A Flight Back to Ground: Jung’s Recalcitrant Fourth as Rape into Consciousness. Symbolic Rape and Literal Rape in Persephone’s Myth

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Patricia Berry’s interpretation of the Demeter/Persephone myth, and her concept of <jats:italic>rape into consciousness</jats:italic>, illuminate intrapsychic dynamics. However, this symbolic lens may inadvertently distance us from the devastating nature of literal rape—a reality the Homeric <jats:italic>Hymn</jats:italic> encapsulates. Jung’s concept of <jats:italic>recalcitrant fourth</jats:italic> offers a crucial counterpoint, demanding a shift from the symbolic to the empirical world. This violent flight back to ground forces a confrontation with life’s material and sensorial dimensions, where literal rape reaps trauma and death. Jung’s fourth, reconceptualized here as rape into consciousness, compels the retrieval of the <jats:italic>neglected</jats:italic>: elements absent from conscious awareness. Guided by this concept and the Persephone myth, the author examines rape’s concrete realities, urging witness to its traumatic devastation. The Persephone/Demeter myth, in Jung’s view, reflects a split between matriarchal and patriarchal worlds. The Homeric <jats:italic>Hymn</jats:italic> intensifies this fracture, bringing into full view the violence perpetrated by the patriarchy against the two female protagonists. Played within the divine realm, this archetypal gender conflict reverberates throughout history, appearing in different forms, from the personal sphere to the horrors of war and terror. The events of October 7<jats:sup>th</jats:sup> serve as a grim reminder of its enduring presence.</jats:p>