archetypes:

original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.

​

[An important concept for Spengler, one clearly derived from Goethe (his Metamorphoses of Plants, 1810).  Goethe discerned the hidden relationship of parts that explains how one form can transform into another form yet also be part of an underlying archetypal form, this being the master pattern or type from which all subsequent patterns derive.  Goethe applied this to botany calling it the Ur-phänomen.  Spengler applies the idea to history, calling it the Prime Symbol.  Each Culture has a prime symbol: for the Greek and Romans it is the naked statue, for the West it is infinite Space.]