Ontolokey

Ancient myths were never mere bedtime tales whispered to lull children into sleep. They were survival maps for the human psyche — encrypted blueprints on how to become whole. Homer and Hesiod were not simply storytellers; they were cartographers of consciousness, embedding profound psychological instructions in the guise of epic poetry. If you think your favorite personality test is sophisticated, you have yet to see the depth of symbolic engineering smuggled into those verses.

Carl Gustav Jung called it individuation — the adventurous process of integrating every hidden corner of the mind until nothing within you is alien anymore. This is not therapy for the faint of heart. In mythology, individuation takes the form of the Hero’s Journey — an odyssey through monsters, trials, gods, betrayals, and revelations. The shocker? Odysseus and Perseus are, at their psychological core, the same hero running the same gauntlet of personality integration, each cut from the same rare cloth: the INTP type in modern typology, explained in depth by Ontolokey as follows.

How is individual personality development, especially the individuation process according to Carl Gustav Jung, explained or exactly described in mythologies and religions?

In these stories, the individuals in question tell a narrative about themselves—how they transform and how they achieve the wholeness of their psyche in successive stages. To emphasize that the story is about them, they portray themselves as a hero or a king. At the beginning of the tale, they are inexperienced, awkward, and faced with the need to pass a series of trials. If they succeed in these divine or mysterious tests, the story ends with their renewed coronation, enlightenment, or another expression of perfection. Notable and meaningful examples from the past include The Golden Ass by Apuleius, Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, Perseus by Hesiod in Greek mythology, Odysseus by Homer, as well as the biblical account of Jesus and the philosophical enlightenment of Buddha, each portraying the process of becoming whole.

The individual stages of the individuation process appear as figures representing certain personality types. These figures, however, are in reality sub-personalities within one’s own psyche, which must be integrated step by step throughout the process.

Here, I will focus solely on two stories—the tales of Perseus and Odysseus—to explain their individuation processes. Since both heroes are clearly INTP personalities, their narratives become, from a certain point onward, essentially identical in meaning. To see this, however, one must delve deeply into psychology and understand typology in detail. In fact, both Hesiod and Homer were themselves INTP personalities who depicted their own individuation processes extensively in their works. At first glance, the stories appear different, but at a deeper level, they reveal a remarkable process of personality development. The sixteen well-known personality types are personified and named in the stories, reflecting the fact that all sixteen exist within our own psyche and must be integrated one by one.

To explain the stories of Homer and Hesiod, I will use the well-known and established Ontolokey Cube (ontolokey.com), as it provides a vivid visualization of all sixteen personality types. In the Ontolokey Cube, the personified psychological functions appear as the hero’s sub-personalities. By holding the Ontolokey Cube in hand, one can visually follow the hero’s story from a psychological perspective.

Subtypes of the INTP personality in the Odysseus myth

The Persona, as his ENFP sub-personality, draws Odysseus away for the sake of love. Here, the dominant function is the freedom-loving extraverted intuition (Ne), and the auxiliary is introverted feeling (Fi)—the love the ENFP constantly seeks. He too had fallen in love with Helen and sworn to protect her forever. Psychologically, this represents the projection of his Helen-Anima, as described by Carl Gustav Jung.

His Sibling, an ENTJ personality, appears in the form of Athena, the Greek goddess of war and justice. She initiates the individuation process, urging Odysseus to fulfill his promise. The ENTJ’s dominant extraverted thinking (Te) thus becomes the tertiary function of the ENFP sub-personality.

Odysseus’ inferior Anima is an ISFP personality. His inventive ENFP Persona devises the Trojan Horse to access his introverted feeling (Fi) function. This is a metaphor for recognizing and understanding the nature of the inferior anima projection. With the Trojan Horse, Odysseus withdraws his projection and begins integrating his inner, inferior ISFP—Jung’s so-called Mary-Anima. In real life, this often means a forced separation from the idealized person who has sometimes made life difficult. Such projections are often tied to highly toxic relationships, symbolized in the epic as the “war” over Troy. Half of the gods seem supportive, while the other half—aligned with the other person—offer fierce resistance.

