Psychopomp

Psychopomp (pronounced sahy-koh-pomp)

In mythology and religion, a spirit, deity, person etc., who guides the spirits or souls of the dead to the other world or after-life.

1835: From the Latin psȳchopompus, from Ancient Greek ψῡχοπομπός (psūkhopompós or psȳchopompós) (conductor (guide) of souls), the construct being ψῡχή (psūkhḗ) (the soul, mind, spirit) + πομπός (pompós) (guide, conductor, escort, messenger). Psyche was from the Latin psychē, from the Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ) (soul).  The modern word psychology was from the French psychologie, from the Latin psychologia, the construct being the Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ) (soul) +-λογία (-logía) (study of).  Pomp was from the Middle English, from the Old French pompe, from the Latin pompa (pomp), from the Ancient Greek πομπή (pompḗ) (a sending, a solemn procession, pomp”), from πέμπω (pémpō) (I send), from pempein (to send, dispatch, guide, accompany) of unknown origin.  Etymologists note the verb has no etymology drawn from Indo-European traditions and nor does it display the characteristics of loanwords or a pre-Greek vocabulary.  In Classical Latin the nominative was psȳchopompus, the genitive psȳchopompī, the dative psȳchopompō, the accusative psȳchopompum, the ablative psȳchopompō & the vocative psȳchopompe.  Psychopomp is a noun.  The noun plural is psychopomps.

Psychopomps were entities (variously spirits, angels, creatures, birds or even people) in a number of cultures and religions whose role was to guide the souls or spirits of the newly dead from Earth to the afterlife.  Wholly non-judgmental, they impartially took the soul in hand and lead them to the hereafter where, according to tradition, what awaited was perhaps a final judgment but sometimes not.  In both sacred and pagan art, psychopomps have been depicted in (often ethereal) human form, as winged angels, animals such as horses and, very often as winged creatures, most famously ravens or vultures, the birds often in large flocks, massed above and circling, awaiting the death of the dying.  To classicists, the word is most associated with Hermes or Charon but by far the psychopomp which resonates most in popular culture is the Grim Reaper.

Psychopomps of note

La barca de Caront (Charon's boat (circa 1932)) oil on canvas by José Benlliure y Gil (1855 - 1937), Museu de Belles Arts de València.

Although famous in Greek mythology as a pschopomp, Χάρων (Charon, written sometimes as Kharon) was more mercenary than most.  Known as the ferryman of Hades who carries the souls of just deceased who had received the rites of burial, across the river Acheron (pain) (in later accounts, the river Styx (hate)) that divided the world of the living from that of the dead.  Traditionally, Charon’s fee was a single coin (an obolus or danake) which the family left on the lips of the corpse and in some of the myths (there are many variations in Greek mythology), those whose families had not a coin to leave or who were denied funereal rites were condemned to wander the “shores of the river for a hundred winters”.  In the manner of modern container shipping, Charon also carried cargo on his return voyages, the catabasis mytheme recording that heroes (including Sisyphusm, Heracles, Dionysus, Hermes, Odysseus, Orpheus, Theseus & Psyche) were brought back across the river from the underworld in Charon’s boat (although what he charged is not recorded).

Beyond ecumenical, Azrael, the Angel of Death, appears in both Jewish and Christian mythology but in Islamic mythology he uniquely assumes the role of a psychopomp, said to take straight to Allah, every soul directly upon death.  Unlike some traditions in which a role in the timing of someone’s demise is delegated to the pyschopomp, in Islamic theology, only Allah is said to know and decide the precise moment when someone is supposed to die so Azrael has no power of life and death; he is but the cab or the rank, the taxi driver who can never refuse a fare.  In the world of the living, some have tried to help Azrael: there was once a Berber chieftain who instructed his mean to shave their heads, leaving a single tuft of hair so that when their time came, Azrael would have something to which to grab.

Two versions of Valkyrie (1864 (left) & 1869 (right)) by Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892), oil on canvas, Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo.

