Vulgar words in Myth, Ritual and Religion — Volume 1 (Page 1)

This book at a glance

bastard x 1
buffoon x 2
make love x 4
            

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~   ~   ~   Sentence 171   ~   ~   ~

As Mr. Hartland calls Daramulun "an eternal Creator with a game leg" who "died," he may call Zeus an "eternal father, who swallowed his wife, lay with his mother and sister, made love as a swan, and died, nay, was buried, in Crete".

~   ~   ~   Sentence 520   ~   ~   ~

But the Zeus whose grave was shown in Crete, or the Zeus who played Demeter an obscene trick by the aid of a ram, or the Zeus who, in the shape of a swan, became the father of Castor and Pollux, or the Zeus who deceived Hera by means of a feigned marriage with an inanimate object, or the Zeus who was afraid of Attes, or the Zeus who made love to women in the shape of an ant or a cuckoo, is a being whose myth is felt to be unnatural and bewildering.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 538   ~   ~   ~

Under these disguises they conduct many amours, even with the daughters of men, and Greek houses were proud of their descent from Zeus in the shape of an eagle or ant, a serpent or a swan; while Cronus and the Vedic Tvashtri and Poseidon made love as horses, and Apollo as a dog.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 897   ~   ~   ~

"I do not like buffoons who don't make me laugh," said that majestical monarch.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,744   ~   ~   ~

But when once mythical fancy plays round him, and stories are told about him, he is credited with a wife who is an eel or a shrimp, just as Zeus made love as an ant or a cuckoo.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,583   ~   ~   ~

The heretics of Vedic religion, the opponents of the orthodox commentators in ages comparatively recent, used to complain that the Vedas were simply nonsense, and their authors "knaves and buffoons".

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,498   ~   ~   ~

Here Odysseus, giving a false account of himself, says that he was a Cretan, a bastard, and that his half-brothers, born in wedlock, drew lots for their father's inheritance, and did not admit him to the drawing, but gave him a small portion apart.

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