[Sidenote: Indications of mental conflict and repression]
In primitive myths of this kind we see the hostile relations between successive generations displayed crudely and nakedly, without any attempt at disguise or concealment. In others, probably dating from a more cultured epoch, there are signs of a mental conflict, the hostile actions being no longer performed with the same singleness of purpose and freedom from inhibition, but being accompanied by indications of a sense of guilt, or of an ability to understand or sympathise with the opponent's point of view. In the battle of the Titans against Zeus, some of the former fought on the side of the gods (_i. e._ defended their parents) and those who rebelled against the paternal power were in the end defeated and punished (though the punishment itself may sometimes--by a piece of over-determination--constitute a continuation of the rebellious deed, as in the above-mentioned case of Atlas); Adam and Eve, on transgressing the divine prohibition to eat of the tree of knowledge (_cp._ the forbidden question motive, p. 104) are turned out of Eden; the builders of the Tower of Babel (_cp._ the attempt to storm Heaven by Otos and Ephialtes in Greek mythology) likewise meet with disaster; and in the noble story of Prometheus, who stole the fire[187] from Heaven to benefit mankind, the offender is brought into conflict with the father from the highest motives and bears his punishment with a resignation and fortitude that places him among the most splendid figures in Greek tragedy.
Christ himself is only one of the last of the long line of filial insurgents, substituting as he does, to a considerable extent, the milder rule of the Son for the harsher regime of the Judaic Father-God. In so doing he surrenders his life, thus suffering the penalty which, in one form or another, overtook his predecessors. In his case however, as in theirs, the penalty itself is over-determined. Christ dies:--in the first place, as a scapegoat, taking upon himself the guilt of his brothers and hence becoming the saviour of mankind, who are by his sacrifice freed from the consequences of their equal guilt[188]; secondly, as one who suffers the talion punishment for the original sin of the son towards the father, the guilt attaching to the death of the father being wiped out by the death of the son; thirdly, by this very sacrifice manifesting his divine nature and raising himself to a place alongside the father, thus ultimately pointing the way to a reconciliation between father and son (a reconciliation that is already hinted at in the story of Prometheus).