Page 6 - Boca ViewPointe - February '22

Page 6, Viewpointe February 2022
Book Review

Of Flies And Werewolves traces the origins of the fantastic reincarnation
werewolf legend to rituals as werewolves. The wolf
“Mark but this flea, and mark in this/How little that and myths of the ancient showed a dual nature,
which thou deniest me is; world as “the icons of both savage, brutal and
It sucked me first, and now sucks me,/And in this flea our wildness.” They were carnivorous but, when
two bloods mingled be.” John Donne “The Flea” associated with sacrifice working as a pack,
“Am I not /A fly like thee? and graveyards, showing displaying intelligence,
Or art thou not/A man like me? William Blake a relationship and seeming cooperation, and
“Throw me to the wolves, and I will return leading the kinship with the dead. Seen community in their social
pack.” Seneca scrounging the dead, they structure. Wolves were
Daniel Ogden. The Werewolf in the Ancient World. Oxford: were thought to embody associated in literature
Oxford University Press, 2021. those corpses, as ghosts with the witches Hecate
Jonathan Balcombe. Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the escaping and removing to and Circe, both abetted
World’s Most Successful Insects. New York: Penguin, 2021. their lairs. In the human and protected by their
imagination, men were pack of dogs, who might
By Dr. Ronald J. Meyers perceived as taking on the themselves have been
lupine characteristics by fate or choice. Ogden makes
Human curiosity small distinction between the actual wolves and their Book Review on page 7
regarding our fellow
inhabitants of the animal
kingdom is perhaps a Norbert Graber, R. Ph.
mixture of admiration with and Lynn Graber, R. Ph.
some fear and anxiety.
Watching them as they
perhaps study us, we wonder
about our connections to
them, comparing our body
parts to theirs, and their intelligence and world view
in relation to ours. If cats could speak, what would
they reveal to us? They certainly present themselves
as owning knowledge and secrets, if not omnipotence.
Dogs are perhaps more responsive about revealing their
emotions with their wags. From the ancient world until
today, humans have sought to understand and acclimate
ourselves to these creatures. The Hindus early on
believed in transmigration of souls to other beings in
the animal world, and elevated, for example, the cow
and the elephant to divine status. Egyptians deified the
hawk and the sacred bull, among other creatures. The
naturalists Jonathan Balcombe and Daniel Ogden expose FREE
the antithetical fear and admiration in their distinctive Family Owned & Operated LOCAL DELIVERY
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