Disclaimer:  Archetypes have been around a long time.  Jung discussed them, Campbell and others.   Much of the King archetype discussed in this article was taken from the book, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine by Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette. .  It is to their credit that my concept of the King  is due.  For more information read their books.
 

Briefly, a discussion of archetypes and Tarzan

Before it can be shown that Tarzan  utilizes a great deal of energy from the King archetype, it is necessary to say something about archetypes in general and the King archetype in particular.

An archetype is a pattern of energy that exists within the collective unconscious of men.   It might be thought of as a behavioral directive, or a psychic instinct.   It is a self determining mold into which the personal energy of the individual is poured.  This personal energy is filtered through the learned behavior and complexes that determine the nuances and structure of each individual.  Thus, every person manifests each archetype differently and to different degrees.  An archetype is also a way of seeing the world and acting on it through a certain particular perspective related to the identity of the archetype.  That identity is revealed by tracing the pattern of the archetype through dreams, myths, religious activities and legends.  And through everyday behavior where many archetypes peak through to show themselves in the  mundane activities of  the common man.

Light and darkness play a role in  archetype imagery.  Jung said "enlightenment was shining light in the darkness".  Everything that exists casts a shadow, or a negative aspect that contains negativity because the archetype is accessed and used by personal behavioral energies that have already been either taught to be negative through interaction with the environment or are negative because of poor accessing capabilities.  These dark aspects of the archetypes are called shadow aspects.  Even the Ego, an universal archetype that represents the person, or rather how the person mediates the relationship between his inner needs and those of  society,  has a shadow, properly capitalized: Shadow.   The two archetypes that will be discussed in this paper are the King and Divine Child.  They have their shadows as well.

For an archetype to exist, it must do so in the collective unconscious.  This is a vast layer of consciousness that lies beneath our active consciousness, our self awareness.   It is deeper than our personal unconscious which contains all those things that we might be conscious of, but aren't, if only on a temporary basis.   It is a consciousness that is fundamental to all members of the human race and is as much our heritage as the genes that program our physical bodies.

Yet the concept of inheritance when dealing with archetypes is not strictly applicable.  Archetypes are more a direction for energy to take, rather than the energy itself, or the content of behavioral energy that each man places in an archetype.  Experiences in the conscious can pour energy into the unconscious where it can develop complexes, rigid structures of behavior based on experiences too strong to remain conscious, and these complexes can plunge deeper where they merge with an appropriate archetypal pattern.

Experiences that are negative can cast a shadow on the way the individual manifest archetypal energy.   Thus a person can act in a way that is negative, immature while still manifesting an archetypes energy.  Again, the shadow!

It is not the purpose of this paper to discuss in full Jung's theory of archetypes.   I chose to concentrate on one possible archetype: the King.   This archetype is considered by  Moore and Gillette  to be the central archetype in the masculine personality.  That may or may not be true, but its interesting, and  it does present an interesting way to analyze the character of Tarzan.

The Divine Child archetype is the natural predecessor of the King archetype.  It is the promise of a new order, a seed for the future, and the appearance of divine promise.  Often the child is depicted as more than human.  Jesus, divine son of God, Hercules, son of mighty Zeus, Moses, savior of the Hebrew people and so on.  All far better than average.

The Divine Child can be thought of as primordial.  Pan and Peter Pan!  Son of the gods, and gorgeously free in nature.  A splendid way of thinking of Tarzan of the Apes.

The King archetype defines that promise fulfilled.  Divine order carved out of chaos by one man, including fertility to his land and happiness to his people  if they allow him to rule.  And he rules by one or both of two methods: example and bureaucracy.

Which brings us back to Tarzan.

How does Tarzan show King energy?  A quick example.  Once, Tarzan tried to set an  royal example among the mangani.   Offering to spare a defeated enemy rather than slay him in Tarzan of the Apes.  Later, on his adventures to other lands there are numerous examples of Tarzan setting a royal example whereby the people of those lands changed for the better.  In Tarzan the Terrible, he even showed an improved concept of the tailless god, and in Tarzan and the City of Gold he presented a more worthy example of a King as opposed to Nemone's tyrant Queen.

As mentioned before, a King has two modes of expressing the King archetype.   One is by presenting a living example of his nobility, and the other is establishing  order based on higher  principles supplied  by divine inspiration.    Tarzan ruled by example much more than bureaucracy.   If anything, he was a sort of wandering king, not quite grown up from the Divine Child.

