Although the prominence of Greco-Roman mythology and literature in Jung’s works is widely acknowledged, it has received surprisingly little critical and systematic attention throughout the years.
The recent publication of Jung’s Red Book and Black Books, however, provides a new opportunity for scholars to explore Jung’s complex and wide-ranging relationship with the ancient world. One of the Red Book’s most intriguing figures in this regard is certainly Philemon, a benevolent peasant from Phrygia turned suspicious gatekeeper of magical wisdom. Jung’s refiguration of Philemon in the Red Book illustrates his engagement not only with the models from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Goethe’s Faust, but also with Greco-Egyptian magical, alchemical and Hermetic writings, as well as classical scholarship dedicated to them.
This seminar intends to investigate how Jung’s ever-changing relationship with Philemon relates both to Jung’s psychological research prior to his first encounter with this figure and to the path it followed afterwards, especially in relation to the archetype of the ‘wise old man’.