The Abduction
The rape of Persephone
Seized by the depths: the innocent carried below.
The Abduction: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In “The Psychological Aspects of the Kore” (1941), written beside Karl Kerényi’s study, Jung read Demeter and Persephone as one experience of the feminine: the mother who loses the daughter, the daughter carried off by the lord of the dead, and her return, which the mysteries of Eleusis celebrated.
The abduction is the ego seized and carried down by the unconscious, against its will, into a marriage with what it did not choose.
The Abduction: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter; the pomegranate seeds; Europa and the bull; Ganymede and the eagle; the brides of the fairy hills.
From the Sources
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter tells how, as the girl reached out for the narcissus, the earth yawned in the plain of Nysa and the lord, Host of Many, sprang out upon her with his immortal horses.
“And the girl was amazed and reached out with both hands to take the lovely toy; but the wide-pathed earth yawned there in the plain of Nysa, and the lord, Host of Many, with his immortal horses sprang out upon her”
Hesiod, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, Homeric Hymn II, "To Demeter", ll. 4-32. Translator: Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Project Gutenberg eBook #348). The text, read in part
Frazer retells from the Hymn how the youthful Persephone, gathering flowers, was carried off by Pluto, lord of the Dead, from the gaping earth to be his bride and queen in the subterranean world.
“The youthful Persephone, so runs the tale, was gathering roses and lilies, crocuses and violets, hyacinths and narcissuses in a lush meadow, when the earth gaped and Pluto, lord of the Dead, issuing from the abyss carried her off on his golden car to be his bride and queen in the gloomy subterranean world.”
Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: a study of magic and religion, Ch. XLIV, "Demeter and Persephone". Abridged edition (preface dated June 1922), Project Gutenberg eBook #3623. The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- “The Psychological Aspects of the Kore,” CW 9i
- C. G. Jung and Karl Kerényi, Essays on a Science of Mythology (1941)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Unions, Spells, and Changes
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Abduction.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/abduction.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Wounded Healer: The one who heals by virtue of a wound. Yellow: The yellowing, as the dawn becomes day. The Abyss: The depth without a bottom. The Altar: The place of offering, where the human meets the divine.