Philemon
The winged old man
A figure of the psyche who knew more than Jung did.
Philemon: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In the years of his confrontation with the unconscious Jung met, first in a dream and then in his fantasies, a winged old man with the horns of a bull and four keys: Philemon. “He said I treated thoughts as if I generated them myself, but in his view thoughts were like animals in the forest.” From him Jung said he learned the objective reality of the psyche.
He painted Philemon in The Red Book, and cut over the door of his tower at Bollingen, Philemonis sacrum – Fausti poenitentia: “Shrine of Philemon, Faust’s repentance,” for the old couple whom Goethe’s Faust destroyed.
Philemon: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Philemon and Baucis in Ovid, who took in the disguised gods; their death in the fifth act of Faust, Part Two; Elijah; the guru and the guiding spirit.
Where to Read
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962), “Confrontation with the Unconscious”
- The Red Book: Liber Novus (2009)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Unconscious.
Also among Figures of The Red Book
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Philemon.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/philemon.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Descent (Nekyia, katabasis) · Night (Nyx) · Water (The sea, the lake, the spring) · The Abyss (Ungrund)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Persona: The face turned to the world. The Phallus: Generative power, which is more than sexual. The Phoenix: Burned, and risen from its own ashes. The Planets: The seven wanderers, each ruling a metal, a day, and a temper.