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. The Heart Symbol and Metaphor The human heart — the most diverse, most changeable, most versatile part of creation.
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. The Heart Symbol and Metaphor The human heart—the most diverse, most changeable, most versatile part of creation. Goethe
Ancient Mesopotamia For 5,000 years, the heart was regarded as the seat of deepest emotions, a subject of art, religion, music, poetry and hieratic texts, the paramount icon of love, joy, grief, and power.
In 2,000 BC, the Chinese discovered that the heart was a pump that circulated blood round the body and accounted for the pulse.
In the Western world, the circulatory function of the heart was not even suspected despite the fact that the human heart beats 2.5 billion times during a normal lifespan.
Philosopher/Physician Theologian Heart and soul were matters for philosophers and theologians, but in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, physicians were engaged in philosophical and theological debates about the nature and location of the soul which was believed to reside in the heart.
According to Aristotle, thesoul resided in the heart. When life ended, the soul left the heart through the mouth and fled into the netherworld. Soul
Plato's Tripartite Soul The appetitive soul which is responsible for base desires. The soul of reason that seeks truth The spirited soul that seeks honor
S~P~I~RI~T The Soul Is not a non-corporeal spirit
…the spirit that creates one object and one form, and builds thereby a sepulchre for its eternity. Percy Bysshe Shelley 1816
The Spirit of St Louis Spirits Abound The Holy Spirit
Rabbi Judah The early Church fathers taught that God created a soul for each newborn. It was an article of faith that the soul entered the body at the moment of birth. Rabbi Judah, compiler of the Mishna, taught that the soul joined the body at the time of conception..”
If the soul resides in the heart, are the heartless souless?
If I only had a heart The Tin Woodman Alice in Wonderland
The Heart-shaped Valentine. From Whence It Came.
Bumper Stickers Candy Boxes Popular Songs
A Happy Valentine An Unhappy Valentine The stylized heart-shaped Valentine is the color of blood and passion. St Valentine was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II. As a prisoner in 270 AD, he fell in love with his jailer’s daughter, and left her a farewell note signed, From your Valentine.
For this was on seynt Volantynys day Whan euery bryd comyth to chese a mate In the High Middle Ages when the tradition of courtly love flourished, Valentine’s Day was associated with romantic love. Emperor Claudius II unsuccessfully attempted to convert St Valentine. Valentine refused, and instead tried to convert Claudius to Christianity. Because of Valentine’s refusal, he was executed on a date now memorialized in his name February 14.
Let in the maid, that out a maid Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5 To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, All in the morn betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine. Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes, And dupp'd the chamber-door; Let in the maid, that out a maid Never departed more.
Aphrodite & Her Chariot Wings of a Dove The heart-shaped Valentine was believed to represent the back and wings of a dove as seen by Aphrodite from her golden chariot.
Epithets Abound, as Parts of Our Vocabulary Sweetheart, light-hearted, heavy-hearted, broken-hearted, down-hearted, kind-hearted, faint-hearted, big-hearted, good-hearted, soft-hearted, hard-hearted, empty-hearted, pure-hearted.
Hard Hearted Big Hearted Soft Hearted
Cold Hearted Warm Hearted
Cross My Heart And Hope To
My heart leaps up When I behold a rainbow in the sky. William Wordsworth 1802
The Heart The Seat of Good and Evil In the Old Testament And in the New
A Variation on the Theme Aer-hart Amelia A flight, but not of fancy.
A Broken Heart Cupid and his arrows were popular signs of love depicted as two hearts or a broken heart joined by a pierced arrow.
The Heart as a Record (record---re-cord---is from the Latin cor/cordis) The heart is thus linked to memory which is in itself a record. We speak of learning by heart.
The Heart as a Book A Resurrected Soul In the Middle Ages, the heart was regardedas a book. The fresco of the Last Judgment in the Cathedral of Albi in southern France, shows a resurrected soul presenting her heart as an open book for the final reckoning.
Saint Augustine at his desk In one hand, an open book. In the other hand his heart.
A sacredbook of the heart was identified with God and developed in the medieval Church. Daily readings were heart-felt devotions.
Asecularizedbook of the heart was identified with Cupid, and filled with erotic images.
Medieval Priorities Heart, liver, lungs
Primacy among heart, liver, and lungs favored the heart because Aristotle believed that the soul resided in the heart. During Egyptian mummification, the heart was pivotal. The brain was discarded as worthless.
A Change of Heart The Earliest Heart Transplantation. More Fancy than Fact ? In ancient China, a surgeon, Tsin Yue-jen allegedly used wine to anesthetize two patients. He performed surgery and exchanged their hearts.
It was believed that the old Testament God could replace a heart of stone with a warm heart of flesh.
An Indigenous Soul A Transplanted soul If the soul resides in the heart, does the recipient of a heart transplant have two souls in one lifetime--- an indigenous soul and a transplanted soul?
In ancient Egypt, the heart was weighed against the featherof Maat, goddess of justice. If the heart balanced the feather, the deceased would rise from the dead and live in harmony in the netherworld.
The Lungs The liver For ancient Hebrews, the sign of life was the breath. And the Lord God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living soul. In ancient Babylon, the liver was the life force. In ancient Greece, lungs and liver competed equally.
We have no idea of how metaphors work, or how they are represented in the brain. V.S. Ramachandran
The Restless Trembling Heart Neuroanatomic connections between brain and heart may trigger arrhythmias.
Be you still, be you still, trembling heart. Therestless trembling heart---cor inquietum--- is the center ofSt Augustine’s Confessions.
One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you cannot utter. “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” Ludwig Wittgenstein
Chinese Proverb If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.
. Calcific Pericarditis Percy Bysshe Shelley, a romantic poet, was literally hard hearted. His heart was impregnable to fire because of calcific pericarditis.
Hearts of gold Were neither hard nor cold.
Where do you wear your Heart?
In your mouth On your sleeve