Károly (Carl, Karl) Kerényi ( hu, Kerényi Károly, ; 19 January 1897 – 14 April 1973) was a Hungarian scholar in
classical philology
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
and one of the founders of modern studies of
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
(now Timișoara, Romania) to Hungarian parents of German origin. His father’s family was of Swabian peasant descent. Kerényi learnt German as a foreign language at school, and later chose it as his language for scientific work. He identified himself with the city of Arad, where he attended secondary school, because of its liberal spirits as the city of the 13 martyrs of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848/49. He moved on to study classical philology at the
University of Budapest
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
where he mostly appreciated the teaching of the Latinist Géza Némethy as well as of the Indo-Germanist Josef Schmidt.
After graduation, Kerényi travelled extensively in the Mediterranean region and spent time as a visiting student at the Universities of
Greifswald
Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rosto ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, learning from the professors of antiquity and classical philology: Eduard Norden,
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff
Enno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (22 December 1848 – 25 September 1931) was a German classical philologist. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature ...
and Franz Boll. In 1919, Kerényi earned his doctorate in Budapest with a dissertation on ''
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
and
Longinus
Longinus () is the name given to the unnamed Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and who in medieval and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity. His name first appeared in the apocryphal G ...
, Investigations in Classical Literary and Aesthetic History''.
Subsequently, he taught Greek and Latin in a secondary school. He earned his postdoctoral lecture qualification ( habilitation) in 1927, and was asked in 1934 to become a professor of classical philology and ancient history ''(Griechische und Lateinische Philologie und Alte Geschichte)'' at the
University of Pécs
The University of Pécs (UP; Hungarian language, Hungarian: ''Pécsi Tudományegyetem''; PTE) is an institution of higher education in Hungary. The modern university was established in 1912 but has its roots in the medieval university founded ...
. In Budapest, he continued to lecture as
private docent
''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...
on the history of religions, classical literature and mythology. These were weekly events that were attended by many intellectuals because of their liberal connotations.
After Hungary experienced a strong move to the political right in 1940, the University system was reformed, submitting itself to political pressure. Professors who didn’t subordinate themselves were concentrated at the
University of Szeged
, mottoeng = Truth. Bravery. Freedom.
, established =
, type = Public research university
, founder = Emperor Franz Joseph I
, affiliation = European University Association, Science Without Borders, Confucius Institute
, budget = US$220 m ...
. Correspondingly, Kerényi was sent there in 1941 against his will, to teach
classical antiquity
Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
.
The liberal, pro-western prime minister Miklós Kállay attempted in 1943 to reverse the Nazi-friendly politics of the prior years. He started to send liberal scientists who had already made themselves a name to Western Europe, to show that a liberal, anti-fascist Hungary also existed. As part of this push, the foreign ministry offered Kerényi the opportunity to spend a year in Switzerland with diplomatic status. He accepted on condition that he would stay in
Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
, on the shore of
Lago Maggiore
Lake Maggiore (, ; it, Lago Maggiore ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh Maggior; pms, Lagh Magior; literally 'Greater Lake') or Verbano (; la, Lacus Verbanus) is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest la ...
, instead of the capital Bern.
When the Germans entered Hungary in 1944 and installed a right-wing government, Kerényi returned his passport. Like many other Hungarians at the time residing in Switzerland with diplomatic status, he thereby became overnight a stateless, political refugee.
Switzerland, 1943–1973
Since 1941, Károly Kerényi was lecturing at the
Eranos
Eranos is an intellectual discussion group dedicated to humanistic and religious studies, as well as to the natural sciences which has met annually in Moscia (Lago Maggiore), the Collegio Papio and on the Monte Verità in Ascona, Switzerland sin ...
-conferences in
Ascona
300px, Ascona
Ascona ( lmo, label= Ticinese, Scona ) is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
It is located on the shore of Lake Maggiore.
The town is a popular tourist destination and holds the yea ...
(Switzerland), to which he had been invited by
Carl Gustav Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
. This regular contact with the Swiss psychologist had originally established the connection to Switzerland, which ultimately led to the permanent emigration to the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino. During 1946/47 Kerényi lectured on Hungarian language and literature at the
University of Basel
The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...
. In 1947, he travelled to Hungary to give his inauguration speech at the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...
, with the intent of contributing to the democratic development of Hungary. However, due to warnings of the imminent communist overthrow under
Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi (; born Mátyás Rosenfeld; 9 March 1892 – 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian , Kerényi immediately left Budapest again. During the following Stalinist dictatorship, he was discredited and banned by the political propaganda under
György Lukács
György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and ae ...
