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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is it not mildly erroneous to call something that happened in historical time "mythological"?
Not necessarily. The knot had mythical significance. Whether Alex's alleged cutting of the knot occurred is of no import. The Knot itself was mythological in its significance if not in its existence. The mere fact that Ęschylus wrote a play about it does not stop the story of ?dipus from being a myth.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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The Gordian Knot has been in existence for only a comparatively short
time, if I remember correctly, otherwise there would have been no King
for a very long time. It was a tradition, I would say. Something mythical
is so old that its existence cannot be documented.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I guess you can define mythical however you want. To me it means something that reverberates on a deeper level than we can talk about rationally.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Uncle Bill, I came across a news article you might be interested in: http://www.msnbc.com/news/681100.asp?pne=11947The Gordian Knot is mentioned in the second section, although it's spelled Gordion in this article.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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A very good, very large glossary of names from Greek mythology Well worth browsing through.When you first get into the site, you have to click on a line. I forget now what it says, but it is self-explanatory. http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/CGPrograms/Dict/ASP/OpenDictionary.asp
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member
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And a note on old Alex - one of my history lecturers steadfastly refused to accord him history's sobriquet, instead calling him Alexander of Macedon. I'm not sure whether he (the lecturer) was egalitarian or didn't think he was all that Great.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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"Even the name of their goddess of love,Venus, had originally meant a garden of herbs;
a well cultivated piece of land is 'fine Ceres and love and Bacchus together' "
From The Ancient Mediterranean, by Michael Grant
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"About an infant's neck, hang Peonie. It cures Alcydes' cruell maladie." Josuah Sylvester, 1591,De Bartus. It took a good bit of searching to find that Alcides is an alternate name for Hercules, who was said to have been epileptic. In the process I found a new mythology site: http://www.sneaker.net.au/docs/encyclo/D1A.HTM#ALCIDES
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There's no relationship, is there, Bill, between peonies and epilepsy?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Wordwind: You have my permission to conduct a controlled scientific research project
into merits of a peony blossom around the neck of as many infants as you can enroll in the
project. Of course you may have some problem getting large enough year-round supply of
the blossoms. Figure five years to get the protocols approved. How many colors do you
think ought to be tested? And should blossoms be on chest or on back? For how many years
should the blossoms be kept in place? Should paper imitations be used as a control? How would
you manage to have double-blind study?
Maybe alex williams, doc_comfort, and wofahulicodoc will have some helfpful suggestions.
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