The Dead
The ancestors, the departed
The unanswered questions of those who came before.
The Dead: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
“The dead came back from Jerusalem, where they found not what they sought”: so begin the Seven Sermons to the Dead that Jung wrote in 1916. In Memories, Dreams, Reflections he wrote that the dead stood for what was unanswered and unredeemed, which the living must take up.
He came to hear in them the voice of the collective unconscious: the long line of those who lived before, pressing their questions on the present.
The Dead: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The nekyia of the Odyssey, where Odysseus feeds the shades with blood; All Souls; the cult of the ancestors; the ghost of Hamlet’s father; the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
From the Sources
In the land of the dead, Achilles' ghost asks Ulysses for news of his son, whether he has gone to the wars, and whether his father Peleus still rules among the Myrmidons.
“But give me news about my son; is he gone to the wars and will he be a great soldier, or is this not so? Tell me also if you have heard anything about my father Peleus—does he still rule among the Myrmidons”
Homer, The Odyssey, rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original, Book XI. Translator: Samuel Butler (Project Gutenberg eBook #1727). The text, read in part
Teiresias tells Ulysses that any ghost he lets taste of the blood will talk with him like a reasonable being, but those given no blood will go away again.
“'That,' said he, 'I can soon do. Any ghost that you let taste of the blood will talk with you like a reasonable being, but if you do not let them have any blood they will go away again.'”
Homer, The Odyssey, rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original, Book XI (Teiresias and the ghost of Ulysses' mother). Translator: Samuel Butler (Project Gutenberg eBook #1727). 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
- “Septem Sermones ad Mortuos” (1916), in Memories, Dreams, Reflections
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962), “On Life after Death”
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Collective unconscious.
Also among Death and Birth
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Dead.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/the-dead.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Great Mother (Magna Mater) · The Sea · The Crystal (The axial system) · The House
Nearby in the alphabet: The Dance: Movement in the round: the rhythm that orders and releases. The Dawn: The first light, before the sun.