Death, in western cultures, is sometimes represented by a figure in a dark robe weilding a scythe. Is there some *human * figure (I’m ruling out storks here) which represents birth? A figure in a white robe weilding a pair of forceps, perhaps?
I’d also be interested to hear of birth/death figures used in other cultures.
Why rule out the stork, I think that a flying stork carrying a bundle is a very well known symble of birth?
The point of ruling out storks was so that no one would mention storks. Didn’t work did it?
I’m just curious as to whether there is a humanoid equivalent of the scythe-carrying death figure for birth.
well, I think a baby pretty well represents birth in western cultures. The scythe of the grim reaper was originally pretty secondary, the primary thing was that he was a skeleton, which is a clear and obvious symbol of death. but as people started drawing him with a scythe and robe, that became the image. There’s never been much reason to make a metaphor for birth like there has for the grim reaper, who was damn useful when drawing pictures of apocalypse or the plague, if you didn’t want to draw alot of dead bodies in detail. A baby, on the other hand, tends to be cute and drawable.
If you’re old enough to remember the “Ben Casey” TV series, you’ll remember that Dr. Zorba used to begin each episode lecturing to the med students and drawing on the blackboard. Since I can’t draw his symbols, I’ll try to describe them.
“Man” (circle with an arrow coming out of it)
“Woman” (circle with a cross coming out of it)
“Birth” (an asterix *, but I believe it had 8 points instead of six)
“Death” (a cross, or to be exact, a +)
“Infinity” (an 8 lying on its side)