The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [441]
One of the most ingenious of the Greek gods is Hermes, best-known in his role as the divine messenger. But he had many more roles than this; and once we see what they all have in common, we begin to recognise just what a subtle part Hermes played in the Greeks' understanding of human psychology. Essentially Hermes is the god who presides over transitions between one state and another. This is why, for instance, he was the god of travellers and of sailors, each of which imply movement between one place and another. He was also the god of merchants, markets and buying and selling, as goods and property are transferred from one person to another. For the same reason he was the god of thieves. But at a deeper level, Hermes is the god who presides over all transitions between what is known and what is unknown; what is visible and what is invisible; between the world of consciousness and the unconscious. This is why he was the god of twilight, the transition from day to night; and the god presiding over burials and graveyards, the transition from life to death. He was also the god of dreams, images passed from our unconscious to consciousness. He was the god representing our sense of intuition, which is why he was also the god of gambling and luck. And it was in this respect that he was the carrier of messages from the gods to men; because he is the god who presides over all that vital process whereby the objective unconscious tries to inform us of that which our subjective consciousness is blocking out. In archetypal terms he thus plays the role of the `Trickster, not dissimilar to that played by Ariel in The Tempest.9
There is no more crucial moment in the Odyssey than that on Circe's island, where Odysseus's men have been trapped by the witch-goddess's enchantments. For the first time we have seen Odysseus developing the self-protective understanding which has led him only to send half his men forward to explore the island, while he remains behind. At this point who should turn up in the forest but Hermes, giving Odysseus a magic herb and the advice he needs to withstand Circe's magic. This is really the turning point of the story, because from now on Odysseus becomes more and more conscious of what he has to do. Once mastered, Circe shows him how to get in touch with the spirits of the underworld, including Teiresias, symbolising his new contact with the wisdom of the unconscious. He develops that self-control he has previously lacked, and which will eventually carry him to his goal.
The greatest of the Greek mythic heroes was Heracles or Hercules who, like Perseus, was the son of Zeus and a mortal mother: half-man, half-god. The complex of legends which eventually accumulated round Hercules begin when his birth arouses the rage and jealousy of Zeus's queen Hera, who thus takes on her negative aspect as the `Dark Mother'. 10 Faced with the deadly enmity of the `dark feminine', his task is thus to win his full manhood from the power of unconsciousness she represents. He wins his first victory when, as a newborn baby, he strangles the two deadly serpents Hera has sent to kill him (rather like Tamino overcoming the serpent at the start of The Magic Flute). He grows up to adulthood, winning several more symbolic battles, and is rewarded by being given the Theban princess Megara as his wife. But then comes the `central crisis' when, rendered `unconscious' by a fit of madness inflicted