Date:  Wed, 22 Oct 1997 18:00:58 -0400
From:  Gregory {Greg} Downing <downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Bless You

At 05:15 PM 10/22/97 PDT, you (Amy Schroeder <ashroede[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]COUNSEL.COM>) wrote:
>My sixth grade teacher, rest her soul, insisted that we say God Bless You,
>because, in her opinion, when you sneezed your spirit literally left your
>body. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there some ancient Greek source
>for this, something along the lines of one's spirit inhabiting the breath?
>

It's a very common belief in many (hmmm, is nonmodern the right term?)
cultures, including ancient Greek. Though he's no longer considered
factually reliable in many regards, James Frazer's _The Golden Bough_ is I
imagine reliable enough on this very common belief. Check his indexes. Since
you breathe when you are alive and when you stop breathing you are dead,
breath = life, and breathing out the wrong way is dangerous. Cf. covering
one's mouth. (Of course, there are both "practical" and "superstititous"
reasons for these things I'm sure.)

Gregory {Greg} Downing, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu