The American Imago, 1950, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 163–172.

The author quotes numerous myths all having one central theme: the hero is swallowed by an aquatic monster such as a dragon or whale. He lights a fire inside the monster, cuts out the heart and eats part of the creature, thus killing it, and escapes. The whale who thus supplies her body as food is the mother. The hero, on escape, often has the attributes of a newborn child, although his entry often has the characteristics of sexual phallic assault. The fire is coitus. Since a myth represents an anxiety situation and its solution, these myths represent the solution of the anxieties of the biting, eating child who is also sexually aggressive. The aggression is reversed: the mother swallows the child. The myth has at least a passive beginning.