First,  how was Tarzan the Divine Child?   Keep in mind that the King archetype  represents leadership of a highest sort that should be descended from God, or at least inspired by the higher motivations in Mankind.  As the predecessor to the King, the Divine Child  represents innocence and the gift of order to the world.  He is the blessed  boy of celestial promise who is threatened harshly at birth

What evidence are we given that Tarzan was special.  In Tarzan of the Apes:

 Clayton (Tarzan's father) was the type of Englishman that
 one likes best to associate with the noblest monuments of
 historic achievements upon a thousand victorious battle-fields--
 a strong, virile--mentally, morally, and physically.
 

But first his father.

His father's manifestation of the King archetype was flawed.   Years of living in civilization built his culture's complexes around and between the unconscious archetype (casting a bit of a shadow).   As an example, consider John Clayton's false pride  in Tarzan of the Apes.

 They would laugh in their sleeves and attribute his reason
 for wishing to leave the ship to but one thing---cowardice.

 John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, did not ask to be transferred
 to the British man-of-war, and late in the afternoon he saw her
 upperworks fade below the far horizon, but not before he
 learned that which confirmed his greatest fears and caused him
 to curse the false pride which had restrained him from seeking
 safety for his young wife, when safety was within reach---a
 safety which was now gone forever.

Tarzan, raised in an environment too severe to be false, was possessed of only righteous pride. There was no time for the luxury of pretense.  And Tarzan  had no fear.  This lack of fear allowed him to pour himself into his unconscious archetypal engines cleanly and completely.  Indeed, this access might have been the very thing that prevented him from inheriting the curse of the feral child: a stunted, miserable existence below normal human standard.  If the archetypes are mighty engines submerged in our collective unconscious waiting to be used in a way detailed by their particular function, then Tarzan's great intelligence and fearless probing curiosity led him directly to their domain.

Tarzan was less a feral child and more a Divine Child.

Again, the Divine Child presents the promise of a true King housed in the vulnerable, fragile body of an infant.  Though fragile, each Divine Child survives, often by miraculous intervention of good luck and desperate planning.  In the case of Tarzan, it is the good luck of Kala's snatching him from death at the hands of the tyrannical  and undeserving king of the mangani, Kerchak.  Here is the significant tie in to the Divine Child principle.  Tarzan is destined to replace Kerchak as king.  Though this knowledge is not foretold to the mangani, it is as inevitable as the sun rising each day.  Indeed, Tarzan is a solar entity rising to shine above his brood-mates.

There are negative aspects of the King and his childlike counterpart.  Again, Tarzan is not subject to much of this negative behavior because of the harshness of his environment.  That is to say, he must act in positive ways just to survive.  There is no time for him to be petulant or passive.  To do so would have meant his death.  And here is an important aspect of Tarzan's unique development, and the prime reason I believe he is so popular.  Tarzan is self made.  He created himself from raw materials.  It is the greatest manifestation of the King archetype  that can be displayed by a mortal.  The clay that is hardest to shape is one's own.  Yet, under the duress of the need to survive, Tarzan did this.

The King brings order to life.  Tarzan's insatiable curiosity was an eternal search for answers, and consequentially, order.  It is this curiosity that let him to literacy.  As Odin hung on the Tree to discover the runes, Tarzan's struggles were no less difficult, as he scratched out a clarity of the world by his own, unique manner of reading.   And as Odin was both King and Magician, so did Tarzan become the same.   Both these Kings were self made men, fashioned out in the hardness of a savage world.  Where Odin faced the forces of nature in its form of ruthless, clever giants and other monsters, Tarzan faced the dark, shadowy  denizens of the jungle.

Two negative aspects of the Divine Child are the High Chair Tyrant and the Weakling Prince.  As said before, Tarzan could not indulge in these negative behaviors too often because his environment simply would not allow him the luxury of acting in any manner that was not expedient to his survival.  Unlike the High Chair Tyrant, who manages to rule from a position of devotion by those who surround him, Tarzan could never expect others to give to him just because he presented a tantrum.  And a weakling Prince, who controls by presenting a need to be coddled, would have been quickly slain in the jungle.

Because Tarzan formed limited aspects of these shadows of the Divine Child, he formed limited aspects of the respective shadows of the King, equally named the Tyrant and Weak King.

Tarzan, the Primordial King

There are three situations in the Tarzan books that I would like to offer as evidence that Tarzan manifested extremely positive King energy.  The first is the smallest offering.  It is in Tarzan of the Apes.
 

