An early defender (c. 1850) of 'pop archetypes'- sorry, CG Jung but 'tis our project raison d'être-"A favorite topic with me was the popular belief in omens - a belief which, at this one epoch of my life, I was almost seriously disposed to defend. On this subject we had long and animated discussions - [my relative] maintaining the utter groundlessness of faith in such matters, - I contending that a popular sentiment arising with absolute spontaneity- that is to say, without apparent traces of suggestion - had in itself the unmistakable elements of truth, and was entitled to as much respect as that intuition which is the idiosyncrasy of the individual man of genius." --Edgar Allan Poe "The Sphinx" 1850 - click on link for entire spidery piece.
At left: Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1864, Gustave Moreau (French), Oil on canvas (21.134.1), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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