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The point of this Chapter is dedicated to ideas in Cap, Cup, Caput or head as well as to "go ahead" and explore CAPital vistas including some found in Bible and in classic mythology. Not mentioned here are ideas related to Sagittarius and its place in the Zoo of Zodiac emblems. Likewise, we leave to a medical overview the subject of "Caput Medusa", once a common sign suggestive of the snake-like hair of the mythologic Medusa - this sign was noted on the peri-umiblical regions of chronic alcoholics suffering from cirrhosis of the liver (a crown like of bluish veins radiating awat from the umbilicus - reflecting collateral flow of venous blood away from a fibrosed liver)
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Di-CEPHalus Serpent or Coatl
Spanish conquerors asserted that this Coatl was "given" to them as a "gift". |
To move "straightforward" or ahead, a start is to note that the Cranium or
Cephalon lacks "straight" features, except for one structure, the Sagittal suture. To think "sagittally" is typical of Sagatious Sages, as if to underscore that "thinking straight as an arrow" is a path to wisdom. The term Sagitta (arrow) found in "straight as an arrow" is applied to the serrated midline
Skull suture joining the left and right parietal bones or halfs of the CAP, CUP or CUPola of the
head or Cranial vault. For anatomists, any plane parallel to the Sagttal suture is a Sagittal plane. Bacause by these pages we honor Medicin ANd the Healing Arts, we must mention
Sagittarius, also known as
Chiron, the centaur who taught
Esculapius surgery and how to "shoot arrows straight". From Chiron we get Khirurgh, Chirofano or quirofano, Cirujano and Chiropractor, which in Ukrainian, Spanish and English stand for surgical operating room, surgeon and therapists who heal by hand Manipulations (manus being hand).
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Greek Sages had good sagittal sutures and were sagacious |
Returning to "straightFORWARD", a frontal point of the head is the
METOPIC area or FOREHAED or in Spanish by FRENTE. In Ukrainian, forehead is CHOLO and it represents a landmark of man or CHOLOvik. The human Forehead and Frontal cerebral lobe are larger than in other simians, a likely reason why humans have greater capacity for FORETHOUGHT and penchant to be conFRONTational and to become obnoxious and noxious.
It is self-evident that most organisms are monoCEPHALIC. However, ANENCEPHALIC births are well known, (a fatal CEREBRAL or CEPHALON maldevelopment). Recent studies show that nearly 70% of instances of anencephaly, spina bifida and related birth defects can be prevented by folic (foliage) acid pills taken before and during early pregnancy.
The presence of two, three, four or many heads is referred to as BICEPS, TRICEPS, QUADRICEPS and MULTI or POLYCEPHALY. In medical parlance, BICEPS, TRICEPS, QUADRICEPS, refers to muscles with two, three or four tendon "heads" or insertion points.
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Hercules - Cerberus - Hydra - Polycephaly |
Concerning POLYCEPHALY, the Bible speaks of multi-headed dragons and classic mythology offers delightful stories such as two of the labors of Hercules. In one labor, Hercules had to face a polycephalic Hydra and in another, he had to capture a quadro-icephalic dog-like monster called Cerberus.
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Polycephalic Cerberus and Hydra |
Teratologists have described severely malformed "double headed "monsters" and clinicians have reported double headed "Siamese" twins. These types of birth defects represent an incomplete "splitting" of an embryo into two nearly identical organisms. When identical twins fail to fully separate and the shared body parts (attachment) are relatively uncritical, such twins may survive in a "co-joined" state and often are "bi-cephalous".
Biblical theologians have debated if the domicile of the soul is the head or the heart. Racists South Africa, not long ago debated if a deceased "white" recipient of cardiac transpant from a "Black" donor could be burried among "Whites". .
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