The Return
Nostos
Coming home with what was found.
The Return: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The journey is not finished until the traveller comes home and brings what was found into ordinary life. Joseph Campbell called the return the hardest part of the hero’s adventure; Jungian writers read it as the integration of what was won in the depths into the conscious, everyday personality.
The Return: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Odysseus coming home to Ithaca unrecognized, the prodigal son, the Buddha’s return to teach, the hero’s flight home with the treasure.
From the Sources
In the Odyssey, Ulysses wakes on his own soil but, having been away so long and with Minerva covering the land in fog, does not know it again.
“Ulysses woke up once more upon his own soil. He had been so long away that he did not know it again; moreover, Jove’s daughter Minerva had made it a foggy day, so that people might not know of his having come”
Homer, The Odyssey, rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original, Book XIII. Translated by Samuel Butler (Project Gutenberg eBook #1727). The text, read in part
Jung retells that Gilgamesh dived to the bottom of the sea for the magical herb that was to lead him back to the land of men, but when he came again to his native land a serpent stole it from him.
“There Gilgamesh had to dive down to the bottom of the sea for the magical herb which was to lead him back to the land of men. When he had come again to his native land a serpent stole the magic plant from him”
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
- Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)
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 Return.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/return.
Nearby in the alphabet: Red: The reddening: the work completed in blood and life. The Redeemer: The one who frees what is bound. The Ring: Bond, circle, and power. The River: The flow of life and time, and the border to be crossed.