symbol
Eye
The organ of seeing, and the marks people make of it: protection, surveillance, the sun’s disk, the glance that harms.
Egyptian religion
Eye appears in Egyptian religion.
Egyptian funerary equipment and spells use the wedjat-eye as a restoring and protective mark. It is an Egyptian eye, not the folk “evil eye.”
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
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Eye is associated with Sun.
Egyptian theology can treat the sun as an eye of a god. That solar eye is not the Mediterranean charm against envy.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific
Eye is associated with Knowledge.
The restored eye in Egyptian myth is a recovery of order and sight. Knowledge here is restored function, not Hermetic gnosis.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
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Eye is opposed to Death.
The wedjat is among the marks meant to keep a dead person whole. Protection against damage in the tomb is not the folk blighting glance.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
opposed to · partially sourced · culturally specific
European folklore
Eye is associated with Luck.
Around the Mediterranean and in later Europe, a look can be said to blight luck. The “evil eye” is a folk harm, not the wedjat.
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Eye is associated with Divination.
Seeing signs with the eye is ordinary; calling a glance itself a technique of harm is a specific folk claim.
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Charm is associated with Eye.
Mediterranean and later European charms against a blighting glance are one local use of a small made thing. They are not the wedjat.
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Camera lucida is used in Eye.
Brewster’s Treatise seats the camera lucida among Wollaston’s drawing instruments that present an image to the eye for tracing. A named camera-lucida in that optical-instrument speech, not a camera obscura dark chamber and not a bare photographic camera.
from David Brewster · A Treatise on Optics, 1831 (and later PD editions)
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Magnifying glass is used in Eye.
Brewster’s Treatise seats the magnifying glass among simple convex lenses used to enlarge near objects for the eye. A named magnifying-glass in that optical-instrument speech, not a reading glass for manuscript type alone, not a burning glass, and not a quizzing or Claude glass.
from David Brewster · A Treatise on Optics, 1831 (and later PD editions)
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Opera glasses is used in Eye.
Brewster’s Treatise seats achromatic opera glasses among short Galilean-style telescopes for the eye when single-lens achromatism is practical. A named opera-glasses in that optical-instrument speech, not binoculars as a later field twin, not a monocle, and not spectacles.
from David Brewster · A Treatise on Optics, 1831 (and later PD editions)
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Reading glass is used in Eye.
Brewster’s Treatise seats reading glasses beside spectacles among the simplest optical instruments for bringing small manuscript or type to distinct vision for the eye. A named reading-glass in that optical-instrument speech, not a burning glass, not a quizzing glass, and not a Claude glass.
from David Brewster · A Treatise on Optics, 1831 (and later PD editions)
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Spectacles is used in Eye.
Brewster’s Treatise seats spectacles among the simplest optical instruments that correct long or short sight with convex or concave lenses for the eye, including Wollaston’s periscopic form. A named spectacles in that optical-instrument speech, not a pince-nez, not a lorgnette, and not a monocle.
from David Brewster · A Treatise on Optics, 1831 (and later PD editions)
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Telescope is used in Eye.
Brewster’s Treatise seats the telescope among optical instruments that bring distant objects to distinct vision for the eye before dividing refracting and reflecting forms. A named telescope in that optical-instrument speech, not a microscope and not a typed Newtonian or Galilean subspecies alone.
from David Brewster · A Treatise on Optics, 1831 (and later PD editions)
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Buddhist traditions
Eye appears in Buddhist traditions.
Watson’s Lotus Sūtra names the Buddha-eye and Dharma-eye among knowings that see beings and teachings. A named eye in that sūtra, not Egyptian wedjat alone and not a medical organ dump.
from Burton Watson (translation) · The Lotus Sutra, 1993 (this translation); Sanskrit/Chinese recensions much older
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Norse tradition
Eye appears in Norse tradition.
Snorri’s Gylfaginning has Odin leave an eye in Mímir’s well as the pledge for a drink of wisdom. A named eye in that prose, not wisdom as the draught alone and not a bare body-part dump.
from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220
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Shinto
Eye appears in Shinto.
The Kojiki births Amaterasu from Izanagi’s left eye during the purifying wash after Yomi. Named eye as generative wash-site in that noble-children genealogy, not an evil-eye amulet dump and not Odin’s pledged eye.
from Ō no Yasumaro (compiler); Donald L. Philippi (translation) · Kojiki, 712 CE; Philippi trans. 1968
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Eye appears in Astrology.
Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos treats afflictions of the eyes among bodily nativity outcomes. A named eye in that handbook, not the protective eye-symbol alone and not a surveillance dump.
from Claudius Ptolemy · Tetrabiblos, c. 150 CE
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Mirror is associated with Eye.
A mirror returns a likeness to the eye. Truth here is optical before it is moral.
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Egyptian religion · Nile valley
Wedjat represents Eye.
The wedjat is a restored eye in Egyptian imagery. It is a specific sign, not every drawing of an eye.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972; Plutarch · On Isis and Osiris, c. 100 CE
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sources
- Book of the Dead · Raymond O. Faulkner (translation)
Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.
- The Lotus Sutra · Burton Watson (translation)
Burton Watson, The Lotus Sutra.
- Gylfaginning · Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, in the Prose Edda.
- Kojiki · Ō no Yasumaro (compiler); Donald L. Philippi (translation)
Donald L. Philippi, Kojiki.
- Tetrabiblos · Claudius Ptolemy
Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos.
- On Isis and Osiris · Plutarch
Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris (Moralia).
- A Treatise on Optics · David Brewster
David Brewster, A Treatise on Optics.