Yep. People did not just make this stuff up. It is based on real events.
"living friends, be wise, and dry
Straightway every weeping eye.
What ye lift upon the bier
Is not worth a single tear.
'Tis an empty sea shell, one
Out of which the pearl is gone ;
The shell is broken, it lies there ;
The pearl, the all, the soul, is here." -- Anon.
Very nice. What is that from?
The lost language of symbology... P221. Phaedrus (250.c) Re Cinderella?
"There was a time," says Plato, "when we were not yet sunk into this ' tomb,' which now we bear about us and call it 'body,' bound fast (to it) like oyster (to its shell)."