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Grafton Elliot Smith. The Evolution of the Dragon
The Evolution of the Dragon
Table of Contents
PREFACE
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
Chapter I
The Beginning of Stone-Working
The Origin of Embalming
Early Mummies
The Significance of Libations
Early Biological Theories
Incense
The Breath of Life
The Power of the Eye
The Moon and the Sky-World
The Worship of the Cow
The Diffusion of Culture
Summary
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
APPENDIX C
Chapter II
DRAGONS AND RAIN GODS.[130]
The Dragon in America and Eastern Asia
The Evolution of the Dragon
The Dragon Myth
The Thunder-Weapon.[203]
The Deer
The Ram
The Pig
Certain Incidents in the Dragon Myth
The Ethical Aspect
Chapter III
THE BIRTH OF APHRODITE.[235]
The Search for the Elixir of Life. Blood as Life
The Cowry as a Giver of Life
The Origin of Clothing
Pearls
Sharks and Dragons
The Octopus
The Swastika
The Mother Pot
Artemis and the Guardian of the Portal
The Mandrake
The Measurement of Time
The Seven-headed Dragon
The Pig
Gold and the Golden Aphrodite
Aphrodite as the Thunder-stone
The Serpent and the Lioness
Отрывок из книги
Grafton Elliot Smith
Published by Good Press, 2020
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For example, the use of the terms "soul" or "soul-substance" in much of the literature relating to early or relatively primitive people is fruitful of misunderstanding. For it is quite clear from the context that in many cases such people meant to imply nothing more than "life" or "vital principle," the absence of which from the body for any prolonged period means death. But to translate such a word simply as "life" is inadequate because all of these people had some theoretical views as to its identity with the "breath" or to its being in the nature of a material substance or essence. It is naturally impossible to find any one word or phrase in our own language to express the exact idea, for among every people there are varying shades of meaning which cannot adequately express the symbolism distinctive of each place and society. To meet this insuperable difficulty perhaps the term "vital essence" is open to least objection.
In my last Rylands lecture[11] I sketched in rough outline a tentative explanation of the world-wide dispersal of the elements of the civilization that is now the heritage of the world at large, and referred to the part played by Ancient Egypt in the development of certain arts, customs, and beliefs. On the present occasion I propose to examine certain aspects of this process of development in greater detail, and to study the far-reaching influence exerted by the Egyptian practice of mummification, and the ideas that were suggested by it, in starting new trains of thought, in stimulating the invention of arts and crafts that were unknown before then, and in shaping the complex body of customs and beliefs that were the outcome of these potent intellectual ferments.
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