The Eternal Drama: The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology

by Edward F. Edinger

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.

Genres: Psychology, Mythology, Nonfiction, History, Spirituality, Philosophy, Greece

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 1994

About the author

Edward F. Edinger was a medical psychiatrist, Jungian analyst and American writer.
Edward F. Edinger Jr. was born on December 13, 1922, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, earning his Bachelor of Arts in chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington and his Doctor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine in 1946. In November 1947, as a first lieutenant, he started a four-week Medical Field Service School at the Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He became a military doctor in the United States Army Medical Corps and was in Panama. In New York in 1951, he began his analysis with Mary Esther Harding, who had been associated with C.G. Jung.
Edinger was a psychiatrist supervisor at Rockland State Hospital in Orangeburg, New York, and later founder member of the C.G. Jung Foundation in Manhattan and the CG Jung Institute in New York. He was president of the institute from 1968 until 1979, when he moved to Los Angeles. There he continued his practice for 19 years, becoming senior analyst at the CG Jung Institute of Los Angeles.
He died on July 17, 1998, at his home in Los Angeles at age 75, according to family members due to bladder cancer.

Reviews

[Abner Rosenweig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edinger was, of course, one of the best expositors of Jung. Many readers complain that his books can be dry and technical. The Eternal Drama, edited from a series of lectures, is not dry at all. It provides the usual depth and insight into the unconscious and the human condition that one expects from Edinger, but it's also presented in a highly accessible, entertaining way.

"Myths are not simply tales of happenings in the remote past but eternal dramas that are living themselves out repeatedly in our our own personal lives and in what we see all around us," Edinger says.

In brief chapters, Edinger reviews the major players in the Greek pantheon from the perspective of depth psychology. He provides fascinating commentary on the Greek cosmogony, the Epics of Homer, tragic drama, and the mystery religions of Orphism and Eleusis. Maybe my favorite chapter was the one on Greek heroes, which offers fascinating interpretations of the stories of Hercules, Jason, Theseus, and Perseus.

Sometimes Edinger's analysis feels like a stretch, but more often it's right on target and provides stunning revelations into the workings of the human mind and the ongoing evolution of human consciousness.

[Tg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.....Excellent book.. The author shows how the Ancient Greek Myths affect us on the unconscious level in the process of Individuation; The material in the unconscious is not neutral and must be integrated in the correct way to prevent psychic stagnation or worse.
The associations we form to these images, and our reactions and choices influence our daily lives in a huge way. The myths generally have an underlying theme, but each person is so nuanced, that we form different associations to the Myths. Like "Herakles" who must repay his debts for his angry madness in his youth, he eats his wife and children; we too must repay our debts in life.
Herakles becomes a Hero through "service" by performing his 12 Grueling Labors.

"Be sure it is fated for you to suffer and make yourself glorious through these labors " Herakles to Philoctetes

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edinger offers incredible insight into the the relationship of Greek Mythology to the human psyche, particularly with respect to Individuation. He clearly points out the relationship of the Greek gods to archetypal energies. He also demonstrates the role mythology played(s) in the formation of religious myths and philosophy that sprang forth from it. Everything from Dionysian, Orphism, Eleusinian Mysteries, Platonism, Gnosticism and Christianity to name a few. He allows us to see how religious myths borrowed from each other and or developed the same concepts in parallel. Different ways of individual development with respect to seeking greater meaning or mysticism. Definitely a book I will refer to often.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work is Edward Edinger's lecture(s) on Greek mythology and psychology adapted to book form and it explores the details of and overall utility of the ancient myths. I've been reading lately on Greek mythology and while I expected much of Edinger's detailing on the myths themselves to be a rerun, I was instead taught several new things. And though this book does have some appeal as a study of Greek myth its main function is to teach a psychological perspective on these ancient stories. It offers some fresh perspective and breathes new life into these myths and can help any aspiring philosophy or psychology student to build their own mental model for understanding the greater world of the psyche. My main complaint on this book is that Edinger did not say enough or develop the ideas as fully as I expected: he builds your interest in an idea but spends an unsatisfyingly short amount of time developing it. This could be a flaw of the medium itself in that a lecture by nature is more abbreviated than a book that one writes over a long period of time.

This book covers the Greek myths from the pantheon of gods to the major hero stories to the character's from Homer's works to the main surviving tragic plays and finishes off studying three of the mystery cults.

