Within the depth-psychology corpus, Strife functions not merely as an ethical failing or social disorder but as a cosmological and psychic principle of the first order. The tradition divides broadly into two registers. In the archaic Greek register—running from Hesiod through Heraclitus and Empedocles, as mediated by modern scholars such as Sullivan, Nagy, Edinger, and Hillman—Strife (Eris or Neikos) is a generative, structuring force: for Heraclitus it is identified with justice itself, the agonistic tension among opposites that holds the cosmos in dynamic equilibrium. Empedocles elevates Strife to a cosmic principle co-equal with Love, the two alternating forces that dissolve and reconstitute all compound things. Hesiod, by contrast, presents a genealogical and moralized account in which Strife is daughter of Night and mother of Quarrelsomeness, Lawlessness, and Ruin—a lineage that situates conflict at the root of the iron-age human condition. Nagy's readings of the Iliad demonstrate how Strife (eris/neikos) is not incidental to epic narrative but constitutive of heroic identity itself: the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon is the formal and thematic nucleus of the poem. The depth-psychological appropriation of this material—especially in Hillman and Edinger—treats Strife as a necessary psychological reality, aligning it with Ananke and the compulsive fixations that force psychic transformation. The central tension in the corpus is between Strife as destructive disintegration and Strife as the precondition of differentiated existence.
justice is strife'. He states too that 'all things (the universe) come into being according to strife'. How is justice', 'strife'? For Heraclitus we can suppose that justice will be related to the opposites making up the universe.
Sullivan explicates Heraclitus's radical equation of justice with Strife, arguing that the perpetual contention of opposites constitutes the very balanced order of the cosmos.
, Psychological and Ethical Ideas What Early Greeks Say, 1995thesis
Strife with Ananke. (That Necessity works through discord and strife, and that discord and strife are necessary, is also a psychological lesson we learn from these mythological relations.)
Hillman identifies Strife with Ananke/Necessity in Empedocles and Parmenides, drawing the depth-psychological conclusion that discord is not merely destructive but structurally necessary to psychic life.
, Mythic Figures, 2007thesis
the soul is further called 'an exile from God and a wanderer,' and its offense, which entailed this exile, is described as 'following Strife,' 'putting trust in Strife.'
Edinger records the Orphic–Empedoclean doctrine in which the soul's incarnate exile is caused by its alignment with Strife, framing Strife as the cosmological force that drives the soul into the cycle of reincarnation.
, The Psyche in Antiquity, Book One: Early Greek Philosophy From Thales to Plotinus, 1999thesis
the Iliad itself begins with the eris/neîkos between Achilles and Agamemnon... The grand Strife Scene between Agamemnon and Achilles is even recapitulated on the Shield of Achilles, in that microcosmic stop-motion picture of litigation.
Nagy argues that Strife is the generative structural principle of the Iliad, recapitulated at every scale from the opening quarrel to its miniaturized image on Achilles' shield, and always oriented toward the objective of justice.
, The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry, 1979thesis
eris 'strife' is a theme that defines the very character of Achilles: aiei gar toi eris te philê polemoi te machai te / eris is always dear to you, as well as wars and battles.
Nagy shows that in Agamemnon's characterization of Achilles, Strife is not an accidental mood but an essential, defining attribute of heroic identity in archaic Greek epic.
, The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry, 1979supporting
Strife, dau. of Night, 3, 95, 97, 231, 489 ... Ruin, child of Strife 97 ... Lawlessness, child of Strife, 97 ... Quarrels, offspring of Strife.
The Hesiodic index establishes Strife's genealogical position as daughter of Night and progenitor of Ruin, Lawlessness, and Quarrelsomeness, situating discord at the cosmogonic root of moral evil.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700supporting
ΔΕΩ'Η ~ 'Ε ρι~ πεπoτ~τo / κορυσσόυσα — Strife hovered aloft, cresting.
Hesiod's Shield of Heracles depicts Strife as a personified divine presence hovering over the battle scene, visually enacting her role as instigator of martial destruction.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700supporting
the change that fire undergoes occurs 'in measures'. It is a balanced change and, being such, ensures both the existence of itself and of 'all things'.
Sullivan traces how Heraclitean fire—the physical correlate of Strife—operates through measured exchange among opposites, so that conflict is regulated and self-sustaining rather than merely destructive.
, Psychological and Ethical Ideas What Early Greeks Say, 1995supporting
Quarrels, offspring of Strife ... Quarrelsomeness.
The Hesiodic index records the mythological genealogy of Strife's offspring, cataloguing the minor personifications that populate her lineage in the Theogony.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700aside
or they are at strife, which is incompatible with goodness (for that which is at strife is not perfectly good), or the evil is at strife and the good does not retaliate, but is destroyed by the evil.
John of Damascus deploys the concept of strife dialectically to refute dualism, arguing that a universe governed by two competing principles would necessarily compromise the perfection of the good one.
, Saint John of Damascus Collection, 2016aside