Note 354 — Chapter IV · THE UNCONSCIOUS ORIGIN OF THE HERO

The identity of the divine hero with the mystic is not to be doubted. In a prayer written on papyrus to Hermes, it is said: σὺ γὰρ ἐγὼ καὶ ἐγὼ σύ· τὸ σόν ὄνομα ἐμὸν καὶ τὸ ἐμὸν σὸν· ἐγὼ γὰρ εἰμι τὸ εἴθολόν σου (For thou art I and I am thou, thy name is mine, and mine is thine; for I am thy image). (Kenyon: Greek Papyrus, in the British Museum, 1893, p. 116, Pap. CXXII, 2. Cited by Dieterich: “Mithrasliturgie,” p. 79.) The hero as image of the libido is strikingly illustrated in the head of Dionysus at Leiden (Roscher, I, Sp. 1128), where the hair rises like flame over the head. He is—like a flame: “Thy savior will be a flame.” Firmicus Maternus (“De Errore Prof. Relig.,” 104, p. 28) acquaints us with the fact that the god was saluted as bridegroom, and “young light.” He transmits the corrupt Greek sentence, δε νυνφε χαιρε νυνφε νεον φως, with which he contrasts the Christian conception: “Nullum apud te lumen est nec est aliquis qui sponsus mereatur audire: unum lumen est, unus est sponsus. Nominum horum gratiam Christus accepit.” To-day Christ is still our hero and the bridegroom of the soul. These attributes will be confirmed in regard to Miss Miller’s hero in what follows.