Plato described the Helen-Anima in his Symposium as the “other half” after Zeus split the spherical human in two. According to Jung, the INTP’s four functions are introverted thinking (Ti), extraverted intuition (Ne), introverted sensing (Si), and extraverted feeling (Fe), whereas Helen embodies the remaining four: introverted feeling (Fi), extraverted sensing (Se), introverted intuition (Ni), and extraverted thinking (Te). In the unfolded Ontolokey Cube, the INTP’s functions form the vertical axis of the cross and the ISFP’s functions the horizontal axis of the cross, together representing all eight functions.

By recognizing this, Odysseus withdraws his projection and begins integrating the inferior ISFP. This first occurs when his ENFP Persona flips into an INFP—swapping dominant and auxiliary functions. He meets this INFP sub-personality in Circe, whose dominant Fi forces him to confront his feminine feelings, experiencing both physical and deep spiritual love.

To reach his true Mary-Anima (ISFP), Odysseus must descend into the underworld—his subconscious—where he meets the seer Teiresias, represented as his INTJ sub-personality. The INTJ’s dominant introverted intuition (Ni) is the ISFP’s tertiary function, and its auxiliary Te is the ISFP’s inferior function—both necessary to integrate the Mary-Anima.

Odysseus’ later adventures show him gradually losing his “men,” symbolizing masculinity, as he faces his feminine feelings. The Sirens confront him with Fi; Scylla and Charybdis cost him most of his male crew—like Teiresias, he is psychologically transformed into a woman.

Alignment with the Perseus myth

Here begins the story of Perseus, with Danaë (his mother) as the Mary-Anima. Odysseus’ arrival on Thrinacia, the island of Helios, parallels Perseus’ birth. Helios and Perseus represent extraverted sensing (Se), the ISFP’s auxiliary function. Calypso symbolizes Odysseus’ now fully integrated Mary-Anima, who has “given birth” to Se, symbolized by Helios.

After leaving Ogygia, Odysseus enters the realm of his Golden Shadow—his INFJ sub-personality. Perseus experiences this when Acrisius casts him and Danaë into the sea, representing immersion in the subconscious. This phase is about integrating the Golden Shadow, and the actual time spent in the subconscious is far longer than the story suggests.

After integrating the Golden Shadow, Perseus meets Dictys, and Odysseus meets Nausicaa—both ESFP sub-personalities. The ESFP’s dominant Se replaces the ISFP’s auxiliary Se, symbolizing transformation. The ESFP connects to the future ESTP sub-personality, depicted as a king (Alcinous or Polydectes).

The final integrations

The ESTP’s task is integrating the superior Sophia-Anima, which for the INTP is the ESFJ sub-personality. First, Fe must be found and integrated. The INFJ Golden Shadow transforms into the ENFJ sub-personality, represented by Queen Arete (Odysseus) or the Graeae (Perseus). Fe, as the ESTP’s tertiary function, is essential to completing the king.

Next, the ESFJ sub-personality appears—Medusa for Perseus, Penelope for Odysseus. The final function to be integrated is introverted sensing (Si), depicted as stone, petrification, or a chained woman. For Perseus, it is turning people to stone with Medusa’s gaze; for Odysseus, Penelope’s patient weaving over three years symbolizes Si’s perseverance.

Completion of the INTP’s individuation process is portrayed as the rebirth of King Odysseus, restored in strength and youth, and as Perseus freeing Andromeda and defeating the monster—symbols of overcoming every challenge along the path to wholeness.

Conclusion
The Ontolokey Cube offers more than a theoretical framework—it is a living map of the psyche’s journey toward wholeness. By placing one’s own personality type at the center of the cube and tracing the interconnected sub-personalities, the abstract concept of individuation becomes a concrete, visual path. Each rotation of the cube mirrors the turning points in life; each new face reveals the functions and subtypes still waiting to be integrated. In this way, the Ontolokey Cube transforms Jung’s intricate psychological process into an accessible, hands-on experience—inviting every seeker to witness, follow, and ultimately complete their own heroic journey toward self-realization.

Exploratory Invitation
For those who wish to move beyond theory and see the individuation process in action, ontolokey.com provides an interactive exploration of the Ontolokey Cube. There, the symbolic language of mythology meets a visual, hands-on tool—allowing you to map your own journey step by step and discover where you stand on the path toward psychological wholeness.