Prometheus the god stole fire from heaven and bestowed it on humans. In punishment, Zeus chained him to a rock, where an eagle clawed unceasingly at his liver, until Herakles freed him. For the Greeks, the myth of Prometheus's release reflected a primordial law of existence and the fate of humankind. Carl Kerényi examines the story of Prometheus and the very process of mythmaking as a reflection of the archetypal function and seeks to discover how this primitive tale was invested with a universal fatality, first in the Greek imagination, and then in the Western tradition of Romantic poetry. Kerényi traces the evolving myth from Hesiod and Aeschylus, and in its epic treatment by Goethe and Shelley; he moves on to consider the myth from the perspective of Jungian psychology, as the archetype of human daring signifying the transformation of suffering into the mystery of the sacrifice.

Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence

Kerényi, Carl

Religion & Spirituality

Princeton University Press

The Sanctuary of Eleusis, near Athens, was the center of a religious cult that endured for nearly two thousand years and whose initiates came from all parts of the civilized world. Looking at the tendency to "see visions" C. Kerenyi examines the Mysteries of Eleusis from the standpoint not only of Greek myth but also of human nature. Kerenyi holds that the yearly autumnal "mysteries" were based on the ancient myth of Demeter's search for her ravished daughter Persephone-a search that he equates not only with woman's quest for completion but also with every person's pursuit of identity. As he explores what the content of the mysteries may have been for those who experienced them, he draws on the study of archaeology, objects of art, and religious history, and suggests rich parallels from other mythologies.

Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter

Asklepios: Archetypal Image of the Physician's Existence

Princeton Univ Pr

No other god of the Greeks is as widely present in the monuments and nature of Greece and Italy, in the sensuous tradition of antiquity, as Dionysos. In myth and image, in visionary experience and ritual representation, the Greeks possessed a complete expression of indestructible life, the essence of Dionysos. In this work, the noted mythologist and historian of religion Carl Kerényi presents a historical account of the religion of Dionysos from its beginnings in the Minoan culture down to its transition to a cosmic and cosmopolitan religion of late antiquity under the Roman Empire. From the wealth of Greek literary, epigraphic, and monumental traditions, Kerényi constructs a picture of Dionysian worship, always underlining the constitutive element of myth.
 Included in this study are the secret cult scenes of the women's mysteries both within and beyond Attica, the mystic sacrificial rite at Delphi, and the great public Dionysian festivals at Athens. The way in which the Athenian people received and assimilated tragedy in its immanent connection with Dionysos is seen as the greatest miracle in all cultural history. Tragedy and New Comedy are seen as high spiritual forms of the Dionysian religion, and the Dionysian element itself is seen as a chapter in the religious history of Europe.

Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life

Professor Kerenyi investigates the archetypal significance of the Divine Physician, Asklepios or Aesculapius, in the course of an exploration of the sacred sites of his cult. Scientific inquiry into the history of ancient medicine reveals that to the physicians of that age, Asklepios was the prototype, the ideal, of their existence – the existence of the healer. He was the physician as divinity, whom they could contemplate or evoke in myths and in the cult of a god or hero. “Existence” in this volume is therefore used not as it occurs in existentialist philosophy, but in its simplest and most direct sense. Asklepios is Volume 3 of a series of monographs on Archetypal images in Greek Religion, in which Professor Kerényi provides a new picture of Greek religion from the standpoint of mythology – a perspective all but neglected in recent works on the subject. With 58 text illustrations, bibliography, and index. (from the back cover)

Archetypal Images in Greek Religion: 3. Asklepios: Archetypal Image of the Physician's Existence (Archetypal Images in Greek Religion, 1)

Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter (Bollingen Series)

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

   The Description for this book, Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence, will be forthcoming.

Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence (Bollingen Series, 392)

Reference

Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life (Bollingen Series)

Archetypal Images in Greek Religion: 5. Zeus and Hera: Archetypal Image of Father, Husband, and Wife

What did Zeus mean to the Greeks? And who was Hera, united with Zeus historically and archetypally as if they were a human pair? C. Kerenyi fills a gap in our knowledge of the religious history of Europe by responding to these questions. Examining the word Zeus and its Greek synonyms theos and daimon, the author traces the origins of Greek religion in the Minoan-Mycenacan civilization. He shows how Homer's view of the gods decisively shaped the literary and artistic tradition of Greek divine mythology. The emergence of the Olympian family is seen as the expression of a humane Zeus cult determined by the father image but formed within the domain of Hera.
Originally published in 1976.
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Books by Kerényi, Carl

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kerényi, Carl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence

Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter

Asklepios: Archetypal Image of the Physician's Existence

Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life

Archetypal Images in Greek Religion: 3. Asklepios: Archetypal Image of the Physician's Existence (Archetypal Images in Greek Religion, 1)

Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter (Bollingen Series)

Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence (Bollingen Series, 392)

Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life (Bollingen Series)

Archetypal Images in Greek Religion: 5. Zeus and Hera: Archetypal Image of Father, Husband, and Wife

Archetypal Images in Greek Religion: 5. Zeus and Hera: Archetypal Image of Father, Husband, and Wife