, the leading communist ideologist. His academic title was withdrawn and only as late as 1989 it was reinstated post mortem.
In Switzerland, between 1945 and 1968, the substantial body of his work was written and published. Despite the fact that he was considered an academic outsider, it was during that time that he developed his largest influence as one of the latest representatives of the great tradition of humanistic scholars of antiquity. Over the course of two decades, from 1934 to 1955, Kerényi maintained an active correspondence with the German writer
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...
on many topics, including mythology, religion, humanism and psychology. Since his emigration, Kerényi additionally held positions as visiting professor at several universities, including
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
(1955/56),
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
(1964). Between 1960 and 1971, he held annual lectures at conferences of the institute of philosophy of the University of Rome. From 1948 until 1966, Kerényi was co-founder and research director at the C. G. Jung Institute in Küsnacht/Zurich, where he held lectures on mythology until 1962. During these years, he lived near the
Monte Verità
Monte Verità (Italian; German 'Berg Wahrheit', meaning "Mount Truth" or "Mountain of Truth") is a 321 metres above sea level high hill and a cultural-historical ensemble in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The site is in the municipality of Ascona, a ...
in Ascona. In 1962, he received Swiss citizenship.
Károly Kerényi died on 14 April 1973 in Kilchberg/Zurich and he is buried in the cemetery of Ascona. His second wife, Magda Kerényi, dedicated her subsequent life to the maintenance and promotion of Kerényi’s legacy. Since her death in 2004,, all documentation of Kerényi’s life (photos, correspondence, manuscripts, etc.) that hadn’t been destroyed in Budapest during the war, are archived and accessible at the German Archive for Literature in Marbach (near Stuttgart). His comprehensive library and the estate of Magda Kerényi are at the University of Pécs, where a street has also been named after him.
Scientific work and philosophical body of thought
Philological foundation
In early years, Károly Kerényi was mainly influenced by philosophers like
Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
,
Bachofen Bachofen is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Elisa Bachofen (1891–1976), first woman civil engineer in Argentina
* Johann Caspar Bachofen (1695–1755), Swiss music teacher and composer
* Johann Jakob Bachofen
Johann Jako ...
and
Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...
Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...
, and scholars like
Wilhelm von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (, also , ; ; 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named after ...
. At the time of his studies of classical philology,
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff
Enno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (22 December 1848 – 25 September 1931) was a German classical philologist. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature ...
was the most influential philologist. However, for Kerényi,
Erwin Rohde
Erwin Rohde (; 9 October 1845 – 11 January 1898) was one of the great German classical scholars of the 19th century.
Rohde was born in Hamburg and was the son of a doctor. Outside of antiquarian circles, Rohde is known today chiefly for h ...
’s line of thought on the fictional literature in antiquity was more important. This led to his first book ''Die griechisch-orientalische Romanliteratur in religionsgeschichtlicher Beleuchtung. Ein Versuch (The Greek-Oriental Romances in the Light of the History of Religions)'', with which he earned his postdoctoral qualification.
Early afterwards, in 1929, Kerényi grew weary of the official scholarly line of philology. He increasingly saw the objective of philology in critically analyzing the written record of antiquity as a representation of real life, just like archeology is dedicated to the record of antiquity through actual touch. The first steps away from the official line were his early books ''Apollon'' (a collection of essays) and ''Die antike Religion ( Religion in Antiquity)''. Throughout his life, Kerényi explored every classical site of the entire Mediterranean. In 1929, he met
Walter F. Otto
Walter Friedrich Gustav Hermann Otto (22 June 1874, in Hechingen – 23 September 1958, in Tübingen) was a German classical philologist particularly known for his work on the meaning and legacy of Greek religion and mythology, especially as rep ...
in Greece for the first time, who would prove to influence him greatly. Otto inspired Kerényi to focus on the religious element of human life in antiquity as the core element, thereby combining the historical with the theological focus. This is highlighted in his works ''Mythologie der Griechen'' and ''Mysterien der Eleusis (Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter)''.
