313

In view of all this it is, I admit, hardly understandable why such figures should be reckoned as belonging to the type of “supraordinate personality.” In a scientific investigation, however, one has to disregard moral or aesthetic prejudices and let the facts speak for themselves. The maiden is often described as not altogether human in the usual sense; she is either of unknown or peculiar origin, or she looks strange or undergoes strange experiences, from which one is forced to infer the maiden’s extraordinary, myth-like nature. Equally and still more strikingly, the Earth Mother is a divine being—in the classical sense. Moreover, she does not by any means always appear in the guise of Baubo, but, for instance, more like Queen Venus in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, though she is invariably heavy with destiny. The often unaesthetic forms of the Earth Mother are in keeping with a prejudice of the modern feminine unconscious; this prejudice was lacking in antiquity. The underworld nature of Hecate, who is closely connected with Demeter, and Persephone’s fate both point nevertheless to the dark side of the human psyche, though not to the same extent as the modern material.


Write a comment