In Egypt, the cat goddess Bastet reigned for about 2000 years. The
origins of her power seemed to rise from the magical properties attributed
to cat's eyes*. The eyes was a very common symbol in ancient Egyptian thought,
pervading the monuments and sacred texts of all periods* . The hieroglyphic
"Utchat" was one of the most common names for the eye*. Although
the sun gods Osiris and Ra were often associated with an eye, a close examination
of Egyptian texts reveals that the gods are not the eye itself. Rather,
the god is born from the eye* or dwells within it*. The eye is, again, the
womb of the goddess, "a female personification of the watery matter
which formed the substance of the world ... a form of the primeval female
creative principal* ... "
-Patricia Webbink, The power of the eyes.
The Power of the Eye
Beautiful faces are those that wear -
It matter little if dark or fair -
Whole-souled honesty printed there.
Beautiful eyes are those that show,
Like crystal panes where hearthfires glow,
Beautiful thoughts that burn below.
- Ellen P. Allerton, from Beautiful Things
I met a lady in the mead -
Full beautiful, a fairy's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
- John Keats, from La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Your glances seemed drawing my soul through mine
eyes,
As the sun draws the mist from the sea to the skies.
- Josephine Slocum Hunt, from You Kissed Me
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
- Margaret Hungerford, Molly Brown
The Evil Eye
O! beware, my lord, or jealousy.
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
- Shakespeare, Othello, III, iii
There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of
Khatmandu,
There's a little marble cross below the town;
There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
And the Yellow God forever gazes down.
He was known as "Mad Carew" by the subs of Khatmandu,
He was better than they felt inclined to tell;
But for all his foolish pranks, he was worshiped in the ranks,
And the Colonel's daughter smile on him as well.
He had love her all along, with the passion of the strong,
The fact that she loved him was plain to all.
She was nearly twenty-one and arrangements had begun
To celebrate her birthday with a ball.
He wrote to ask what present she would like from Mad Carew;
They met next day, as he dismissed a squad;
And jestingly she told him then that nothing else would do
But the green eye of the little Yellow God.
- J. Milton Hayes, from The Green Eye of the Yellow God
Semeia cuochii vervi niciodata sanu
Never trust the green-eyed woman
- Romanian saying
The Tie that Binds
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