Dissociation from Wilamowitz and the German idea of ''myth''
Thereafter, Károly Kerényi consciously started to distance himself from the philology taught by Wilamowitz. In Kerényi’s understanding, Wilamowitz’ approach stood for an
authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political '' status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic vot ...
that lay beneath the emergence of
National Socialism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
in Germany, which he couldn’t ethically support. Kerényi hence developed an increasingly hostile position towards the German idea of myth, which was used as reference by Nazi-Germany. As early as 1934, he expressed his clear-sighted horror at the radicalizing developments in Germany. It became a continuous objective of Kerényi to establish a liberal and human-psychological idea of myth that could not be abused for nationalistic ideology. This also influenced his position towards several of his scientific mentors.Graf F., in Neue Zürcher Zeitung: ''Philologe, Mythologe, Humanist – Vor hundert Jahren wurde Karl Kerényi geboren'', 18/19 January 1997 With regards to Wilamowitz, this was most pronounced, but later, Kerényi also started to distance himself from those aspects in Otto’s and Mann’s understanding of myth that he saw reflected in German nationalism.
Psychological expansion of mythology
Károly Kerényi’s scientific interpretation of the figures of Greek mythology as archetypes of the human soul was in line with the approach of the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. Together with Jung, he endeavored to establish mythology as a science in its own right. Jung described Kerényi as having "supplied such a wealth of connections
f psychology
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
Hist ...
with Greek mythology that the cross-fertilization of the two branches of science can no longer be doubted." Kerényi compiled in collaboration with Jung the two editions ''Das göttliche Kind in mythologischer und psychologischer Beleuchtung (The Myths of the Divine Child)'' and ''Das göttliche Mädchen (The Divine Maiden)'', which were published together under the title ''Einführung in das Wesen der Mythologie (Essays on a Science of Mythology)'' in 1941. Kerényi saw the theory of religion as a human and humanistic topic which coined his reputation as
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
further. So for him, every view of mythology had to be a view of man – and hence ''theology'' always had to be at the same time, ''anthropology''. In this humanist spirit, Kerényi defined himself as ''philological-historical'' ''as well as'' ''psychological scholar''. In later years, Kerényi evolved his psychological interpretation further and replaced the concept of archetypes with one that he labeled ''’Urbild’''. This became particularly clear in some of his most important publications: ''
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...
,'' as well as in ''
Dionysos
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
'', likely Kerényi’s most crucial work, which he had started as an idea in 1931 and finished writing in 1969. Kerényi hence looked at the appearances in Greek religion not as curiosities, but as expressions of real human experience. As a historian of myth as it was embedded in the details of Hellenic culture, its "characteristic social existence" as he put it, Kerényi opposed his "differentiated thinking about the concrete realities of human life" with the "summary thinking" that represented for him the influence of Sir
James Frazer
Sir James George Frazer (; 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion.
Personal life
He was born on 1 Janua ...
Not least as a result of his own personal experience, Károly Kerényi highlighted the role of the philologist as ''interpreter'', whereby "the better he interprets, the more he becomes himself the subject, both as receiver as well as messenger. His whole essence and being, his structure and his own experiences, become a factor that cannot be overlooked for interpretation.” In this sense, Kerényi’s understanding of science was very modern in 1944. In a time when human sciences were trying to establish themselves as objective-scientific, he recognized that the only means by which to achieve scientific objectivity was by disclosing each scholar's own individual subjectivity. Kerényi also anticipated a paradigm shift of the late 20th century, by subscribing to an interdisciplinary approach that combined the subjects of human sciences including literature, art, history, philosophy and religion. The inclusion of fictional writing into his studies of mythology and humanism is also documented by the publications of his correspondence with Thomas Mann and
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include ''Demian'', ''Steppenwolf (novel), Steppenwolf'', ''Siddhartha (novel), Siddhartha'', and ''The Glass Bead Game'', ...
. Kerényi published a further series of thoughts on European humanism in 1955 with the title ''Geistiger Weg Europas (Europe’s Intellectual Journey)''. Among the numerous personalities with whom Kerényi maintained important personal and scholarly interaction were the Hungarian poets
László Németh
László Németh (18 April 1901 – 3 March 1975) was a Hungary, Hungarian dentist, writer, dramatist and essayist. He was born in Baia Mare, Nagybánya the son of József Németh (1873–1946) and Vilma Gaál (1879–1957). Over the Chr ...
Leopold Szondi
Leopold may refer to:
People
* Leopold (given name)
* Leopold (surname)
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
* Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons''
* Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...
, the writer Otto Heuschele and the historian
Carl Jacob Burckhardt
Carl Jacob Burckhardt (September 10, 1891 – March 3, 1974) was a Swiss diplomat and historian. His career alternated between periods of academic historical research and diplomatic postings; the most prominent of the latter were League of Na ...
