Is there a historical account, myth, fiction, or legend of a sage,
scholar, teacher, or philosopher contemplating an egg?

I saw a statue depicting a bearded male figure, seated, in Western
classical draped robes, holding an egg and gazing at it in apparent
fascination.  I want to know who this is and what is the story that
goes with it.

This was described in my #382228, which I probably put under the wrong
category.  I am closing that question and raising the price.

Thank you,
Archae0pteryx

OK, I am walking on eggs here. This question really fried my brains,
so to speak. Scrambled my intellect (and that's no yolk). I'm ready to
deliver omelet's soliloquy now.

It is my belief that this statue is likely to be a representation of
Ovid, who has been depicted in French manuscripts in a pose in which
he is comparing the universe with an egg.

"Ovid, seated at a lectern with an open book, comparing the universe
with an egg; the creation (Genesis 1:3-25)"

Mnemosyne: Ovidius, Métamorphoses 
http://www.mnemosyne.org/mia/showillu?id=100442

A detailed image, showing Ovid and the egg in the left center:

Mnemosyne: Ovidius, Métamorphoses 
http://gallica.bnf.fr/scripts/mediator.exe?L=08100128&I=1&F=C

The "cosmic egg," "Orphic egg," or "world egg" is not, of course, a
concept invented by Ovid. The notion that Ovid's name was a reference
to the cosmic egg was promoted by medieval commentary on Ovid's
Metamorphoses:

"In the Accessus the name Ovidius is said to be derived from ovum
dividens, referring to the composition of a fantastic world-egg
described by Martianus Capella (De Nupt. 2.140). As an etymology for
Ovid's name, this was to enjoy a vogue for centuries."

Bryn Mawr Classical Review: The "Vulgate" Commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1992/03.01.05.html

I haven't seen the statue to which you refer, but the elements are all
there: an ancient Roman and an egg in a French work of art. So this is
my theory, and I'm stickin' to it. ;-)

Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "ovid" + "egg" "world OR cosmos OR universe"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=ovid+egg+world+OR+cosmos+OR+universe

Best,
Pink

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 07 Aug 2004 20:43 PDT

I meant to include this when I was preparing my answer, but somehow I
left it out. I do not think this is related to your statue, but I
think you'll find it interesting. There's a term from alchemy called
the "Egg of the Philosophers":

"Preparation of the Philosophers' Egg
I say to you therefore that I wish to set forth in an orderly manner
the things which I have narrated above.  I wish to describe the egg of
the Philosophers [egg-shaped alchemical vessel used in attempts to
produce the Philosopher's Stone; in this case Bacon uses the phrase to
indicate to the adept reader that what follows is a container of
secrets] and to investigate the parts of Philosophic man, for thereby
is an initiation to other things."

The Letter of Roger Bacon Concerning the Marvelous Power of Art and of
Nature and Concerning the Nullity of Magic
http://e3.uci.edu/clients/bjbecker/SpinningWeb/week3a.html

Google Web Search: "egg of the philosophers"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22egg+of+the+philosophers%22

~Pink

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 08 Aug 2004 10:29 PDT

Tryx,

One more little tidbit that you may find amusing...

While I was researching the matter of a sage contemplating an egg, I
came across this:

http://www.eeecooks.com/recipes/2003/08/25/potatoes.html

~Pink

---

Request for Answer Clarification by archae0pteryx-ga on 08 Aug 2004 11:24 PDT

Oho, a shell game!  Well, I hope it won't be considered poaching on
your well-known paronomasiac territory to say that I'm glad you didn't
chicken out when this poser was set before you.  Your fertile mind
could easily beat such a challenge, though others might duck it.  I
think you've laid my question to rest.

But there is one other thing I would like to know:  dear Pink, what
prompted you to search on Ovid in the first place?

Tryx

P.S.  Potatoes and eggs with sage made me squeal aloud with delight! 
(I would love to say "cluck," but it wouldn't be true.  We're in a
different part of the barnyard now.)  I believe they're on their way
to my table.

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 08 Aug 2004 15:04 PDT

>> dear Pink, what prompted you to search on Ovid in the first place?

Some folks may not believe this, Tryxie, but the info about Ovid came
to me in a dream. When I awakened, I figured I had nothing to lose by
running a Google search on "Ovid" and "egg," and by golly, it paid
off.

I don't think anything supernatural was going on here. My brain was
just doing some useful work instead of creating the usual wacko
assortment of surrealistic images that typically appear in dreams.

Hooray for that. It's about time my inner child got a part-time job.

~Pink

---

Request for Answer Clarification by archae0pteryx-ga on 08 Aug 2004 15:31 PDT

I believe it, Pink.  I like my unconscious to earn its keep too, which
it mostly does with four-star entertainment that is too much like art
to be useful.  But now and then something pops up that serves some aim
in waking life, or at least turns out to be something that I can find
a use for, which is not necessarily the same thing.

Check back in a month or so and I may be able to supply a photo of the statue.

Tryx

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 08 Aug 2004 15:36 PDT

I would like to see a photo of the statue. This question (like many of
your questions) grabbed my curiosity and took it for a ride.

If you need a place to post photos online, I've heard good things about this place:

http://www.photobucket.com

Pink,

There's the usual top marks for you and a bonus for your creative
dreaming mind, for which I wish a long and prosperous career.

