Synopsis: Commander Sisko, Quark, Jake Sisko, and Rom take a field trip to the Gamma Quadrant and get a lesson they were not anticipating.
This episode, similar to “Tribunal” is an illustration of what can happen when the Logos-driven rational conscious ego is confronted by bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
In “The Jem’Hadar” when Commander Benjamin Sisko, his son, Jake Sisko, Quark, and his nephew, Rom, decide to go into the Gamma Quadrant, they had no idea that they would run afoul of the Dominion by their mere presence. When they make their way back to the station they bring with them Eris, whom they believe they are rescuing from the Jem’Hadar soldiers of the Dominion. But they are wrong. She is one of them. Eris, in ancient Greek mythology was the goddess of strife and discord, and it is no accident that this character was given this name. Especially since at the end of the episode Eris tells Sisko and the others that they have no idea what they have unleashed.
But consider this. Ever since the wormhole was discovered, citizens of the Alpha Quadrant have ventured into the Gamma Quadrant without thought that there may be civilizations there that did not want to be disturbed. Analogous to how Christopher Columbus came upon the Americas and could not fathom that the cultures there did not want to be interfered with. Here the wormhole can even be seen as analogous to what analytical psychologist Carl (C. G.) Jung would call a complex. And just as the complex allows bits of unconscious material to come into the purview of the conscious rational ego, so the wormhole allows things from the Gamma Quadrant to come into the scanning field of Deep Space Nine. Deep Space Nine here representing the ego and the Alpha Quadrant the larger conscious part of the psyche.
By Eris coming through the wormhole she has unleashed the strife and discord that the rational conscious ego feels when it is confronted by bits of unconscious material. And it is Quark, a bit of a trickster Hermes character, who is the one able to unlock the chains around Eris’s neck and discover her secret. This amplifies the symbolism of Eris being a disruptive force from the other side, as Hermes was the messenger between the realm of Hades, the Olympians, and the world of mortals. Where before Sisko and the others on Deep Space Nine only thought that they had to engage with fellow explorers returning from the Gamma Quadrant and invited guests from there, now they are on notice that they can also expect some unpleasant visitations from this alien part of the galaxy. Just as feeling the emotional intensity of a complex can alert the conscious ego that there is something in the unconscious that needs to have attention paid to it.
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