. Thanks to his essay-style, Kerényi managed to speak a language that was easily understandable, but it also meant he remained relatively isolated in academic philology.
In Hungary, Károly Kerényi’s scientific achievements remained during his lifetime only known to a small circle of intellectuals. Of all his publications, only few have been published in Hungarian. As a prominent member of the former Hungarian intellectual establishment and the bearer of an aristocratic name, he was banished from Hungarian cultural life since the 1940s for being too liberal, first by the right-wing pro-Nazi governments, and later by the communist regime. Even though Kerényi was fiercely defended by famous Hungarian writers like Laszlo Németh and Antal Szerb, it took until the 1980s before his complete moral and scholarly rehabilitation took place.Monostori, I . in Schlesier, R. and R. Sanchiño Martinez (eds.): ''Neuhumanismus und Anthropologie des Griechischen Mythos – Karl Kerényi im Europäischen Kontext des 20. Jahrhunderts'', 2006; pp. 161 The Hungarian writer Antal Szerb has modeled some features of Károly Kerényi into the figure Rudi Waldheim in his novel Journey by Moonlight.
Honors and awards
* 1929: Scholarship at the German Archeological Institute in Athens
* 1931: Medal of Honor of
George I of Greece
George I ( Greek: Γεώργιος Α΄, ''Geórgios I''; 24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913) was King of Greece from 30 March 1863 until his assassination in 1913.
Originally a Danish prince, he was born in Copenhagen, and seemed destined for ...
* 1946:
Baumgarten Prize The Baumgarten Prize was founded by Ferenc Ferdinánd Baumgarten on October 17, 1923. It was awarded every year from 1929 to 1949 (except for 1945). In its time, it was the most prestigious literary prize awarded by Hungary and is considered as equ ...
* 1947: Fellowship of the
Bollingen Foundation
The Bollingen Foundation was an educational foundation set up along the lines of a university press in 1945. It was named after Bollingen Tower, Carl Jung's country home in Bollingen, Switzerland. Funding was provided by Paul Mellon and his wife ...
(maintained until 1973)
* 1961: Member of the
Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters ( da, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab, DKNVS) is a Norwegian learned society based in Trondheim. It was founded in 1760 and is Norway's oldest scientific and scholarly institution. The ...
* 1963: Honorary doctorate of the Theological Faculty of the
University of Uppsala
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
The university rose to significance during ...
* 1969: Goldmedal of the Humboldt Society
* 1970: Pirckheimer-Ring of the City of
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
* 1989: Post mortem: Member of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...
* 1990:
Széchenyi Prize
The Széchenyi Prize ( hu, Széchenyi-díj), named after István Széchenyi, is a prize given in Hungary by the state, replacing the former State Prize in 1990 in recognition of those who have made an outstanding contribution to academic life in Hu ...
of the Hungarian Government
Works and publications
First editions:
* ''Apollon. Studien über antike Religion und Humanität (Apollo: The Wind, the Spirit, and the God)'' (1937)
* ''Das ägäische Fest. Die Meergötterszene in Goethes Faust II'' (1941)
* ''Der
Mythos
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...
der Hellenen in Meisterwerken der Münzkunst'' (1941)
* ''Einführung in das Wesen der Mythologie'' (C. G. Jung/Károly Kerényi) (1942)
* ''Pseudo-Antisthenés, beszélgetések a szerelemről'' (1943)
* ''Hermes, der Seelenführer (Hermes: Guide of Souls)'' (1943)
* ''Mysterien der Kabiren'' (1944)
* ''Töchter der Sonne, Betrachtungen über griechische Gottheiten (Goddesses of Sun and Moon)'' (1944)
* ''Bachofen und die Zukunft des Humanismus. Mit einem Intermezzo über Nietzsche und Ariadne'' (1945)
* ''Die Geburt der Helena samt humanistischen Schriften aus den Jahren 1943–45'' (1945)
