Date:  Thu, 23 Oct 1997 09:32:32 -0400
From:  Robert Ness <ness[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DICKINSON.EDU>
Subject: Re: Bless You

And for breath as the divine afflatus, see Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a
Tub, Section 1. On Wed, 22 Oct 1997,
Gregory {Greg} Downing wrote:

> 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
>