A JUNGIAN LOOK AT APOLLO AND HERMES STORY

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to myths, legends, andfolk tales connecting the stories of the past
to the life and the present.Today, we're going to be looking at
the myth of Apollo and Hermes andthe cattle theft, and then we'll also
apply the Youngian theory onto it.So here's the myth. Hermes, newborn

(00:27):
and precocious, stole a herd ofcattle belonging to his older half brother Apollo.
He clearly cleverly hit his tracks bymaking the cattle walk backwards and using
branches to sweep away the footprints.When Apollo discovered the theft and confronted Hermes,
and boy was he upset. Theyoung god denied everything. Zeus,
their father, intervened and ordered Hermesto return the cattle, so basically didn't
believe him. To appease Apollo,Hermes invented the lire and gave it to

(00:51):
him as a gift. Paulo wasso charmed by the instrument that he forgave
Hermes, and in exchange for theinstrument, gave him a cadusius this as
a herald's staff, and made himthe messenger of the gods. And if
you know some of the medical institutionswill use that. The Cadusius again if
I'm saying it right, A CA U C A d u C e

(01:14):
u S is a symbol featuring twoserpents intertwined around a wing staff, often
associated with medicine and healthcare. Again, the origins are complex, though.
The cadusius traditionally associated with the storiesof Hermes, the messenger of the gods,
as well as the god of trade, thieves, and travel. The
staff, called the karakian k er y k e i O n and
Greek, was a symbol of peace, negotiation, and commerce. The two

(01:36):
serpents called around the staff are saidto represent balance and duality, which is
a very common theme throughout history.Sometimes people confuse it with the rod of
Asclippius A S C L E pI U S. The correct symbol for
medicine healthcare is the rod of Aesclippius, which features a single serpent entwined around
a staff with no wings. TheGreek god a Sclippius was a god of

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healing, and medicine accurately represents healingand medical practice. So what was the
misuse about. Well, the confusionbetween the Cadusius and the rod of Asclepius
began in the early twentieth century,particularly in the US. The Army Medical
Corps adopted the symbol as it's insigniain nineteen oh two, leading to widespread
use of the symbol of medical contexts, and there you go. Symbolic interpretations

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of the Cadusius of the Twin Servantsare often seen as representing the balance between
life and death, good and evil, health and illness, always that duality
component that we've talked about before,and it kind of kicks us in over
to Youngian analysis in the story ofHermes again, Hermes there obviously represents the
trickster archetype, embodying cunning, witand transgression of boundaries. Apollo represents the

(02:42):
heroes archetype right, symbolizing order andreason. The theft could represent the integration
of the shadow. Hermes being youngermight symbolize the young conscious or repressed aspects
of the psyche, the shadow challengingthe established order of Apollo. So basically,
it's almost like looking at as acomposition character and acting right. And
movies sometimes put two or three individualsif it's a historical fiction, into one

(03:06):
character, calling it a composition character, and you can see this might be
it if you wanted to look atthe Youngian lens, where Apollo and Hermes
are really one person, and youcan see them battling the good and the
bad within them. The conflict andthe eventual reconciliation between Hermes and Apollo could
represent the process of individuation, theintegration of these different aspects that we all
have to be aware of. Andit's always the ultimate goal, according to

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Youngian analysis, is to reach individuation, This integration, the identifying that we
have bad and good in us,and how do we integrate those two things.
Zeus's intervention can symbolize the self archetype, the regulating center of the psyche
that brings balance and resolution. Theself is the combination of the conscious and

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the unconscious, and the psyche putsit all together. The unconscious, the
conscious, the archetypes, the shadow, the animus. Everything is in there.
But the self is almost like theego if you think about it.
From Freud, the transformation of conflictinto cooperation Hermits become Hermes becoming the messenger
of the gods aligns with Young's emphasison the transformative power of psychological integration and

(04:14):
the concept of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey. The cattle could symbolize vitality or life
force. The instrument the musical instrument, represents creativity and harmony, and the
cadusia symbolizes communication and mediation, soyou can see it as a story of
psychological growth and integration that we allneed. It shows how seemingly opposing forces
like cunning versus order, youth versusexperience, can be reconciled to create a

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more complete and balanced or whole psychewhich we're all trying to achieve.