Footprints in Myth and Legend
The appearance of footprints, or marks interpreted as footprints, have led to numerous myths and legends. Some locations use such imprints as tourist attractions.
Examples of footprints in myth and legend include:
- Buddha footprint – an aniconic and symbolic representation of the Buddha.
- The Devil's Footprints – an unexplained series of hoof-like marks that appeared in Devon, England on 8 February 1855 after a light snowfall during the night.
- Golden calf – in Islam dust from the hoofprints of Haizum, the winged horse of archangel Gabriel, is used to animate the Golden calf.
- Moso's Footprint – a 1m by 3m rock enclosure in Samoa made when the giant Moso stepped over to Samoa from Fiji, and the other footprint can be found on Viti Levu, the largest island of Fiji.
- Footprints of Bigfoot, a cryptozoological animal, are said to give proof to its existence.
- Sri Pada, or Adam's Peak, a mountain in Sri Lanka, has a large footprint-shaped impression in the rock at its summit, said by various religious adherents to be that of the Buddha, Shiva or Adam.
- The reputed print of the right foot of Jesus is preserved in the Mosque of the Ascension in Jerusalem.
- A set of Jesus's footprints, according to legend, are preserved at the Church of Domine Quo Vadis outside of Rome.
- A mark in stone of the paving of the Munich Frauenkirche is known as the Teufelstritt ("Devil's Footstep").
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Famous quotes containing the words footprints in, footprints, myth and/or legend:
“We met. But all
We did that day was mingle great and small
Footprints in summer dust as if we drew
The figure of our being less than two
But more than one as yet.”
—Robert Frost (18741963)
“Morning at last: there in the snow
Your small blunt footprints come and go.”
—Philip Larkin (19221986)
“To get time for civic work, for exercise, for neighborhood projects, reading or meditation, or just plain time to themselves, mothers need to hold out against the fairly recent but surprisingly entrenched myth that good mothers are constantly with their children. They will have to speak out at last about the demoralizing effect of spending day after day with small children, no matter how much they love them.”
—Wendy Coppedge Sanford. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Womens Health Book Collective, introduction (1978)
“The legend of Felix is ended, the toiling of Felix is done;
The Master has paid him his wages, the goal of his journey is won;
He rests, but he never is idle; a thousand years pass like a day,
In the glad surprise of Paradise where work is sweeter than play.”
—Henry Van Dyke (18521933)