Note 358 — Chapter IV · THE UNCONSCIOUS ORIGIN OF THE HERO

When Freud called attention through his analytic researches to the connection between excrements and gold, many ignorant persons found themselves obliged to ridicule in an airy manner this connection. The mythologists think differently about it. De Gubernatis says that excrement and gold are always associated together. Grimm tells us of the following magic charm: “If one wants money in his house the whole year, one must eat lentils on New Year’s Day.” This notable connection is explained simply through the physiological fact of the indigestibility of lentils, which appear again in the form of coins. Thus one becomes a mint.