12 History of Luminescence 



air gave out light and warmed their surroundings themselves, so 

 they did not even miss the heat of the sun. . . ." Light and heat 

 are almost universally associated in the minds of all peoples. Only 

 rarely is a light without heat recognized as an actuality and incor- 

 porated into folklore, as in another Siberian belief, of the Yenisei 

 Ostiaks. This has to do with conditions after death and might 

 definitely be attributed to observation of the luminescence of de- 

 cayed wood. The Ostiaks believe that " under the earth there is a 

 great grotto, or seven grottoes under one another, in which the 

 souls of the dead dwell, and where in place of the sun and moon, 

 only rotted trees give out a dim light." ^ 



One might expect to find a myth concerning the origin of fire 

 from phosphorescent wood but there appears to be no such connec- 

 tion, although the idea of fire residing in wood is a common belief. 

 By rubbing dry sticks together the fire could be liberated. How- 

 ever, the Jicarilla Apaches of northern New Mexico did believe that 

 when they first arrived on earth the trees could talk but would not 

 burn because there was no fire. In a complicated tale * they relate 

 how fire was distributed throughout the world by a fox who obtained 

 it from a great campfire which had been ignited by fireflies. 



Many other primitive people have alleged that fire was brought 

 by some animal, usually a land animal, but sometimes by a marine 

 form such as the cuttlefish, some of which are luminous. The Gilbert 

 and the Lord Howe islanders believe that fire came originally from 

 the sea, a natural conclusion in regions where brilliant sea phos- 

 phorescence occurs. However, a myth of the origin of fire from 

 " burning of the sea " is anything but common. Most races trace 

 the origin of fire to lightning or to sparks from iron and flint. 



Light and fire have been deified by most ancient peoples. A fire 

 god and particularly a sun god, as symbol of the greatest source of 

 heat and light, always occupied important places in the heavenly 

 hierarchy. The ancient Greek sun god was Helios, later associated 

 by the Romans with Phoebus Apollo. 



Although no true god or goddess of luminescence can be recog- 

 nized, faint cold lights were often associated with moonlight, whose 

 goddess was Selene, later identified as Artemis, and called Luna ^ 

 and Diana in Rome. It is significant that the first book on lumines- 



3 Ibid. 4: 486-487. 



* See J. G. Frazer, Myths of the origin of fire, 140-141, London, 1930. 



° In The paradoxical discoveries of J. B. Van Helmont concerning the macrocosm 

 and microcosm (English version, London, 1685) , the lights of heaven were the sun, 

 warm and male, and the moon, cool and female. Van Helmont pointed out that 

 part of the moon's light proceeded from the sun, as woman was formed from man 

 (Genesis 2: 22) . 



