TIL: panic

Aug. 13th, 2017 11:43 am
timelets: (Default)
[personal profile] timelets
It turns out that the word "panic" can be traced back to Pan.
The Arcadian god Pan is the best known Classical example of this dangerous presence dwelling just beyond the protected zone of the village boundary.

The emotion that he instilled in human beings who by accident adventured into his domain was "panic" fear, a sudden, groundless fright. Any trifling cause then—the break of a twig, the flutter of a leaf—would flood the mind with imagined danger, and in the frantic effort to escape from his own aroused unconscious the victim expired in a flight of dread.

--- quoted from The Hero with a Thousand Faces.


Note, how the ancients externalized imagination. Similarly, all Odysseus' creative ideas were whispered to him by the gods.

Profile

timelets: (Default)
timelets

June 2025

S M T W T F S
123456 7
8 9 1011 1213 14
15 1617 18 192021
22232425262728
2930     

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 22nd, 2025 03:22 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios