Abstract
This paper is an attempt to participate in the on-going discussion about the multiple facets of entrepreneurship and to add some new light and comments away from the traditional pantheon. The aim is to provide an alternative reading which may help to reveal some "subtleties and complexities" thanks to the use of myths as metaphors to illustrate the entrepreneurial condition. Following recent critical literature, I try to question and deconstruct the positive taken-for-granted images of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur as an emancipated hero. Thus the success of a few has been mythicized while the difficult reality of the majority of entrepreneurs has been ostracized. What kind of myths then could illustrate metaphorically the entrepreneurial experience? On the one hand, I try to emphasize the positive extra-ordinary dimension of this so-called 'modern hero', embodied by Hercules, the almighty achiever archetype, and Spartacus, the social and institutional entrepreneur. On the other hand, I propose a vision of the entrepreneurial character as both prisoner of his/her entrepreneurial condition and used as an ideological tool to reinforce the position of the dominant group. The mythological characters of Sisyphus, the constrained entrepreneur, and Tantalus, the tormented victim of gods’ will, illustrate these perspectives.