 And so he struggled to encompass a similar hold with the left  hand.  In a few moments Terkoz's bull neck was creaking beneath a  full-nelson.

 There was no more lunging about now, the two lay perfectly still  on the ground, Tarzan upon Terkoz's back.  Slowly the bullet-head  of the ape was being forced lower and lower upon his chest.

 Tarzan knew what the result would be.  In an instant the neck  would break.  Then there came to Terkoz's
  rescue the same thing that had put him in sore straights--a man's  reasoning powers.

  "If I kill him," thought Tarzan, "what advantage will it be to me?   Will it not but rob the tribe of a great fighter?  And if Terkoz is  dead, he will know nothing of my supremacy, while alive he will be  an example to the other apes.""
 

. ...in a few minutes all were back at their vocations, as though  naught had occurred to mar the tranquillity of their primeval forest  haunts.
 
 But deep in the minds of the apes was rooted the conviction that  Tarzan was a mighty fighter and a strange creature.  Strange  because he had had it in his power to kill his enemy, but had
 allowed him to live---unharmed.
 

Tarzan, a King of men

In The Return of Tarzan, the ape-man carries back to the jungle some of the morals he learned while in civilization.  He has learned to think before killing (see Tarzan the Warrior) and because of that he soon bonds with a savage African tribe: the Waziri.   Quickly, Tarzan rises to become the war-leader of this highly evolved tribe of blacks.  His rise is a result of a devastating raid on the tribe by Arab slavers and their black, cannibal servants, the Manyuema.   To make a long story short, Tarzan trains the Waziri in guerilla tactics, destroying the Arabs, freeing any slaves they had taken, and capturing the Manyuema.   Saving the tribe from its enemies leads Tarzan to becoming their king after their previous king, the old Waziri, died.

This is typical of King energy.   In the Waziri tribe, the identification of the King Archetype was transferred to the next man most suitable to receive it.  The King is dead, long live the King.  The old Waziri is dead, long live the new Waziri, Waziri being their name for king as well as themselves.

It was mentioned that the Waziri were more evolved than the other blacks Tarzan had already encountered, particularly the tribe of M'bonga.   Perhaps, more developed is a better, less racially potent word.  ERB describes the Waziri:

            As the warriors danced in the firelight, Tarzan was again impressed by the
            symmetry of their figures and the regularity of their features--the flat noses
            and thick lips of the typical West Coast savage were entirely missing.  In
            repose the faces of the men were intelligent and dignified, those of the women
            ofttimes prepossessing.

Although racists might draw attention to the flat noses and thick lips as derogatory, the important part of this passage is the illustration that the all the Waziri were intelligent, cultured, dignified as a people, not just a few individuals.   That is the importance of symmetry and regularity.

Were they so different than Tarzan?   Note:

            At dawn the hunters were off.  There were fifty sleek, black warriors, and in
            their midst, lithe and active as a young forest god, strode Tarzan of the Apes,
            his brown skin contrasting oddly with the bony of his companions.  Except
            for color he was one of them.  His ornaments and weapons were the same as
            theirs---he spoke their language---he laughed and joked with them, and leaped
            and shouted in the brief wild dance that preceded their departure from the village,
            to all intent and purpose a savage among savages.  Nor, had he questioned himself,
            is it to be doubted that he would have admitted that he was far more closely allied
            to these people and their life than to the Parisian friends whose  ways, apelike,
            he had mimicked for a few short months.

Here, among the Waziri, Tarzan was being authentic.  He was being real.  He was there!  Only in this real sense could he evolve into a true King.  Indeed, he has taken his first step to be a king among men.   Primitive men, as ERB describes them, but fully men.

Two more passages from  The Return of Tarzan given to illustrate that Tarzan has stepped up from the mangani in a true sense.  He has become a man.   There among the savage blacks, Tarzan has taken his first step:

                 In the center of the circle of glittering black bodies he leaped and roared and
                shook his heavy spear in the same mad abandon that enthralled his fellow
                savages.  The last remnant of his civilization was forgotten---he was a primitive man
                to the fullest now; reveling in the freedom of the fierce, wild life he loved,
                gloating in his kingship among these wild blacks.

and:

                And so Tarzan of the Apes came into a real kingship among men---slowly
                but surely he was following the evolution of his ancestors, for had he not started
                at the very bottom.

