The Quest
The Grail
The long search for what was lost.
The Quest: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The quest sends the hero out to find what the world lacks: the Grail, the water of life, the cure for the old king. Emma Jung, who worked for thirty years on the Grail legend, and Marie-Louise von Franz, who finished the book after her death, read it as the search for the Self and for the meaning that the Christian world of the Middle Ages had left unresolved.
The Quest: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Chrétien de Troyes’s Perceval (c. 1180), Wolfram’s Parzival, the Argonauts, the quest for the golden bird, and the pilgrim’s way.
From the Sources
In the Grimms' tale the prince says that he is going in search of the Water of Life because his father is ill and like to die, and asks for his help.
“And the prince said, ‘I am going in search of the Water of Life, because my father is ill, and like to die: can you help me? Pray be kind, and aid me if you can!’”
Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Grimms' Fairy Tales, 'The Water of Life'. Text based on translations from the Grimms' Kinder und Hausmärchen by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. The text, read in part
Jung retells that Gilgamesh wandered through the world, driven by anxiety and longing, to find immortality, and crossed the seas to the wise Utnapishtim, who knew how to cross the waters of death.
“Gilgamesh wandered through the world, driven by anxiety and longing, to find immortality. His path led him across the seas to the wise Utnapishtim (Noah), who knew how to cross the waters of death.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter IV, 'The Unconscious Origin of the Hero'. 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
- Emma Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz, The Grail Legend (1960)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Journeys
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Quest.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/quest.
Nearby in the alphabet: Putrefactio: Rotting: the old form must decay before the new can grow. The Quaternity: Fourness, the pattern of completeness. The Quintessence: The fifth, beyond the four: what the elements hold in common. Rain: What falls from heaven to make the earth fertile.