In Norse mythology there were other psychopomps (Frejya and Odin would sometimes act as psychopomps) but the most famous were the Valkyries, the beautiful maidens who circled high in sky above battlefields, choosing which soldiers would live and which would die.  Half the dead would be taken to Fólkvangr (Freyja's afterlife) and half the Valkyries would take to Valhalla, where they would become einherjar (single fighters) and await the onset of Ragnarök, the climactic “twilight of the gods”.  On the rare occasions when peace reigned and no battles were being fought on Midgard, (the Old Norse name for the soil on which humans dwell), the Valkyries attended the einherjar in the banquet hall of Valhalla, serving them mead (an alcoholic beverage, often described as “fermented honey water” and made by fermenting honey mixed with water, hops and various fruits & spices).  Seen often accompanied by ravens and sometimes connected with swans and especially horses, thanks to innumerable painters of the romantic era and Richard Wagner (1813-1883), (whose Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre (the second of the four musical dramas of his Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung (1870)), is probably is best-known fragment), an aura surrounds the Valkyries but if one digs into the Norse myths, they emerge as not always wholly virtuous, sometimes behaving rather like the mean girls of the age.

Late Period Solid-cast copper alloy figure of Anubis, British Museum, London.

Anubis (νουβις in the Ancient Greek, also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian and romanized as Anoup) was an Egyptian psychopomp but also assigned a variety of roles under different ruling dynasties including a protector of graves, the god of death & the afterlife, mummification and embalming.  Depicted usually as a man with a canine head (thought sometimes during the First Dynasty as the beast alone).  Anubis' female counterpart was Anput and his daughter was the serpent goddess Kebechet.  In his role as a psychopomp, the jackal-headed god was tasked with guiding souls to Duat, the Egyptian underworld, where they would be judged according to the goodliness done during their earthly existence.  The Egyptians (usually) believed the heart was the repository of the soul so Anubis weighted the organ against a single feather representing truth.  Were the heart lighter than the feather, their journey continued but if too heavily laden with sin, Anubis would cast it to Ammit, a demon known as the “Devourer of the Dead” who would consume it.

The versatile, multi-tasking Hermes was the Greek god of commerce, thieves (and there’s some overlap there) and athletes.  However, he was also the messenger of the gods and thus the fleet-footed Hermes was able to travel between worlds, explaining why he was also the god of border crossings.  Uniquely, Hermes was the only Olympian god able to visit Heaven, Earth, and Hades something he never tired of mentioning to the other, realm-bound gods, and another of his tasks was to lead the souls of the dead to the entrance of Hades, where they awaited the boat of Charon to pick them up. Among the best remembered of Hermes’ charges were the suitors of Odysseus’ wife Penelope, all of whom were killed when the hero finally returned from Troy.

Coming & going, dressed for the occasion.  Lindsay Lohan in Grim Reaper mode fulfilling a court-mandated community service order at LA County Morgue, October 2011.

In the modern age it’s the Grim-Reaper who is the archetypal psychopomp.  Depicted since the fifteenth century as a scythe-carrying skeleton (the enveloping black cloak soon became de rigueur), his (there have in the West been some depictions of the reaper as female (although well-known elsewhere) but a male identity is usually at least implied although, at the artistic level, most imagery is genderless which must be right because, having no soul, the reaper is unworldly) mode of operation varies depending on the source.  Some say he selects the souls to harvest by tapping his victim on the shoulder, a notice to quit the world, while others insist he merely gathers the souls of the departed.  In English, the Grim Reaper was first (at p 11) mentioned in The Circle of Human Life (1847, 113 pp) by Friedrich August Gottreu Tholuck (1799–1877), a slim volume published in Edinburgh (by Myles Macphail book-binding) which discussed the stages in the life of a good Christian.

 “There are many who suppose that a clear and certain foreknowledge of the day of their death would exert a very powerful influence upon their mind. In this opinion, however, there must be some deception.  All know full well that life cannot last above seventy, or at the most eighty years.  If we reach that term without meeting the grim reaper with his scythe, there or there about, meet him we surely shall.  Death being thus the most certain of all certain events, why not begin at once the work of preparation for it?”

Not all mythology was written with the intricate plots and tales of the Greek.  In Etruscan mythology, Charun was with good cause known as the “Demon of Death” and often appeared with Vanth, a goddess of the underworld.  His role in death and the harvesting of souls was a efficient but not subtle.  When someone was deemed ready to die, Charun would appear before them and smash their skull with his great hammer until they were dead.  He and Vanth would then take the soul to the underworld; those souls declared evil or unworthy, Charun would punish by taking up his hammer, repeatedly striking them for all eternity.

Belt

Belt (pronounced belt)

(1) A band of flexible material, as leather or cord, used for encircling the waist, historically to in some way secure a garment (coat or trousers) but also as a decorative or functional (tool belt, utility belt, gun belt etc) item.

(2) In any context, any encircling or transverse band, strip, or stripe.

