VI. Playing and Knowing
“For archaic man, doing and daring are power, but knowing is magical power. For him all particular knowledge is sacred knowledge—esoteric and wonder-working wisdom, because any knowing is directly related to the cosmic order itself.”
The riddle-solving and death-penalty motif features strongly in the chapter.
- Greek tradition: the story of the seers Chalcas and Mopsos.
Read more about this topic: Homo Ludens (book)
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or knowing:
“The essential is to excite the spectators. If that means playing Hamlet on a flying trapeze or in an aquarium, you do it.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)
“It is a mistake, to think the same thing affects both sight and touch. If the same angle or square, which is the object of touch, be also the object of vision, what should hinder the blind man, at first sight, from knowing it?”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)