“Total” is the key word of the Essay. The exchanges of archaic societies which he examines are total social movements or activities. They are at the same time economic, juridical, moral, aesthetic, religious, mythological…phenomena.…Their meaning can therefore only be grasped if they are vi...
8 In the 18th century, mythologia (French and German mythologie, English mythology) began shifting its meaning: it became a mass noun for stories of this type and associated ideas or beliefs; it could also be used in the singular for an associated grouping of such stories as a collection ...
the king sees a pregnant hunting dog lying at his feet. She was silent, but the pups in her womb were barking loudly. This was interpreted as meaning that after King Eadgar’s death, miscreants within his kingdom
meaning “breath,” from the root word (s)peis-, “to blow.” Spirit also has the meanings of soul, courage,” and “vigor.” In Greek, the word for spirit is pneuma and in Hebrew roo’ach. Opposing terms are Latin “anima” and Greek “psyche” which both mean soul. The Greek w...
The name “Uranus” (Greek Οὐρανός, translit.Ouranós) is also the ancient Greek word meaning “sky” or “heaven.” It is usually thought to have been derived from the Indo-European root *ṷérs-, meaning “to rain.” Uranus’ name would thus translate as “the rainmaker...
Odin was recognized and commonly referred to in other Germanic languages: he was known asWōdenin Old English,Wōdanin Old Saxon, and asWuotanandWotanin Old German. The god’s name also lent itself to the word “Wednesday,” meaning “Wōden’sday.” ...
constitute deep-rooted and ancient efforts to find richer experience and deeper meaning than are found in the ordinary biological and social satisfactions. As pointed out by Whitehead, religion and science have similar origins and are evolving toward similar goals. Both started from crude observations...
[jabrùḥ], which would not provide the Syrians with a suitable meaning, whereas bûḥ, the final syllable of [ĝerâbûḥ], denotes sex drive, and thus the word can be given the meaning of “aphrodisiac,” as indeed the mandrake fruits were considered to be (in Genesis 30,...
Thus, "tyrant" did not originally mean a criminal; but the behavior of tyrants rapidly began to give the word the meaning it would have today, commiting crimes that often were also seen as offenses against religion; and philosophers like Plato analyzed the tyrant as possessing an immoral sort...
Betrayal’s etymological roottrādere, meaning “to surrender,” or “to hand down (to posterity),” brings attention to deep psychological nuances. In the condition of betrayal there is an exchange of something known for something unknown, deforming the existing sense of reality, and abruptly fo...