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This archetype features even less in literature than the puer aetemus. The author found only three articles: (1) Binswanger, a personal letter 31.1.1977; (2) Jung, ‘On the psychological aspect of the Kore’ (Coll. Wks, 9, 1) and (3) Jung & Kerényi, ‘Introduction to the Science of Mythology’.
How to remain young is a universal question and the goal of many. Kerényi adds that the puella aeterna is ‘a girl who does not wish to become a woman’. Pouplier raises the question throughout, whether this transformation is a matter of wish and will or whether it is a result of a combination of factors rooted in the collective unconscious on the one hand and the environment on the other.
The Demeter-Kore myth lays the foundations for an understanding of the puella problem. Characteristic of both is the exclusive relationship between mother and daughter. Motherhood is rooted in earth, in contrast to fatherhood with its right to disembodied apollonic functions: mind, insight and measure. Through insight into the mythological figure of Artemis the author evolves the preponderant traits of the puella, one of which is the will not to have a man (husband). She is ‘oneself alone’. Athene and Persephone contribute further to the understanding of this plight.