# Is there a name for the eyeball in the palm of the hand imagery? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 29, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-the-eyeball-in-the-palm-of-the-hand-imagery/483488 "2009-01-29T02:28:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-the-eyeball-in-the-palm-of-the-hand-imagery/483488/1 "2009-01-29T02:28:50Z")
The eyeball in the palm of the hand is an extremely widespread image, one that surfaces in cultures with no known or likely contact. From Alabama (close to where I grew up)- [Muscogee Creek Indians, ca. 1000 AD](http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/up/disk01.jpg) The Tibetan Buddhist goddess [Tara](http://www.mother-god.com/images/goddess-tara.jpg) (hard to see, but she has eyes in both hands) Arabian[hamsa amulet](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Khamsa_pendant.jpg)(there’s an almost identical symbol found in Israeli digs, sometimes called “the hand of Miriam”) Used as a nightmare creature in [Pan’s Labrynth](http://www.trendyink.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/pans_labyrinth.jpg) It’s found on pretty much every inhabited continent. I also found [this essay](http://www.darkfiber.com/eyeinhand/)on the symbol that has many other pics. However, I’m wondering if there is a particular name for the symbol, something like “vagina dentata” is an overlying term for that phenomenon in art and folklore regardless of culture or origin, or the way “pieta” has come to mean more than Mary and the body of Jesus (essentially any religious or emotionally powerful rendering featuring a mourner and a dead body). Does anybody know of one? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-the-eyeball-in-the-palm-of-the-hand-imagery/483488/2 "2009-01-29T04:19:34Z")
Well, after looking around a bit it does have a Latin or Romantic Name (Catholic), _Mano Ponderosa_ (lit. ponderous hand). I’m not sure if that is overarching or more religously descriptive, as in “the hand of God”. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-the-eyeball-in-the-palm-of-the-hand-imagery/483488/3 "2009-01-29T21:07:57Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Well, after looking around a bit it does have a Latin or Romantic Name (Catholic), _Mano Ponderosa_ (lit. ponderous hand). I’m not sure if that is overarching or more religously descriptive, as in “the hand of God”. That works for me. If it didn’t have an overarching one before, I vote for Mano Ponderosa to be it (with all due credit of course);). Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-the-eyeball-in-the-palm-of-the-hand-imagery/483488/4 "2009-01-29T21:49:49Z")
Are you sure that’s not _mano poderosa_, “powerful hand”? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-the-eyeball-in-the-palm-of-the-hand-imagery/483488/5 "2009-01-30T01:25:39Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Are you sure that’s not _mano poderosa_, “powerful hand”? Maybe? I’m just going by online articles that I have found with reference to the _Khamsa_. Could be a disambiguation. Then again it could be ‘the pondering hand’ and not “the ponderous hand”- _Mano Ponderando_. The Eye in Palm does certainly seem as if it’s the hand that ponders or considers. In synesthetic terms, a combination of sight and touch senses. Maybe in some cases, it was a symbol for a person actually holding an eye. Stealing the enemies sight would be a great talisman, if you took peoples eyes as battle totem, it would have great psychological effect as a cultural symbol. Buckeyes! ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-the-eyeball-in-the-palm-of-the-hand-imagery/483488/6 "2009-01-30T03:12:06Z")
Certainly a strong sensing orifice.