I find some art and objet d’art that incorporate images of peacocks pleasing. I would love to wear this dress, for isntance.
Somewhere in his travels my husband acquired the notion that people who are insane are drawn to images of peacocks and peacock feathers. As a result he likes to avoid any peacock items.
Occasionaly I see something in a shop and think “oh that’d be pretty in the livingroom” or whatever and have to stop myself because it would make him uncomfortable.
I am not interested in “curing” him of this. I just like them, I don’t need or crave them. I’m just curious if any of you has heard the same assertion. I’ve never heard it from anyone other than him, and (so far) haven’t found any support for it online. I don’t even really know how to search for it.
I love peacocks! I just looked them up on themeaningofsymbols.blogspot.com and they symbolize immortality and renewal, among other things. I don’t know what your husband is nattering on about, mentally unstable people are attracted to countless things (one I knew seemed to think bags full of trash contained hidden treasure and filled up his apartment with them. No peacocks.)
They are supposed to be unlucky for actors, but so is the color green.
I’ve never heard of anything like that. Buying actual LIVE peacocks to strut around in your garden would be something I’d associate with the ostentatiously and possibly “eccentric” wealthy, but not peacock imagery.
The only connection between peacocks and mental illness that I can think of is the story that George III at one time had a compulsion to end every sentence with the word “peacock”:
I’ve never heard such a thing and if it were true, it wouldn’t matter if you actually owned peacock themed items, only that you were attracted to them.
Superstition records the peacock’s tail as being unlucky for everybody.
There are numerous variations of the myth concerning the 100-eyed Argus. Some of them don’t even give him 100 eyes, instead arguing that he could just see better than most of us. Anyway, in one version, Argus attracts the ire of Zeus for watching over Io, who is in captivity at the behest of Hera. Zeus desires Io so he instructs Hermes to kill Argus thus freeing Io from Hera’s clutches (this is the story according to Wikipedia). Hera then decides to commemorate her late watchman by incorporating his 100 eyes into a peacock’s tail.
All things taken into consideration, gwendee’s husband might have the right idea, not because peacocks have an association with insanity (except for the aforementioned George III) but rather because they are simply seen as unlucky.
I’ve never pressed the issue, and really issue is too strong a word. When it has come up in conversation (3 or 4 times in the 25 years we’ve known eachother) it has come across more as a “my grandmother once told me…” sort of conviction and not “I was reading a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry…”
I’m guessing that somone was telling him they’re unlucky when he was little and somehow it turned into crazy in his head.
It has never seemed worth pushing my “that’s ridiculous” position because as ridiculous as it is it’s far easier to manage than some of my own idiosyncrasies, and he puts up with those.
Interestingly, some depictions of archangels have a multitude of eyes. When I was in Istanbul a few years ago, I saw some pretty bizarre paintings of angels in the ceiling of Hagia Sophia. No humanoid shape was visible, just multiple sets of folded wings with many, many eyes.
Edit: Mind you, I don’t recall whether these pictures were made by the Christians or the Muslims. Hagia Sophia went through some changes in ownership through the centuries. But it’s very interesting that the image might be related to a faith they themselves persecuted.
So all Hindus are insane? Hindus love peacocks. Krishna wore peacock feathers in his hair or in his clothes and most Krishna devotees will have peacock feathers in their house somewhere.
Nattering is a good word for what your husband is doing.
Yeah, I’ve been a mental health counselor for over 20 years and worked with a lot of clients. There is no image or symbol that people with mental health problems are particularly drawn to.
Based on a recent H&M collection, there’s a whole lot of crazy walking around.
I did read somewhere as a child that keeping a peacock feather in the house was bad luck. But they were 25 cents apiece and looked pretty, so I threw caution to the wind and put a bunch in a vase in my room.
Peacocks are not an instability of mental indicator. Absolutely not, no sir. Peacock. No, noe, nope, peacock! Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Nanananananana popopopopop slkdnfsldkfnlsdnkf :smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack:
I’ll do my best to help perpetuate the myth.
