The Seba library treats Bracelet in 9 passages, across 5 authors (including Onians, R B, Beekes, Robert, McGilchrist, Iain).
from another power, Miming, he obtained a bracelet the mysterious virtue of which was that its owner became we
Onians demonstrates that the bracelet, obtained from a mythic source, functioned not as decoration but as a magical vehicle conferring fortune upon its wearer, consistent with his broader argument about bands and amulets as embodiments of fate.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988thesis
ψέλιον [n.] ‘bracelet, ring, arm jewel, anklet’ (Hdt., X., Hell. and late inscr. and pap.). PG(v). VAR Mostly plur. -ια. Also ψέλλιον and ψιλ
Beekes establishes the principal Greek term for bracelet as Pre-Greek in origin, signalling the word’s archaic, non-Indo-European substrate and its semantic range across arm-jewelry and anklets.
, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2010thesis
βουβάλιον 1 [n.] ‘bracelet’ (Corn., inscr.). PG(V). VAR Mostly plur. -ια. Cf. βουπαλίνα (Delos) and βουπαλίδες· περιασκελίδες ‘leg-bands’ (H.).
Beekes documents a second Pre-Greek Greek term for bracelet whose variant forms include leg-bands, revealing the semantic continuum between arm and leg adornments within the same Pre-Greek lexical family.
, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2010supporting
κλύνιον [n.] ‘bracelet’ (pap. imperial period). PG(v). VAR Also κλύνιον, κλύαλιον (after ψέλιον?); κλάνια· ψέλια βραχιόνων ‘bracelets for the arms’, also κλαρφα· ψέλια ‘armlets or anklets’ (H.)
A third Pre-Greek Greek term for bracelet, attested in imperial papyri and Hesychius, with variants covering both armlets and anklets, confirming the persistent substrate character of bracelet-terminology in Greek.
, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2010supporting
in The Relique, a poem in which he imagines his grave being opened and ‘he that digs it’ seeing the token of his love, a ‘bracelet of bright haire about the bone’, Donne waylays
McGilchrist cites Donne’s image of a bracelet of hair encircling bone as a literary instance of unified sensibility, where the encircling object condenses love, mortality, and bodily persistence into a single arresting figure.
, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, 2009supporting
A pool shines, Like a bracelet / Shaken in a dance.
Bly deploys the bracelet as a poetic image for the reawakening of synaesthetic, embodied perception, connecting visual luminosity and kinetic movement in a single sensory figure.
, A Little Book on the Human Shadow, 1988supporting
a girdle might be used magically to bind an enemy for Death or to bind oneself with wisdom and long life.
Onians situates the logic of magical adornments — girdles, crowns, bands — within which bracelets function: circular objects encircling the body serve as vehicles of both bane and blessing, binding fate to the wearer.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988aside
a new state, a new fate received, embodied in a band or wrapping fastened around or covering the recipient.
Onians’s argument that initiatory and marital transitions are embodied in bands fastened to the body provides the theoretical context within which bracelets operate as material carriers of transformed identity.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988aside
Some objects seem to be full of soul because they symbolize something precious, like the ring that was such an intimate part of my mother’s marriage.
Moore’s reflection on the soul-endowment of personal adornment — specifically a wedding ring — provides a depth-psychological analogue to the archaic belief that jewellery worn on the body accrues psychic power over time.
, Care of the Soul Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition: A Guide, 1992aside