The Virgin
Parthenos
One-in-herself: whole, and belonging to no one.
The Virgin: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The Jungian analyst Esther Harding read the virgin goddesses as “one-in-herself”: not chaste so much as belonging to no man, whole and self-possessed. Jung saw in the Church’s definition of the Assumption of the Virgin in 1950 the most important religious event since the Reformation, since it raised the feminine, and matter with it, to heaven.
The Virgin: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Athena and Artemis, the Vestals, the Virgin Mary, the virgin who alone can tame the unicorn, and Virgo among the signs.
From the Sources
The Hymn to Aphrodite says of Hestia that though Poseidon and Apollo sought to wed her, she stubbornly refused and swore a great oath, since fulfilled, that she would be a maiden all her days.
“…a queenly maid whom both Poseidon and Apollo sought to wed. But she was wholly unwilling, nay, stubbornly refused; and touching the head of father Zeus who holds the aegis, she, that fair goddess, sware a great oath which has in truth been fulfilled, that she would be a maiden all her days.”
Hesiod, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, Homeric Hymn V, 'To Aphrodite', ll. 7-32 (of Hestia). Translator: Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Project Gutenberg eBook #348). The text, read in part
Freese reports Farnell's suggestion that parthenos first meant 'unmarried', and that the virgin Artemis may have been the goddess of a people without settled marriage, who remained celibate when the family system developed, though not opposed to childbirth.
“…it is suggested by Farnell that παρθένος originally meant “unmarried,” and that “Ἄρτεμις παρθένος may have been originally the goddess of a people who had not yet the advanced Hellenic institutions of settled marriage... and when society developed the later family system the goddess remained celibate, though not opposed to childbirth.””
John Henry Freese, Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: Artemis, 'Artemis', on Artemis as a virgin goddess. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, as transcribed on Wikisource. The text, read in full
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
- Answer to Job (1952), CW 11
- M. Esther Harding, Woman’s Mysteries (1935)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Children and the Young
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Virgin.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/virgin.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Vine: Ecstasy, and the blood of the god. Violet: Where the spectrum passes beyond sight. Vitriol: Go down into the earth, and you will find the hidden stone. The Volcano: Fire breaking up from below.