I see no overly racial statements on the part of ERB.  He was simply using the Waziri as an example of a certain segment of human culture and population.   Were the Waziri primitive, savage?  Yes, they were.  And so was Tarzan.   And who is more perfect than the Lord of the Jungle?

Once Tarzan has risen to be a king of men, ERB next defines his place as greater king:  A prophet king.
 

Tarzan, the Prophet King

The next example of archetypal expression in the ape man that I would like to present is in Tarzan the Terrible.   A King is a representative of God's authority.  Each person may perceive God in his own way, but most people believe that there are laws that are universal to men, at least there are primal themes that are expressed with some degree  of diversity among the different cultures of Mankind.  It is a King's duty to lead his people to these laws, share his inspired wisdom, and rule in the light of this wisdom and law to insure that his people prosper.

In Tarzan the Terrible  the denizens of Pal-u-don had invested the energy of their King archetype in the myths and religion of Jad-ben-Ortho.  ERB is known for his disdain for organized religion.  He was deeply suspicious of it.   So is Tarzan.   Yet, when Tarzan learns that the Ho-don regard their god as tailless, and that Tarzan himself bears a resemblance to their god, he is quick to take advantage of that similarity.

Tarzan's first use of his King power is to mediate between the black Waz-don, Omat, and the white Ho-don, Ta-den.   When these two men, otherwise ready to cooperate with each other because they shared the disadvantage of being outside their particular social groups, were on the verge of violence because of a discussion  over the different ways their respective cultures viewed  Jad-ben Ortho,  it is Tarzan who steps between them and persuades them to stop quarreling.  In fact, at a point when a fight seems imminent, Tarzan exerts the power of his kingly presence.

 "Enough!" he (Tarzan) snapped.  "Let us be true to our oaths
 of friendship that we may be honorable in the sight of God in
 whatever form we conceive Him."
 

The next situation places Tarzan in an almost perfect King role.  Remember, that a king is merely the representation of Divine rule on Earth.  As in the case of Saul and David, there comes a time when a king must step down for a new king.   This is according to which man is currently using the energy of his King archetype in a manner that is appropriate for the current times.   Tarzan knows that he is no god, but he has no problem being a king.

When he confronts the priests in A-lur, he does so as Dor-ul-Ortho, the son of god.   Here he completes his manifestation of the Divine Child, a son of god and  natural princeling,     Like many kings, the power of his warrior archetype aided him in presenting himself as miraculous.  His mastery of the mighty dragon-gryf was very helpful in substantiating  his presentation of divinity.  His presentation was saturated with kingly dignity.

 The ape-man stood erect, his arms folded upon his broad
 breast, an e expression of haughty disdain upon his handsome
 face; but to Dak-lot there seemed to be indications also of
 growing anger.  The situation was becoming strained.

 "My first experience of you indicates that Jad-ben-Ortho
 chose well when he breathed the spirit of a king into the
 babe at your mother's breast."
 
 The effect of this statement, made so casually, was marked
 in the expressions and excited whispers of the now awe-struck
 assemblage.  At last they knew how kinds were made!

Tarzan persuades the Ho-don people that he is the son of their god.  Because he manifested the king archetype found in us all so perfectly, it was not as difficult for him as it would be for most of us.

When Tarzan meets Lu-don  he confronts a shadow of the king archetype.  Here is the tyrannical religious leader that ERB had such contempt for.  Lu-don is Tarzan's true adversary not Ko-tan, because Ko-tan was a real king, and as such recognized the royal presence in the ape-man.  The story switches to a struggle between the false leader, using a religion to further his power, and a true leader,  leading more than example  than administration.  To sum it up, Tarzan hated shadows.

Tarzan leaps into this battle by changing ritualistic policy.  He demands that sacrifices to Jad-ben-Ortho be freed.  The people of Alur are staggered.  Ko-tan asks how they can please their god.

 "If you seek to please your god," he (Tarzan) replied, "place
 upon your alters such gifts of food and apparel as are most
 welcome in the city of your people.  These things will Jad-ben-
 Ortho bless, when you may distribute them among those of
 the city who need them most."
 

Later, when he is brought to the Throne Room to confront Lu-don who claims to have proof that he is not the son of god, Tarzan marvels that he is to be accused by Lu-don and judged by Lu-don.  The trial is to be moved to the temple so Lu-don would have proper authority to judge.

Here Tarzan realizes the falseness of Lu-don and his religion.  Though threatened by death if he harms Tarzan/Dor-ul-Ortho, Ludon is unafraid.  Tarzan  thinks,
 

 "Here is one who, knowing more of his religion than any of
 his fellows, realizes fully the falsity of my claims as he does
 the falsity of the faith he preaches."

