The Apple
The fruit of knowledge, discord, and youth.
The Apple: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The apple is the fruit of choice and its consequences: the fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Latin West, where malum means both apple and evil, the apple of discord, and the apples of immortality. Jungian writers read it as the ripe fruit of consciousness, taken at a price.
The Apple: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Eden, the golden apples of the Hesperides, the apple Paris gave Aphrodite, Idun’s apples that keep the gods young, Avalon, the isle of apples.
From the Sources
Bulfinch tells how Eris, or Discord, angry at being left out of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, threw among the guests a golden apple inscribed "For the fairest", which Juno, Venus and Minerva each claimed.
“…all the gods were invited with the exception of Eris, or Discord. Enraged at her exclusion, the goddess threw a golden apple among the guests, with the inscription, "For the fairest." Thereupon Juno, Venus, and Minerva each claimed the apple.”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter XXVII, "The Trojan War". Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. The text, read in part
In Bulfinch's account of the Norse gods, Iduna keeps in a box the apples that the gods need only taste, when they feel old age coming on, to become young again.
“His wife, Iduna, keeps in a box the apples which the gods, when they feel old age approaching, have only to taste of to become young again.”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter XXXVIII, "Northern Mythology". Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. The text, read in part
In a note Jung compares the picking of the apple from the paradise tree with the theft of fire, as a drawing back of the libido from the mother.
“The picking of the apple from the paradise tree may be compared with the fire theft, the drawing back of the libido from the mother.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Notes to Part II, Chapter V, footnote 451. Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. 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 Book of Symbols, Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (2010)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Growing Things
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Apple.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/apple.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Ape: The human made animal, and the animal made human. Apollo: Form, measure, clarity, and the beautiful image. The Ascent: Rising toward the light, and coming down again. The Bath: Immersion that cleanses and joins.