* ''Prometheus. Das griechische Mythologem von der menschlichen Existenz (Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence)'' (1946)
* ''Der Göttliche Arzt. Studien über Asklepius und seine Kultstätte (Asklepios: Archetypal Image of the Physician's Existence)'' (1948')
* ''Niobe. Neue Studien über Antike Religion und Humanität'' (1949)
* ''Mensch und Maske'' (1949)
* ''Pythagoras und Orpheus. Präludien zu einer zukünftigen Geschichte der Orphik und des Pythagoreismus'' (1950)
* ''Labyrinth-Studien'' (1950)
* ''Die Mythologie der Griechen (The Mythology of the Greeks)''
** Volume 1: ''Die Götter- und Menschheitsgeschichten (Gods of the Greeks)'' (1951)
** Volume 2: ''Die Heroen der Griechen (The Heroes of the Greeks)'' ater also published as ''Heroengeschichten'' or ''Heroen-Geschichten''(1958)
* ''Die Jungfrau und Mutter der griechischen Religion. Eine Studie über Pallas Athene (Athene: Virgin and Mother in Greek Religion)'' (1952)
* ''Stunden in Griechenland, Horai Hellenikai'' (1952)
* ''Unwillkürliche Kunstreisen. Fahrten im alten Europa 1952'' (1954)
* ''Geistiger Weg Europas: Fünf Vorträge über Freud, Jung, Heidegger, Thomas Mann, Hofmannsthal, Rilke, Homer und Hölderlin'', Zürich (1955)
* ''Umgang mit Göttlichem'' (1955)
* ''Griechische Miniaturen'' (1957)
* ''Gespräch in Briefen (Mythology and Humanism: The Correspondence of Thomas Mann and Karl Kerényi)'' (Thomas Mann/Károly Kerényi) (1960)
* ''Streifzüge eines Hellenisten, Von Homer zu Kazantzakis'' (1960)
* ''Der frühe Dionysos'' (1961)
* ''Prometheus – Die menschliche Existenz in griechischer Deutung'' (1962)
* ''Die Mysterien von Eleusis (Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter)'' (1962)
* ''Tessiner Schreibtisch'' (1963)
* ''Die Religion der Griechen und Römer (The Religion of the Greeks and Romans)'' (1963)
* ''Die Eröffnung des Zugangs zum Mythos'' (1967)
* ''Der antike Roman'' (1971)
* ''Briefwechsel aus der Nähe'' (Hermann Hesse/Károly Kerényi) (1972)
* ''Zeus und Hera. Urbild des Vaters, des Gatten und der Frau (Zeus and Hera: Archetypal Image of Father, Husband and Wife)'' (1972)
* ''Oedipus Variations: Studies in Literature and Psychoanalysis'' (James Hillman/Károly Kerényi) (1991)
''Complete Works'':
* ''Complete Works in Individual Volumes'', Magda Kerényi (ed.). Eight parts in nine volumes. Langen-Müller, Munich 1966–1988
** Volume 1: ''Humanistische Seelenforschung'' (1966)
** Volume 2: ''Auf Spuren des Mythos'' (1967)
** Volume 3: ''Tage- und Wanderbücher'' 1953–1960 (1969)
** Volume 4: ''Apollon und Niobe'' (1980)
** Volume 5: ''Wege und Weggenossen'' (2 Bde., 1985 u. 1988)
** Volume 6: (not published)
** Volume 7: ''Antike Religion'' (1971)
** Volume 8: ''Dionysos : Urbild des unzerstörbaren Lebens'' (1976)
* ''Complete Works in Individual Volumes'', Magda Kerényi (ed.). Five volumes. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1994–1998
** Volume 1: ''Dionysos : Urbild des unzerstörbaren Lebens'' (1994)
** Volume 2: ''Antike Religion'' (1995)
** Volume 3: ''Humanistische Seelenforschung'' (1996)
** Volume 4: ''Die Mythologie der Griechen'' (Two volumes, 1997)
** Volume 5: ''Urbilder der griechischen Religion: Asklepios. Prometheus. Hermes. Und die Mysterien der Kabiren'' (1998)
References and sources
;References
;Sources
* Magda Kerényi: ''A Bibliography of C. Kerényi'', in ''Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life''. Bollingen Series LXV:2, Princeton 1976, pp. 445–474
* Giuseppe Martorana (ed.), Károly Kerényi: ''La storia delle religioni nella cultura del Novecento'', ''
Mythos
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...
'' 7, 1995
* Luciano Arcella (ed.), Károly Kerényi: ''Incontro con il divino'', Roma 1999
* János Gy. Szilágyi (ed.): ''Mitológia és humanitás. Tanulmányok Kerényi Károly 100''. születésnapjára, Budapest 1999
* Renate Schlesier and Roberto Sanchiño Martinez (eds.): ''Neuhumanismus und Anthropologie des griechischen Mythos. Karl Kerényi im europäischen Kontext des 20. Jahrhunderts (Modern Humanism and Anthropology of the Greek Mythology – Károly Kerényi in the European Context of the 20th Century)''. (Locarno 2006),