Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Roland Burrage Dixon

Quote by Roland Burrage Dixon

“The Hawaiian creation myth relates that the present cosmos is only the last of a series, having arisen in stages from the wreck of the previous universe. In this account, the octopus is the lone survivor of the previous, alien universe.”

Quote by Roland Burrage Dixon

Book:Oceanic Mythology
Create image

Work

Oceanic Mythology

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Roland Burrage Dixon

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Roland Burrage Dixon. more

You May Also Like

“There is an Iroquois myth that describes a choice the nation was once forced to make. The myth has various forms. This is the simplest version. A council of the tribes was called to decide where to move on for the next hunting season. What the council had not known, however, was that the place they eventually chose was a place inhabited by wolves. Accordingly, the Iroquois became subject to repeated attacks, during which the wolves gradually whittled down their numbers. They were faced with a choice: to move somewhere else or to kill the wolves. The latter option, they realized, would diminish them. It would make them the sort of people they did not want to be. And so they moved on. To avoid repetition of their earlier mistake, they decided that in all future council meetings someone should be appointed to represent the wolf. Their contribution would be invited with the question, ‘Who speaks for wolf?”

MythologyWolfIroquois
Author:Mark Rowlands
Create image

“If the students were taught about shuttle flights, plate tectonics and submarine volcanoes, they were also immersed in the traditional myths of their culture—the ancient story, for example, of how the island of Pohnpei had been built under the direction of a mystical octopus, Lidakika. (I was fascinated by this, for it was the only cephalopod creation myth I had ever heard.”

MythologyCreation MythsCephalopodsPohnpei
Book:The Island of the Colorblind
Create image