Well, Happy New Year! We're into 2020 now. I have been a bit busy, so I apologize for the pause in posts. It wasn't planned, it just worked out that way. You know how that goes.
I found Project Gutenberg a goodly while ago. It has created e-books of many publications that are hard to find or even no longer in print.
As I'm very interested in mythology and stories, I stumbled upon this site:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=3623 where I found an early 1920s abridged version of his earlier work, The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer (e-text by David Reed).
I've been reading it for a couple months now, off and on. I'm only about one-third of the way through it. A bit pretentious and wordy, and by no means currently accepted socially aware terminology, I am much enjoying his descriptions and explanations. Author lays out a logical, believable path from primitive man's belief in magic and superstition to philosophy and religion to science. Many examples along the way of how ancient beliefs and superstitions still color our language and idioms today.
Some excerpts from the e-book are below. I encourage you to pop to that page and come back to it as you have time or interest. It is a full book. Long, but very interesting.
"We can now understand why it was a maxim both in ancient India and ancient Greece not to look at one’s reflection in water, and why the Greeks regarded it as an omen of death if a man dreamed of seeing himself so reflected. They feared that the water-spirits would drag the person’s reflection or soul under water, leaving him soulless to perish. This was probably the origin of the classical story of the beautiful Narcissus, who languished and died through seeing his reflection in the water." Chapter 3 Soul as a Shadow and a Reflection
"Thus cut adrift from his ancient [magic] moorings and left to toss on a troubled sea of doubt and uncertainty, his old happy confidence in himself and his powers rudely shaken, our primitive philosopher must have been sadly perplexed and agitated till he came to rest, as in a quiet haven after a tempestuous voyage, in a new system of faith and practice, which seemed to offer a solution of his harassing doubts and a substitute, however precarious, for that sovereignty over nature which he had reluctantly abdicated. If the great world went on its way without the help of him or his fellows, it must surely be because there were other beings, like himself, but far stronger, who, unseen themselves, directed its course...
But if religion involves, first, a belief in superhuman beings who rule the world, and, second, an attempt to win their favour, it clearly assumes that the course of nature is to some extent elastic or variable, and that we can persuade or induce the mighty beings who control it to deflect, for our benefit, the current of events from the channel in which they would otherwise flow. Now this implied elasticity or variability of nature is directly opposed to the principles of magic as well as of science, both of which assume that the processes of nature are rigid and invariable in their operation, and that they can as little be turned from their course by persuasion and entreaty as by threats and intimidation. The distinction between the two conflicting views of the universe turns on their answer to the crucial question, Are the forces which govern the world conscious and personal, or unconscious and impersonal?" Chapter 4 Magic & Religion
"But we shall adhere more closely to the facts of history if we allow most of the higher savages at least to possess a rudimentary notion of certain supernatural beings who may fittingly be called gods, though not in the full sense in which we use the word. That rudimentary notion represents in all probability the germ out of which the civilised peoples have gradually evolved their own high conceptions of deity; and if we could trace the whole course of religious development, we might find that the chain which links our idea of the Godhead with that of the savage is one and unbroken." Chapter 7 Incarnate Human Gods
"The analogy of the custom with the old English practice of bringing scrofulous patients to the king to be healed by his touch is sufficiently obvious, and suggests, as I have already pointed out elsewhere, that among our own remote ancestors scrofula may have obtained its name of the King’s Evil, from a belief, like that of the Tongans, that it was caused as well as cured by contact with the divine majesty of kings." Chapter 20 Section 1
"In the Koran there is an allusion to the mischief of “those who puff into the knots,” and an Arab commentator on the passage explains that the words refer to women who practice magic by tying knots in cords, and then blowing and spitting upon them. He goes on to relate how, once upon a time, a wicked Jew bewitched the prophet Mohammed himself by tying nine knots on a string, which he then hid in a well. So the prophet fell ill, and nobody knows what might have happened if the archangel Gabriel had not opportunely revealed to the holy man the place where the knotted cord was concealed. The trusty Ali soon fetched the baleful thing from the well; and the prophet recited over it certain charms, which were specially revealed to him for the purpose. At every verse of the charms a knot untied itself, and the prophet experienced a certain relief." Chapter 21 Section 11
I found Project Gutenberg a goodly while ago. It has created e-books of many publications that are hard to find or even no longer in print.