When discussing the Greek pantheon he discusses the idea that the major twelve Olympian deities refer to the heterogeneous human psyche and its main archetypes. This concept is developed piece by piece as each character is explored for their unique qualities and what that means in psychology. I hadn't thought of Zeus and Hera being polar aspects of the self but he does have a point that for many action by Zeus there is often compensatory activity from Hera. I found this and other ideas insightful on his study of the particular deities, although again I felt these rabbit trails could have been followed much further than they were, especially studying Poseidon and Hades. He brought up the idea that the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades rule sky, sea, and underworld (respectively), constituting a sort of trinity, yet this could have been quite wonderfully explored (or the reader could have been referred to another work if this is in fact a study he's familiar with but unable to adequately explore here). It just felt like a bit of a tease, that's all; I'm glad he introduces the ideas he does, so I suppose its odd to harbor any resentment for my appetite being unsatisfied.

The study on the major hero figures of Greek myth, Heracles, Theseus, Jason, and Perseus, was a thoroughly intriguing section of the book. It can be difficult to find full written expositions on some of these heroes told completely (aside from the later Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses), so it's nice to have a fluid and readable recap like this. Much like Robert Grave's telling of the myths, Edinger interweaves his (and the Jungian school in general) interpretations, so the reading is a blend of paraphrased story with some simple analysis. I find this to be a nice complement sometimes to reading just the unbroken stories themselves and helps the symbolic aspects of the stories to come alive. Edinger juxtaposes each of these heroes tasks with their relation to some major feminine character to illustrate how these tales are each a form of individuation. In Jungian psychology, a person's soul is symbolically cast in dreaming and other unconscious imaginings as a mysterious figure of the opposite sex, and a person relates to her/him in different forms throughout their personal evolution until it is somehow incorporated or resolved and they no longer appear. In the hero myths (which the recent movie Mud could be thrown in as well), the hero's quest is partly a relationship with that feminine figure (Heracles with Hera & Deianira, Theseus with Ariadne, Jason with Medea, and Perseus with Medusa & Andromeda), and partly a series of tasks somehow symbolic of coming to greater knowledge and awareness. When animated against the backdrop of this idea, these familiar stories become quite vivid and profound. They move from being simply entertaining to having personal utility.

The heroes of Homer's epic tales The Iliad and The Odyssey are explored under a similar framework of individuation, but covered in much greater detail. The commentary on the travels of Odysseus in particular were quite interesting and could be a nice read for anyone finishing that book (and especially for those about to read Ulysses). He offers interesting thoughts (some quoted from other psychologists) on what psychological patterns are symbolized by "lotus eaters", encountering the cyclops, the songs of the sirens, passing between Scylla & charbis, descending to the underworld and encountering Circe. I do feel he was way off the mark comparing the Cyclops to a survivor from Hesiod's "golden age of man". It seems to be his own idea so I think he deserves the blame for that dud; those two dots just don't connect and it would no doubt ruffle the feathers of scholars who specialize in studying the ancient Greek religion. It only takes a simple reading of Works and Days to see that Hesiod not only described them as extinct (physically) but they were re-instituted by Zeus as beneficent protectors and guides for mankind. It would be more acceptable speculation to see the Cyclops as leftovers from Hesiod's "silver age" since - like Homer's Cyclops - they seem fairly ignorant of or fail to adequately honor the gods, but even this parallel has holes and neither really are appropriate to understanding either the symbolism of the Cyclops or the previous (extinct) races of mankind described by Hesiod.

The basics of the myths of Oedipus and Orestes are discussed, but not in tremendous depth psychologically. This is understandable as they have been fodder for psychologists from Freud onward and have been so exhausted that it's unlikely to offer much fresh psychological insight. Nonetheless, their inclusion here is probably helpful for anyone unfamiliar with the stories and needing a basic overview and the main points on their psychological relevance.

Edinger wraps up the book with chapters devoted to the mysteries of Dionysus, Orpheus, and Eleusis, and with the exception of the latter are insightful and educational.

There is a lot written about Dionysus and many angles one can take in studying him, but Edinger focuses specifically on the trapping and fragmenting the divine into gross matter. From this perspective he reminds the readers of the polar opposite psychological risks of inflation and regression that result from relating the ego somehow to the psyche's inner archetypal forces. Doing so means one suffers the same fate as Dionysus (at least the ego does), and so a proper orientation to the creative inner forces is to be sought for long term psychological health.

