ABSTRACT
This quotation shows what he means by heavenly bliss. Holderlin was never able to forget this first and greatest happi ness whose haunting presence estranged him from real life. T h e motif of the twins in the mother’s womb is found in the African legend, recorded by Frobenius,9 of the Big Snake, which grew out of a little snake in a hollow tree (“stretching forth of the serpent” ), and which devoured all human beings (devouring mother = death) until only one pregnant woman remained. She dug a ditch, covered it with a stone, and there gave birth to twins who afterwards became dragon-killers. T h e mating in the mother also occurs in the following West African legend: “ In the beginning, Obatala the Sky and Odudua the Earth, his wife, lay pressed close together in a calabash.” 10 Being “guarded in modest bud” is an image that is found in Plutarch, where it is said that the sun is born at dawn from a flower bud. Brahma, too, comes out of a bud (cf. pi. x l v m ) , and in Assam a bud gave birth to the first human pair.