Ja-don used Tarzan's super status as Dor-ben-Ortho to raise the fighting spirits of his army.   The Ho-don rebel was using the King archetype in a new way by rallying his people around Tarzan the King.

Lu-don continues to foil Tarzan until he is slain by the son of Tarzan, who might be considered an agent of his (father) King.    Korak  the Killer slays the  head of the shadow  religion.

Despite Tarzan's kingly presence and efforts, it is not the fact that his way is better that leads to success, but rather the timely interaction of force at the hands of his son, Korak, that defeats the trinity head of the false king-government.

In Tarzan the Terrible,  ERB reveals the hidden divine manifestation of the King archetype in his ape-man.  The power of Tarzan, the King,  saves a nation and helps to topple a religious tyranny as well.

The similarities of Tarzan with Christ are too obvious to mention.

 In my next example, Tarzan the Worldly King faces his greatest temptation.

ERB offers us another grand example of Tarzan the King in Tarzan and the City of Gold.   In this book he contrasts the natural King with a very sensual tyrannical Queen.

This book presents a complete mythological background for the birth and emergence of the natural King.  Tarzan enters the valleys of Onthar and Thenar a victim of the "Storm God" flushed into the hands of his Cathnean captors by a mighty, swollen river.   The imagery of a new king being born to an old land seems to stand out.  The important part of this beginning is that Tarzan is delivered into the hands of his enemies.  It is not among friends that he arrives, and these friends are described as the citizens of the same country as his new friend Valtor, whose beasts (always a symbol of Tarzan) are the goat, sheep and most importantly, the elephant, it is among the lion men of Cathne, a city where tyranny and hostility is covered by a veneer of gold.

Tarzan quickly establishes himself as a stranger, neither Athenan or Cathnean.  His weapons are different, so is his appearance and manner.  His bow is a weapon the Cathneans are ignorant of.  Beyond that, Tarzan demonstrates his inherent superiority by bending a powerful bow in the manner of Ulysses, a bow other strong men can scarcely bend.

By sharing his power and knowledge with his captors, he impresses them with his strength and confidence.  One thing Tarzan has in abundance is confidence, a natural requirement for a born leader.  ERB states it plainly:
 

 If the threatened him, he could still fight; if they imprisoned
 him, he could escape; so, at least, thought Tarzan, whose
 self-confidence was in proportion to his great size and his
 giant strength.

Tarzan's experience in Cathne comes to a crisis point when he refuses to kneel before Nemone, the beautiful, jealous tyrant of that golden city.   It is the first confrontation between the natural king and the shadow-tyrant queen.   Nemone is beautifully described by ERB when Tarzan first sees her, but it is not her physical beauty that impresses him.  It is the probability that she may be as evil a creature as he has yet met.  And it is this evil that fascinates the curious ape-man
 

 That she was marvelously beautiful by the standards of any
 land or any time grew more apparent to the lord of the jungle
 as she came nearer to him, yet her presence exhaled a subtle
 essence that left him wondering if her beauty were the reflection
 of a nature all good or all evil, for her mien and bearing
 suggested that there could be no compromise--Nemone, the
 Queen, was all one or all the other.
 

After refusing to kill Phobeg in the arena, Tarzan wastes no time in declaring that Nemone is not his queen.  He does not need to obey her.
 

 "If the Queen wants him killed, why doesn't she send you down
 to do it?  She is your Queen, not mine."  There was neither
 awe nor respect in the voice of the ape-man.
 

When Gemnon wonders why Tarzan isn't trembling as he waits for an audience with the Queen, Tarzan replies,
 

 "I have never trembled.  How is it done?"

 "The leopard does not become a sheep in a few hours, yet
 it seems to me that I have changed as much as that since I
 first met you;  I think that it is more because there is some-
 thing mysterious about you that I cannot fathom.  You
 have piqued my curiosity."
 

 Tarzan shook his head.  "I am Tarzan," he said, as though
 that explained everything, setting him above kings.
 

Tarzan has begun Nemone's education.  He has begun to teach her what a true king must be like.

If Tarzan came to the valley of Onthar as an incarnation of the Divine Child, he is next  a King tempted by the devil in Nemone.  She offers him all that the Devil offered Christ, and though Tarzan is tempted, he refuses.  To accept would be the destruction of his natural lordship.   Perhaps,  he has stayed in Nemone's company to test his own character.

