Narcissistic Archery

He draws the bow in vain who has nowhere to point the arrow. (Alberti, 1966, p. 59).

Then the king [of Samos] had him tied to a pillar, and ordered four thousand soldiers to shoot arrows at him. But the arrows hung in mid-air, nor could a single one of them touch Christopher. And when the king, thinking that he was already transfixed with arrows, shouted invectives at him, an arrow fell suddenly from the air, turned upon him, struck him in the eye, and blinded him. Then Christopher said: "I know, O king, that I shall be dead on the morrow. When I am dead, do thou, tyrant, make a paste of my blood, rub it upon thine eyes, and thou shalt recover thy sight!" Then at the king's order he was beheaded; and the king took a little of his blood, and placed it upon his eyes, saying: "In the name of God and Saint Christopher!" And at once he was made whole. Then the king was baptized, and decreed that whoever should blaspheme against God or Saint Christopher should at once be beheaded. (Jacobus de Voragine, 1969, pp. 381-2, slightly changed by the authors)

The circle of the light [color] which is in the middle of the white of the eye is by nature suitable to apprehend objects. This same circle has in it a point which seems black and this is a nerve bored through it which goes within the seat of the powers charged with the power of receiving impressions and forming judgment, and this penetrates to the common sense. Now the objects which are over against [across from] the eyes act with the rays of their images after the manner of many archers who wish to shoot through the bore of a carbine, for the one among them who finds himself looking down the barrel of a carbine will be most likely to touch the bottom of this bore with his arrow; so the objects opposite to the eye will be more transferred to the sense when they are in line with the transfixing nerve. (Translation amended by the authors. Leonardo da Vinci, 1938, p. 252)

Text and images from http://www.webexhibits.org/arrowintheeye/index.html

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• 1The person or thing at which criticism or ridicule is directed. ‘his singing is the butt of dozens of jokes’

1. 2.1 A mound on or in front of which a target is set up for archery or shooting.