As I'm very interested in mythology and stories, I stumbled upon this site:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=3623 where I found an early 1920s abridged version of his earlier work, The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer (e-text by David Reed).
I've been reading it for a couple months now, off and on. I'm only about one-third of the way through it. A bit pretentious and wordy, and by no means currently accepted socially aware terminology, I am much enjoying his descriptions and explanations. Author lays out a logical, believable path from primitive man's belief in magic and superstition to philosophy and religion to science. Many examples along the way of how ancient beliefs and superstitions still color our language and idioms today.Some excerpts from the e-book are below. I encourage you to pop to that page and come back to it as you have time or interest. It is a full book. Long, but very interesting.
"We can now understand why it was a maxim both in ancient India and ancient Greece not to look at one’s reflection in water, and why the Greeks regarded it as an omen of death if a man dreamed of seeing himself so reflected. They feared that the water-spirits would drag the person’s reflection or soul under water, leaving him soulless to perish. This was probably the origin of the classical story of the beautiful Narcissus, who languished and died through seeing his reflection in the water." Chapter 3 Soul as a Shadow and a Reflection
"Thus cut adrift from his ancient [magic] moorings and left to toss on a troubled sea of doubt and uncertainty, his old happy confidence in himself and his powers rudely shaken, our primitive philosopher must have been sadly perplexed and agitated till he came to rest, as in a quiet haven after a tempestuous voyage, in a new system of faith and practice, which seemed to offer a solution of his harassing doubts and a substitute, however precarious, for that sovereignty over nature which he had reluctantly abdicated. If the great world went on its way without the help of him or his fellows, it must surely be because there were other beings, like himself, but far stronger, who, unseen themselves, directed its course...But if religion involves, first, a belief in superhuman beings who rule the world, and, second, an attempt to win their favour, it clearly assumes that the course of nature is to some extent elastic or variable, and that we can persuade or induce the mighty beings who control it to deflect, for our benefit, the current of events from the channel in which they would otherwise flow. Now this implied elasticity or variability of nature is directly opposed to the principles of magic as well as of science, both of which assume that the processes of nature are rigid and invariable in their operation, and that they can as little be turned from their course by persuasion and entreaty as by threats and intimidation. The distinction between the two conflicting views of the universe turns on their answer to the crucial question, Are the forces which govern the world conscious and personal, or unconscious and impersonal?" Chapter 4 Magic & Religion
"But we shall adhere more closely to the facts of history if we allow most of the higher savages at least to possess a rudimentary notion of certain supernatural beings who may fittingly be called gods, though not in the full sense in which we use the word. That rudimentary notion represents in all probability the germ out of which the civilised peoples have gradually evolved their own high conceptions of deity; and if we could trace the whole course of religious development, we might find that the chain which links our idea of the Godhead with that of the savage is one and unbroken." Chapter 7 Incarnate Human Gods
"The analogy of the custom with the old English practice of bringing scrofulous patients to the king to be healed by his touch is sufficiently obvious, and suggests, as I have already pointed out elsewhere, that among our own remote ancestors scrofula may have obtained its name of the King’s Evil, from a belief, like that of the Tongans, that it was caused as well as cured by contact with the divine majesty of kings." Chapter 20 Section 1
"In the Koran there is an allusion to the mischief of “those who puff into the knots,” and an Arab commentator on the passage explains that the words refer to women who practice magic by tying knots in cords, and then blowing and spitting upon them. He goes on to relate how, once upon a time, a wicked Jew bewitched the prophet Mohammed himself by tying nine knots on a string, which he then hid in a well. So the prophet fell ill, and nobody knows what might have happened if the archangel Gabriel had not opportunely revealed to the holy man the place where the knotted cord was concealed. The trusty Ali soon fetched the baleful thing from the well; and the prophet recited over it certain charms, which were specially revealed to him for the purpose. At every verse of the charms a knot untied itself, and the prophet experienced a certain relief." Chapter 21 Section 11
Comments
Post a Comment
Please be respectful. We reserve the right to remove comments for any reason at any time we deem necessary.