His strength, his refusal to accept her generous offer, almost changes Nemone.  She melts toward him, and if it were not for the sudden appearance of M'duze, the hag who keeps her corrupt, a black woman representing the Shadow corrupting her rulership, she might have cast off the shadow and became a true leader in that very critical moment.

Instead, the shadow draws her away, back into darkness.

There is no question that M'duze represents the Shadow that controls Nemone.  She wishes the Queen to marry Erot, because she can control Erot.  Any interaction between Tarzan and Nemone is dangerous to M'duze's control of the Queen, and as a consequence of this the old black hag is Tarzan's enemy.

It looks like ERB was mocking hereditary nobility.   In Cathne he equated nobility with lions, then let the lions roam the streets of the city, to the danger of its citizens.  Just as nobles, out of control, are a danger to the common people.  The lions were not a symbol of royal power, they were a symbol of corrupt nobility.  So different from Tarzan's relationship with Jad-bal-ja, the Golden Lion.   The Golden Lion followed the Lord of the Jungle out of love and loyalty, not because of a tradition of vice and nepotism.

Tarzan shatters the myth of lion powered nobility, when he leaps into the pit to save his Athnean friend, Valtor.  Shatters it in a magnificent way, slaying the lion, screaming the wild victory cry of a bull ape.  A king of bull apes, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, as he learned to be a king,  first among the mangani.

(Note: Later, Tarzan also fulfills the symbolism of the lion equals nobility when Jad-bal-ja comes to his rescue.  The important thing to remember is that the lion is not nobility but rather a symbol of the power of nobility.   Standing alone, a man can be noble even without the power of a lion on his chain.)

Later,  there is an important confrontation between Tarzan and Nemone.  The Queen asks Tarzan why had he leaped into the pit.  Tarzan tells her he was disgusted by what he saw, (keeping the truth of his friendship with Valtor to himself in the dangerous political environment of the Queen's jealous court).

He says:

 "The cowardliness of the authority that would permit an
 unarmed and utterly defenseless man to be forced into an
 arena with a lion."

 Nemone flushed.  "You know that that authority is I,"
 she said coldly.

 "Of course I know it,: replied the ape-man, "but that only
 renders it the more odious."
 
 "What do you mean?" she snapped.  "Are you trying to drive
 me beyond my patience?  If you knew me better you would
 know that that is not safe, not even  for you, before whom I
 have already humbled myself."

 "I am not seeking to try your patience," replied the ape-man
 quietly, "for I am neither interested nor concerned with your
 powers of self control.  I am merely shocked that one so
 beautiful may at the same time be so heartless.  Were you a
 little more human, Nemone, you would be irresistible."
 

M'duze returns and reclaims Nemone before she can be brought out of the Shadow toward Tarzan.

There are other elements in the story that imply the intrigue of court; jealous nobles try to kill Tarzan by treachery and fail.  Tarzan meets a woman more beautiful than Nemone, which begins a plot twist that will incur Nemone's jealousy.   But most interesting is the confessed connection between Nemone and Belthar.  Belthar, the great lion that Nemone stated was the symbol of her life and power.  More the symbol of her tyranny.  Right from the first, Belthar hated Tarzan, a true king, with the jealousy and corruption of the Shadow.   In the end, when Nemone is spurned by Tarzan, after he has finally accepted that she will never change for the better, it is Belthar she sends after the ape-man in a great hunt.   She is certain that her lion, a very exceptional lion, will run the ape-man down and kill him.  Without weapons, even Tarzan doubted he could kill Belthar, who was the product of generations of selective breeding.  Yet, he had no fear.   His active mind devised a plan that might help him escape, if he could reach the trees.  A dim hope because Belthar was so much faster than he on the open ground.

But it is not the King that Belthar fights.  To the King's rescue comes his own symbol of power:  a  mighty lion grown strong in the presence of the King.   The Golden Lion raged against the Shadow Beast, and the outcome of that battle is no contest, just as a comparison between Tarzan and Nemone must result in the triumph of the Lord of the Jungle.
 

Jad kills Belthar.  Tarzan is revealed to be a lion-man after all, but the symbol rings true in his case.   With her power destroyed, Nemone kills herself.   The city of Cathne is liberated from her tyranny.

Again, the similarities between Tarzan and Christ are to obvious to mention.
 

So ends the most severe test of Tarzan's manifestation of the King Archetype.

So ends a magnificent story.

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