Thank you,
Archae0pteryx

I'm thinking "Too much thyme on [your] hands!" :)

Tryx,

Thank you muchly for the five stars, the tip, and the good wishes!

I'll conclude this eggselent dialogue with a colorful phrase that I
heard many years ago at a science fiction convention:

May the great bird of the galaxy fly up the nose of your enemy and lay
a rotten egg.

~Pink

Well, heck, I can't even make a bad pun and spell it correctly.

For 'eggselent' above, please read 'eggcellent.' 

My mind didn't do that. It was my fingers trying to get even with me
for having enslaved them at the keyboard.

You are certainly welcome!  It would be oval of me not to acknowledge
your efforts, not to mention the gratuitous puns.

I took two snaps of my traveling companion beside the statue at the
Jardin des Plantes, but I seem to have taken them with her camera, not
mine, and she won't be back for three more weeks.  We are going to
swap photos, so I will get to see how those came out.  I'll use
software to blur her image a bit, or take it out if I can, for the
sake of personal privacy, and then post the better of the two pics
where you can examine it.

Meanwhile, here's one I took just driving down the road in the country:
http://membres.lycos.fr/dbky/Apteryx/LotLandscapeD807.jpg

I sincerely hope my enemy doesn't sneeze.

Until nest time,
Tryxie

Wow. What a view! A beautiful scene and a beautiful photo.

I have never left the United States. I'd love to go to Europe. My
husband (who is a Canadian citizen) lived in Barcelona in the '70s,
and he wants to go back to visit some day. If I'm nice to him (which
usually isn't difficult), maybe he'll take me along.

Thank you!  Just for that, here's another one:
http://membres.lycos.fr/dbky/Apteryx/CarennacAbbeyDoor.jpg

This is a door on a nameless structure in the outer yard of a
fifteenth-century abbey in Carennac.  The abbey was self-consciously
beautiful; the door was just there.  That's why I took a picture of
it.

You should go.  Go soon, while the landscape is still unspoiled and
magical, while it's still hard to find a town with a pay phone in it. 
You can take in enough images in just a week to last you the rest of
your life.

Tryx

Thanks for the "door abbey" pic. Sometimes the simplest, plainest
things make the finest photographs.

I'd love to see more, if you eventually assemble an album. Vicarious
travel is better than no travel at all!

Sometime in the near future I'll be posting a nice selection on my
website, with commentary.  Do stop by and have a look, won't you?

If I'm not mistaken (and I might very well be), this quote from Book
VII, Chapter XVII of the Saturnalia of Macrobius (5th century, CE)
poses the question of whether the chicken preceded the egg or vice
versa:

"Inter haec Euangelus gloriae Graecorum invidens et inludens:
Facessant, ait, haec quae inter vos in ostentationem loquacitatis
agitantur: quin potius, si quid callet vestra sapientia, scire ex
vobis volo, ovumne prius extiterit an gallina?"

http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/7*.html#16


However, I agree that Ovid is probably your guy.  Now, if you had seen
a statue of a sage holding up a chicken .  .  .    .

markj-ga

Thank you, markj, a very cool postscript.  I'm going to watch for that
guy with a chicken.

Hi, archae0pteryx,

Maybe these Google cache pages (specially the first)on Aristotle and
his sudies and theories about eggs and life will interest you:
://www.google.com.br/search?q=cache:YWprUcKiSn4J:www.scienceforpeople.com/Essays/Aristotle.htm+aristotle+egg+&hl=pt-BR

://www.google.com.br/search?q=cache:yjqibVZN9RoJ:www.fiu.edu/~hauptli/AristotleIntroductionforEthicsClass.htm+lyceum+aristotle++chicken+egg&hl=pt-BR

://www.google.com.br/search?q=cache:6h8n1-jy-aEJ:www.wls.wels.net/conted/Science/books/Separate%2520from%2520His%2520word/Individual%2520Chapters/sphswd08.pdf+lyceum+aristotle++chicken+egg&hl=pt-BR

://www.google.com.br/search?q=cache:9JtaywzVuR4J:www.icseb-vi.biology.upatras.gr/present/aristophrastos.pdf+lyceum+aristotle+embryo+egg&hl=pt-BR

Luntes

Hello,archae0pteryx,
I love Google, I love Google Answers, I love to search and I love art.
So, it was a pleasure to find some information on "The man with the egg".
As you know, I'm not a GAR and my comment is free. But I feel glad to
know that you liked it.
I have already e-mailed Google Answers editors suggesting that, in the
first twenty days, answers and also comments should only be allowed
for GARs, leaving the last 10 days before the question expires for
anyone to answer by comment and, if the asker accepts it as an answer,
maybe we, not GARs, could receive half the price, for example.
I think that it would previlege GARs to try to answer the question in
the first 20 days, without competing with not GARs. Many of the
questions are answered very fastly by not GARs and what happens is
that both GARs and not GARs receive nothing (and Google Answers don't
get its 25% also).
I have already suggested the creation of Google Responde (Google
Answers in Portuguese) for Brazilians. I'm in Brazil.
Maybe in the future it will become true. Brazilians use Google a lot.
Thank you for giving me the chance to do what I love, that is searching.
Fortunately, I have a job and I search for Google Answers in my spare time.
Keep using Google and who knows I'll be able to help you another time.
Best regards
Luntes