(3) In geography, an elongated region having distinctive properties or characteristics.

(4) In machinery, an endless flexible band passing about two or more pulleys, used to transmit motion from one pulley to the other or others or to convey materials and objects.

(5) In (usually military) ballistics, a cloth strip with loops or a series of metal links with grips, for holding cartridges fed into an automatic gun.

(6) A band of leather or webbing, worn around the waist and used as a support for weapons, ammunition etc.

(7) In naval architecture, a series of armor plates forming part of the hull of a warship.

(8) In construction, a broad, flexible strip of rubber, canvas, wood, etc., moved along the surface of a fresh concrete pavement to put a finish on it after it has been floated.

(9) A road, railroad, or the like, encircling an urban center to handle peripheral traffic (as beltway also used in political discourse).

(10) In slang, a hard blow or hit (often in the forms belted or belting), either a person or an object (the latter noted especially in bat & ball sports).

(11) In slang, a shot of liquor, especially as swallowed in one gulp (often in the form “a quick belt”).

(12) In tyre technology, strip of material used in tyre construction, placed between the carcass and the tread for reinforcement (in the forms steel-belted & fabric-belted).

(13) In sport, in a color based ascendency (brown, black etc), a ranking system in various martial arts).

(14) In sport (notably boxing), a form of trophy worn by the holder of a title (WBO Heavyweight Belt, IBF Cruiserweight Belt etc).

(15) As seat belt, an apparatus used in air, sea & land vehicles to secure a passenger, pilot, driver etc in place.

(16) To gird or furnish with a belt.

(17) To surround or mark as if with a belt or band.

(18) In slang, as “belt out”, loudly (though not necessarily pleasingly) to sing or, as “belting along”, rapidly to proceed.

(19) In cricket, as “belter”, a description of a placid pitch ideal for batting and offering little assistance to bowlers.

(20) In astronomy, a collection of small bodies (such as asteroids) which orbit a star; one of certain girdles or zones on the surface of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, supposed to be of the nature of clouds.

(21) In baseball, the part of the strike zone at the height of the batter's waist.

(22) In music, a vocal tone produced by singing with chest voice above the break (or passaggio), in a range typically sung in head voice.

(23)To invest a person with a belt as part of a formal ceremony (even one where as physical belt is not involved or even a historic part).

Pre 1000: From the Middle English belt, from the Old English belt (belt; girdle; broad, flat strip or strap of material used to encircle the waist), from the Proto-Germanic baltijaz (girdle, belt) (source also of the Old High German balz, the Old Norse balti & belti and the Swedish bälte), an early Germanic borrowing from the Latin balteus (belt, girdle, sword-belt) which may be of Etruscan origin.  It was cognate with the Scots belt (belt), the Dutch belt, the German Balz (belt), the Danish bælte (belt), the Swedish bälte (belt, cincture, girdle, zone) and the Icelandic belti (belt).    Synonyms vary according to context including circle, girdle, surround (to encircle), buckle, fasten, strap (to fasten a belt); bash, clobber, smack, wallop. strap, thrash, whip (to hit with a belt); gulp, slurp, guzzle (rapidly to drink); speed, whiz, zoom (rapidly to move).  Belt is a noun & verb, belted is a verb & adjective, belting is a noun, verb & adjective and belter is a noun; the noun plural is belts.

Lindsay Lohan in trench coat, the belt tied and not buckled.

The verb emerged in the early fourteenth century in the sense of “to fasten or gird with a belt” and was derived from the noun.  The meaning "to thrash (as with a belt)" was from the 1640s while the general sense of "to hit, thrash" seems not to have been used until 1838. The colloquial meaning "to sing or speak vigorously" dates from 1949 and was first used in the US, south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  As a development, the noun meaning "a blow or stroke" dates from 1885.  The transferred sense of "broad stripe encircling something with its ends joined" dates from the 1660s while that of a "broad strip or tract" of any sort, without notion of encircling (as in the “wheat belt") emerged by 1808.  As a mark of rank or distinction (sometimes associated with a specific honor in the form of a belt or sash), use began in the mid-fourteenth century and in pugilism, boxing championship belts were first awarded in 1812.  The use in mechanical engineering (drive belts, pulley belts, serpentine belts etc) was first noted in 1795.  The sword-belt dates from the early fourteenth century while the Old English had sweordfætels (sword-belt).  The adjective beltless came from the fashion industry to describe a style without a belt and was from 1854, the belt-loop (through which a belt passes) noted the following year (although such things had existed for centuries).  In the sub-culture of the trench coat, the military tradition was always to use the buckle to secure the belt while true fashionistas prefer to tie, bucklers thought a bit naff.

