The Eternal Drama: The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology

186 Pages·2001·4 MB·English

by  Edward F. Edinger

“A compelling answer to fundamental questions about why and how we
should read myths. . . . A book rich with fresh readings of well-known
myths, buttressed by illuminating linkages between the Greek, Hebrew, and
Christian roots of our modern psyche.”
—Parabola
ABOUT THE BOOK
Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Athena—do the gods and goddesses of
Greece have anything to say to us that we haven’t already heard? In this
book, based on a series of his lectures, the eminent Jungian analyst and
writer Edward F. Edinger revisits all the major figures, myths, oracles, and
legends of the ancient Greek religion to discover what they can still reveal
—representing, as they do, one of the religious and mythic foundations of
Western culture. Building on C. G. Jung’s assertion that mythology is an
expression of the deepest layers of mind and soul, Dr. Edinger follows the
mythic images into their persistent manifestations in literature and on into
our modern lives. He finds that the gods indeed continue to speak as we
grow in our capacity to listen and that the myths express the inner energies
within all of us as much as ever. Heracles is eternally performing his labors,
Perseus is still confronting Medusa, Theseus is forever stalking the
Minotaur, and Persephone is still being carried off to life in a new realm.
EDWARD F. EDINGER, M.D., a founding member of the C. G. Jung
Foundation for Analytical Psychology in New York, is the author of many
books on Jungian psychology, including The Eternal Drama and Anatomy
of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy.
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THE ETERNAL DRAMA
The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology
EDWARD F. EDINGER
Edited by
DEBORAH A. WESLEY
SHAMBHALA
BOSTON & LONDON
2013
SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Horticultural Hall
300 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
www.shambhala.com
© 1994 by Edward F. Edinger
Cover art: The marriage of Dionysus and Ariadne, from an Attic pelike, fourth century B.C.E.
Archaeological Museum, Pella, Greece. Photograph by George Fafalis.
The Credits page constitutes a continuation of the copyright page.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Edinger, Edward F.
The eternal drama: the inner meaning of Greek mythology/Edward F. Edinger; edited by Deborah A.
Wesley.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN 978-0-83482868-1
ISBN 1-57062-673-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Mythology, Greek—Psychological aspects. 2. Psychoanalysis.
I. Wesley, Deborah A. II. Title.
BF175.5.M95E35 1994 94-8331
292.1′3′019—dc20 CIP
Contents
List of Illustrations
Author’s Note
Editor’s Preface
1. WHAT IS MYTHOLOGY?
2. THE BEGINNINGS: COSMOGONY
3. THE OLYMPIAN GODS
Zeus, Poseidon, Hades
Apollo
Hermes
Ares
Hephaestus
4. THE OLYMPIAN GODDESSES
Hera
Hestia
Demeter
Artemis
Aphrodite
Athena
5. THE HEROES
Heracles
Jason and Medea
Theseus and Ariadne
Perseus
6. THE TROJAN WAR
7. ODYSSEUS
8. THE TRAGIC DRAMA: OEDIPUS
9. SHRINES AND ORACLES
10. DIONYSUS
11. ORPHISM
12. THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Credits
Index
E-mail Sign-Up
Illustrations
1. THE WAR OF THE GODS AND THE TITANS
2. ATLAS AND PROMETHEUS
3. ZEUS
4. POSEIDON
5. HADES
6. APOLLO
7. HERMES
8. ARES
9. HEPHAESTUS
10. HERA
11. HESTIA
12. DEMETER
13. ARTEMIS
14. APHRODITE
15. ATHENA
16. HERACLES
17. JASON AND MEDEA
18. THESEUS FIGHTS THE MINOTAUR
19. PERSEUS AND MEDUSA
20. THE RANSOM OF HECTOR
21. ODYSSEUS AND THE SIRENS
22. OEDIPUS AND THE SPHINX
23. ASCLEPIUS APPEARS TO A SICK MAN
24. DIONYSUS
25. ORPHEUS
26. THE RESURRECTION OF PERSEPHONE
Author’s Note
I WANT to thank the editor, Deborah Wesley, warmly for her successful efforts to
transform rough and scattered material into a relatively smooth and unified
whole. Jung said that “any renewal not deeply rooted in the best spiritual
tradition is ephemeral.” Greek mythology is the foundation of one part of our
“best spiritual tradition,” and Jung has given us the means to assimilate this rich
storehouse of archetypal imagery to the modern mind. May this book contribute
to that goal.
Editor’s Preface
THIS TEXT brings into written form for the first time Edward F. Edinger’s
discussion of the psychological meanings to be found in Greek mythology, epic,
drama, and religious practice. Presented in the 1970s as two series of lectures,
one in New York City and one in California, the material shows the author
mining the ore of Greek culture for the gold of psychological insight useful to
modern individuals.
In the almost twenty years since the lectures were presented, Dr. Edinger, a
noted psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, has brought forth books on the
psychological dimensions of medieval alchemy, the Old and New Testaments,
Melville’s Moby-Dick, and Goethe’s Faust, and he has spoken and written in
explication of a number of C. G. Jung’s later works. Throughout his writings, as
in these lectures, he expresses his indebtedness to the seminal thinking of Jung,
and carries Jung’s ideas into fresh areas of thought and application.
Both Jung and Edinger have sought new understanding of the deep layers of
the human psyche by burrowing into wide-ranging cultural contexts. This
burrowing, motivated by the search for psychological insight rather than for
scholarly learning in any specific cultural field, has been described by Edinger as
“poaching”: “We [Jungian psychologists] are constantly venturing into scholarly
realms of history and anthropology and mythology—all the arts—tracking our
prey . . . the psyche.”1 Here, the territory broached belongs more conventionally
to the classicist, yet in the hands of this expert tracker yields bountiful
psychological material.
Readers may find that the broad scope of Edinger’s survey leaves them
wishing for more material, a fuller development, and more discussion of the
basic texts. Our hope in bringing the lectures to a wider audience is that readers
may be led into their own exploration and imaginative musing on the meanings
in the old stories, seeking their own connections to them.
The text of this book is a recasting of the original lectures and of an essay,
“The Tragic Hero: An Image of Individuation,” which originally appeared in the
journal Parabola.2 The Greek myths have come down to us in widely variant
forms; the versions used here are for the most part those to be found in Robert
Graves’s The Greek Myths.