The Genius Universal: a Comparison among Dongba, Ancient Greek, and Archaic Roman Religions


 This study compares Shu (god of nature) and See (god of life) in Dongba culture. The two gods could be hypostases of the same ancestral deity. Shu and See are comparable to the Genius in ancient Roman tradition and the god Pan in ancient Greece. These apparently unrelated spirits accompany humans and are possibly connected with representations of deities of life. According to Joseph Rock’s studies, Shu in Dongba culture corresponds to Nāga in Hinduism, which infers the cultural interchange between Shu and See and archaic Indo-European beliefs. The snake-shaped Shu is widely recognizable as an archetypal icon in different cultures, which could be linked to primitive worship of chthonic deities.