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From: "charles moyer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Dragons and butterflies
Date: Sat, Jun 24, 2000, 7:44 AM
Pawel, Thank you. I agree with you entirely about the pitfalls of
specialization. While it affords the individual the chance of discovery in
his or her field, it also comes with the inherent danger of (as we
say)"missing the forest for looking at the trees". I have seen the same
problem with the archaeoastronomers. They may know both astronomy and
archeology, but they are usually deficient in the Classics and the related
humanities. You point out the same concerning biologist.
For instance, Darwinian theory on evolution is so ingrained in
biologists' minds that they can't seem to imagine any other possibilities
like, for instance, those recounted in Ovid's "Metamorphoses". Yet the
amorphous mass inside a butterfly's chrysalis goes in a caterpillar and
comes out a butterfly. What it dreams it is while it's a seething mess of
goo we will never know, but butterfly is as good a guess as any.
Pound did not let this go unnoticed, by the way, for we read in "Notes
for Canto CXVII et seq"
"Milkweed the sustenance
as to enter arcanum."
It is the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) whose brilliant yellow,
white, and black larva (caterpillar) feeds on the Milkweed's (Asclepias)
various species and emerges from its dormant state as the orange and black
butterfly which, by the way, is a migratory species which all head south for
the winter sometimes taking several generations to get to their southern
gathering places.
Milkweed does it for the butterfly, tell me if you find out what does
for us. Maybe bread and wine?
Pax,
CM
p.s. Don't stop looking for dragons. Did you ever visit the stone circle at
Sarmizegetusa in Rumania? It was a site of Mithraic religion and capital of
the Roman province. I bet you $2 to a hole in a donut there is some dragon
legend connected there. Dragons go pretty deep.
Was Poland the last place in Europe of the aurochs (wisent)?
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