Lindsay Lohan demonstrates the possibilities offered by belts.

Many languages adopted belt including those of the Raj, the Hindi being बेल्ट (belṭ), the Bengali বেল্ট (belṭ) & the Urdu بیلٹ‎ (belṭ); Afrikaans picked up belt from the Dutch and other variations were the Assamese বেল্ট (belto), the Irish beilt (Welsh & Scots picked up belt), the Japanese: ベルト (beruto) and the Oriya ବେଲ୍ଟ୍ (belṭ).  If used as a proper noun (a surname or place-name), it appears always with an initial capital.  In astronomy, there’s no initial capital when used as a general descriptor but one is used when referring to a specific region (eg as an ellipsis of Main Asteroid Belt).  The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R and known originally as One Belt One Road (OBOR)) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a trans-national infrastructure project (the strategy of which depends on who is providing the interpretation) dating from 2013 and integral to the PRC’s foreign policy.  As physical infrastructure, it’s analogous with the old Silk Road, the ancient trade route which linked China with the West, carrying goods and (more dangerously) ideas between the two great civilizations of Rome and China.

Lindsay Lohan beltless  (or un-belted).

In idiomatic use, “below the belt” means “not in accord with the principles of fairness, decency, or good sportsmanship” and was drawn from the rules of boxing where restrictions were maintained on blows to the genitals.  To have something “under one's belt” is to have something in one’s literal or figurative (a qualification or achievement) possession.  To tighten one’s belt is “to be more frugal; to undergo hardship patiently” and is often used as an injunction by politicians (directed at others).  Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) invented “tighten the belten” for the faux German used in his film The Great Dictator (1940).  The use to describe specific regions can be literal (wheat belt, corn belt etc), meteorological (sun-belt, snow-belt) or more figurative (mortgage belt, Bible belt etc), the latter probably more accurately described as “zones” but the meaning is well-understood and some have emerged recently (such as rust belt which refers to once vibrant industrial areas now in economic decline).  A beltway is a road system which encircles (not necessarily in a circular design) a city and is intended to reduce congestion in the inner region; the phrase “beyond the beltway” is US political slang to differentiate the interests and priorities of those “within the beltway” of Washington DC (ie the political class (executive government, the congress, the upper reaches of the civil service etc)) and the general population.  The US term references Interstate 495 around Washington DC (the Capital Beltway, opened in 1964), the figurative use (the culture of the political class) dating from 1978, exclusively in the negative.

Lindsay Lohan demonstrates more possibilities offered by belts.

Seat belts, although began in any volume to be fitted only in the 1960s although they’d been used in ships (both by fishermen and in the navy) and in the early day of aviation without ever becoming standardized fittings although, in a sense, as a safety restraint they were known even in Antiquity.  In Greek mythology, the Sirens were deadly creatures who used their lyrical and earthly feminine charms to lure sailors to their death; attracted by their enchanting music and voices, seafarers would sail their ships too close to the rocky coast of the Siren’s island and be shipwrecked.  Not untypically for the tales from antiquity, the sirens are said to have had many homes.  The Romans said they lived on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli while later authors place them variously on the islands of Anthemoessa, on Cape Pelorum, on the islands of the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae.  All were places with rocky coasts and tall cliffs.  It was Odysseus who most famously escaped the sirens.  Longing to hear their songs but having no wish to be ship-wrecked , he had his sailors fill their ears with beeswax, rendering them deaf and to be certain, Odysseus ordered them to tie him to the mast, thereby inventing the seat-belt.  Sailing past, when he heard their enticing voices, he ordered his men to release him but they tightened the knots, not releasing him till the danger had passed.  Some writers claimed the Sirens were fated to die if a man heard their singing and escaped them and that as Odysseus sailed away they flung themselves into the water and died.

Lindsay Lohan demonstrates still more possibilities offered by belts.

Knocking back a bracer: Crooked Hillary Clinton enjoys a quick belt of Crown Royal Bourbon Whiskey, Bronko's restaurant, Crown Point, Indiana, Saturday 12 April, 2008.

