# Question regarding the word "arc" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 6, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370 "2016-04-06T18:05:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370/1 "2016-04-06T18:05:22Z")
In which sense is the word arc used in the following sentence? I look forward to your feedback. [http://www.3sixty.com/persephone/](http://www.3sixty.com/persephone/) Vegetation and harvest goddesses are a common arc in mythologies, and similar tropes appear across cultures. Persephone’s cult of worship pre-dates the full story of the Olympic gods, worshipped in some form by agrarian cults. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370/2 "2016-04-06T18:10:16Z")
It’s used in the sense of a “story arc” or “narrative arc,” referring to the traditional narrative structure of increasing conflict followed by a resolution. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370/3 "2016-04-06T18:24:53Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > It’s used in the sense of a “story arc” or “narrative arc,” referring to the traditional narrative structure of increasing conflict followed by a resolution. Thanks friedo. Very helpful ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370/4 "2016-04-06T19:19:08Z")
Misused, I’d say, since “vegetation and harvest goddesses” are images, perhaps a theme, but not a story. Persephone-and-Hades is a story. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370/5 "2016-04-06T20:46:05Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Misused, I’d say, since “vegetation and harvest goddesses” are images, perhaps a theme, but not a story. Persephone-and-Hades is a story. FWIW, I agree. “A common element,” maybe, but the word “arc” doesn’t really make sense in that context. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370/6 "2016-04-06T22:35:16Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Misused, I’d say, since “vegetation and harvest goddesses” are images, perhaps a theme, but not a story. Persephone-and-Hades is a story. That was my feeling too. So how should it have been phrased? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370/7 "2016-04-06T22:51:02Z")
A common (or, frequent) figure/component/characterization/symbol. Especially when put in the close company of “trope” it sounds like overuse of neologism. As **Peremensoe** points out, the story arc would be something that the goddesses do or that happens to them. So, “Vegetation and harvest goddesses are a common figure in mythologies, and similar themes appear across cultures.” OR, to make use of arc, “The journeys or travails of vegetation and harvest goddesses as a representation of seasons are a frequently seen arc in mythologies, [etc]” ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370/8 "2016-04-06T22:51:29Z")
“Archetype”. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370/9 "2016-04-07T00:08:22Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > “Archetype”. Great call. That is exactly it. An archetype is more than just an image, it’s a “universal image”. Something that tends to be common to all (or most) cultures. This is a key element of Jungian Psychological Theory. I’m sure the writer just suffered a Freudian slip. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-the-word-arc/751370/10 "2016-04-07T01:46:01Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Great call. That is exactly it. > > An archetype is more than just an image, it’s a “universal image”. Something that tends to be common to all (or most) cultures. This is a key element of Jungian Psychological Theory. I’m sure the writer just suffered a Freudian slip. 🙂 So that sentence should have read: “Vegetation and harvest goddesses are common archetypes in mythologies, and similar tropes appear across cultures. Persephone’s cult of worship pre-dates the full story of the Olympic gods, worshipped in some form by agrarian cults.” Thank you all.