The high point of the book for me was the chapter Edinger devotes to the mystery cult of Orpheus. This cult influenced many Greek philosophers and mathematicians and helped shape the development of the Christian cult as well. I've read very little on this subject, so most of what he discussed was new to me, and that was part of the enjoyment of this read. More so than any of the other topics covered in this book one can see the direct parallels to depth psychology and the process of individuation studied here. Making the connections between this ancient cult and psychology is a profoundly useful tool in developing one's mental model of the psyche and the process it does/can go through in life.

In the final chapter Edinger covers the mystery of Eleusis but seemed to have devoted little time and thought to the subject. It is a short chapter and more so than anywhere else in the book he resorts to short commentary and long excerpts, seeming to be more interested in gathering snippets of other peoples writings than in offering original thoughts. In fact the most he writes in his own hand is done at the beginning in his paraphrasing of the myth of Persephone, Hades and Demeter, in which he botches several basic points. Though he includes some references to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter in this chapter, several points in his paraphrase of the myth seem to hint at him not having read it. He severely minimizes the importance and role of Demeter in the story and writes his summary in a way that easily leads the reader to assume that because nothing would grow until Persephone was returned she is somehow the cause of that (rather than Demeter). The number of pomegranate seeds, the number of months she stays in Hades, and other details are inaccurate when comparing against the Hymn to Demeter or to the version we had relied on previous to its discovery in the late 1700s, Ovid's recount in Metamorphoses. Though Edinger picks up on the visionary aspect of the rituals of Eleusis and does provide some good excerpts from other authors on their visionary commentaries, the chapter is lacking in the type of insight offered by the previous chapters. To anyone interested in this subject in particular I'd recommend Gordon Wasson's The Road to Eleusis.

I don't wish to draw a dark cloud since overall it was a solid and intriguing work; I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in understanding the functional power and personal utility of the Greek myths.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something I dislike is how the word 'myth' is often improperly used to mean a falsehood. Myths are some of the truest truths going because they live, are adaptable by every new age and society to new debts and meanings. For western people, the Greek myths especially contain layers of meaning. In The Eternal Drama: The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology, Edward F. Edinger provides a very commendable introduction to the nexus of Greek myth and depth psychology teasing out the transpersonal meanings of the various stories of Gods and heroes. Very readable and easy to understand though best read by one who already has a basic knowledge of Greek myth and depth psychology.

[Liam Malone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Attempts to make alive in present day, kind of works. If your spiritual then adding myths from outside of your tradition allows you to see how others view similar problems resolved in myths.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting and accessible discussion on how Jungian psychology can be used to interpret Greek mythology, as explained by Edinger. It keeps returning to the concept of individuation throughout. A very enjoyable book for me, who has particular personal interest in Greek myth as well as Jungian theory. However, I found it reviewed archetypal descriptions of the gods that I had seen before in other collections and was briefer than I expected. Overall a very good read that I believe I could get more from again on a second reading in the future.

[Diana Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book and this is one that I will come back to again and again fro my astrological studies.

[Hbr the Human · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me emocioné muchísimo viendo aún más mi vida tan claramente reflejada en la mitología. Cada vez me adentro más, cada vez me entiendo más.

Saqué muchos más libros por leer de aquí.


"Heracles strangled the Nemean lion and skinned it with its own claws. He clothes himself with the skin and wore it ever afterward, with the jaws of the lion sticking up over his head; it became a kind of cloak of invulnerability. He has mastered or come to terms with a certain primordial instinctual energy, and now it no longer threatens to overwhelm him. Now it protects him and belongs to him."

[Anton Zlatev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, highly classical Jungian book. I highly recommend it.

[Carl Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's good. Worth having if you are into understanding yourself and others and using the Greek stories as analogies with which to do so.

[Britt · Rating 3 out of 5]

great but wish there was much more on the archetypal descriptions and myths of the gods

[ElPedro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poměrně neinspirativní shrnutí řecké mytologie a její letmé jungiánská interpretace. Neznám žargon, takže z toho moc nemám, navíc mi ty interpretace přijdou nesystematické, nahodilé, málo inspirativní a mechanicky aplikované. V podsattě si z toho odnáším jen střípky o řeckých bájích a podnětné interpretační jednotlivosti.

[Tanya Lolonis · Rating 1 out of 5]

a good overview of psychological meaning of greek myths and its heroes and gods.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected this book to be. This seemed to be a rather tired review of archetypes through mythology.