In the late 1940s, the rising death toll attracted interest but few cars were at the time fitted with seat-belts and research was difficult with such small sample sizes although it was indicated there was some positive although instances were also noted of injuries being caused by the belts’ then primitive and unregulated design and it was these findings which encouraged the first “inertial reel” (retractable) designs.  A couple of US manufacturers during the 1950s dabbled with the concept, either installing seat belts as standard or offering them as an extra-cost option but the take-up rate was low and some buyers ever returned the cars to dealers to have them removed.

The familiar modern three-point (lap & sash) belt evolved in the late 1950s with much input from US designers but it was Swedish manufacturers which first made them a standard fitting, Scandinavia being often dark and icy, drivers sharing the roads with large elk.  The modern seatbelt design (conceptually unchanged to this day) is credited to Swedish mechanical engineer Nils Bohlin (1920–2002) who was employed by Volvo which made them a standard fitting in 1959, following the example of Saab which had added them the previous year.  During the 1960s, US states gradually imposed a requirement they be fitted until, in 1969, federal law mandated the rule for all cars sold in the country.  The laws requiring them actually to be worn proved more difficult to implement but other countries quickly made both the fitment and wearing of seat-belts compulsory, initially only for those seated in the front seat(s) but before long it extended to all seats.

Instruction sheet for Child Bed (1961 Chevrolet Corvair), Chevrolet Division of General Motors (GM) part-number 985359.

Attitudes to motor vehicle safety were different in 1959 when Chevrolet first started making the Corvair (1959-1969).  At the time, apart from improving the quality of roads (which actually meant higher speeds) the government had done little about either safety or pollution but both the rising highway death toll and the worsening air quality in cities was attracting attention and things would soon be different, decades of legislation soon to unfold.  The Corvair however was a product of a substantially unregulated age and in that spirit Chevrolet thoughtfully offered the “child bed” as an accessory so one’s baby could sleep (unsecured) on the parcel shelf beneath the rear window, the additional benefits of the placement said to be that being rear-engined, the warmth and soothing vibration from the engine gently would lull the infant to sleep.  It was another world.

An early Chevrolet Corvair with swing axles, swinging.

The Corvair was doomed by decisions made even before production began.  It was anyway the twilight of the rear-engined era and although swing axles in Europe proved surprisingly persistent (usually because the design provided a relatively cheap way to implement an independent rear suspension) few installed them on a car as heavy and powerful as the Corvair.  Mercedes-Benz, which was an adherent (despite their experience with the superior De Dion layout) was still producing a handful of 600s (the W100 Grosser) with swing axles as late as 1981 but the Germans tamed the behavior with special anti-squat & anti-dive geometry as well as a compensating centre spring.  Chevrolet did not and with a weight distribution which was even more exaggerated rearward by its relatively heavy and long engine, the Corvair’s handling could be unpredictable, something which the engineers wanted to alleviate by fitting a handful of parts (the cost under US$40) but this the accountants vetoed.  The ensuing crashes, death toll and law suits attracted the interest of consumer lawyer Ralph Nader (b 1934) who wrote Unsafe at Any Speed (1965), a critique on the industry generally although in the public mind it’s always been most associated with the failings of the Corvair which the author made the subject of the opening chapter.

The Corvair before and after.  GM applied a fix in 1963 which rectified the worst of the characteristics and a full re-design was undertaken and released in 1965.  For the Corvair's reputation it was too late.

Actually, the problems as described applied only to the Corvairs built between 1959-1963 but the damage was done, neither its reputation or sales figures ever recovered and it was only the corporation’s desire to save face which saw the much improved car restyled for 1966, production lingering on until 1969 although it may be Nader’s book actually prolonged things, competition in the compact sector notably more intense that in 1960s.  It was unfortunate because the restyled Corvair was one of the better-looking machines of the era, only the truncated length of the bodywork forward of the cowl detracting from the elegance.

The lovely, Italianesque lines of the second generation Corvair (1966-1969).

Curiously, after its demise came a coda.  In 1970, responding to pressure from Nader, the Nixon administration commissioned a study comparing the 1963 Corvair with five “similar” vehicles and a report was in 1972 issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which concluded, inter alia, the Corvair’s handling and propensity to roll was comparable with that of “other light domestic cars.”  Nader dismissed the study as “a shoddy, internally contradictory whitewash” and accused the NHTSA of using “biased testing procedures and model selection.”  He noted they assessed on the 1963 Corvair which Chevrolet significantly had modified to correct the deficiencies found in those built earlier.  The Nixon administration ignored him, presumably taking the view that “what was good for General Motors was good for the country”.

Lindsay Lohan demonstrates yet more possibilities offered by belts.