (Greek goddess of strife and constant companion
of the war god, Ares); Apis (holy bull was
worshipped in ancient Egypt as the companion of the creator god Ptah); Nike
(Greek victory goddess and companion of Athena,
goddess of wisdom and war).
