Ouroboros

The ouroboros or uroboros (/ˌjʊərəˈbɒrəs, ˌjʊəroʊ-/, from the Greek οὐροβόρος ὄφις tail-devouring snake) is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail.

The ouroboros often symbolizes self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things such as the phoenix which operate in cycles that begin anew as soon as they end. It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. While first emerging in Ancient Egypt and India, the ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, Hermeticism and Hinduism.

Carl Jung interpreted the ouroboros as having an archetypal significance to the human psyche. The Jungian psychologist Erich Neumann writes of it as a representation of the pre-ego "dawn state", depicting the undifferentiated infancy experience of both mankind and the individual child.

Ouroboros (TV series)

Based on the manga by Kanzaki Yuuya, Ouroboros is a Japanese Drama series which tells the story about two men, one a detective and another a member of the yakuza, who seek to find the truth about a murder that happened twenty years ago which was clamped down by the police.

The 10-episode long drama was released in 2015 starring Toma Ikuta and Shun Oguri in the leading roles.

The first episode was aired on January 16, 2015 and the series concluded on March 20, 2015.

Apart from Ikuta and Oguri, the series also starred Juri Ueno as Mizuki Hibino, Kotaru Yoshida as Kaoru Mishima, Kenichi Takito as Shinichi Chouno and Yo Yoshida as Tomiko Tachibana.

Aoi Nakamura appeared as a member of the supporting cast in Episode 1 as the petty thief Sawatari.

It was after eight years that Oguri and Ikuta came on board in the same project. The last time they shared screen was in the 2007 live action adaptation of the shoujo manga series Hanazakari no Kimitachi e or Hana-Kimi.

Plot

Ikuo Ryuuzaki (Toma Ikuta) comes across as a bumbling detective with a penchant for smelling around for clues like a "sniffer dog" as put by his partner Mizuki Hibino. Famous for having the highest arrest rate in the second bureau of the Tokyo Police department, he seems to be a promising young detective with a keen sense of justice.

Ouroboros (disambiguation)

Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a snake or dragon swallowing its tail.

Ouroborus may also refer to:

In literature

In music

In film and television