Pearl
The pearl denotes hidden worth made from an irritant, purity drawn out of fleshly darkness, and whatever is most valued, from a child to heaven.
Our paraphrase of what the sources say it carries.
At a glance
- Type
- Image
- Group
- Spirit World / Soul and Psyche
- Borne by
- 2 figures
- Traditions
- Chinese mythology (1)Melanesian mythology (1)
Figures that bear it
A model judged each figure against its own description, one term at a time. Is: the figure is a kind of this thing. Bears: it carries the thing or is marked by it. What a figure does is filed under motifs and powers. Open "why" for the sentence the judgement rests on.
- Bonito Maidens bears Melanesian mythology
why
They are seldom seen and consistently described as beautiful, wearing the ornament of their own element — cowrie shell and porpoise tooth in one account, ivory and pearl and shell in another.
- Huli jing bears Chinese mythology
why
Folk and literary tradition frequently link the fox spirit's power to an internal elixir or pearl, sometimes described as a bead or ball of concentrated energy that it works to cultivate or protect, and that a human who obtains it might gain some of the fox's power, though the attempt is dangerous.