Ms. Washington's main subject is the essence of life, which she seems to see as personified by several deities of the Nigerian religion, Ife.
Even though academic rivals of Dr. Venter saw him as personifying the encroachment of the profit motive into genomics, friends say he was always somewhat ambivalent about business.
Since Bashar al-Assad is seen by Moscow as personifying Syria as Putin does Russia, saving the Syrian state means saving Assad.
One of these symbols, the personified Columbia, was seen as an embodiment of the United States in the manner that Britannia was identified with the United Kingdom and Marianne came to represent France.
"Zell's folks are very critical of the corporate culture here, and they see many of the top guys as personifying it," a Tribune publishing executive told me, referring to the company's leaders.
On dualism, he argued, "the 'darkness' of the Mysterons is most easily seen as the psychological rift – the struggle of 'good' and 'evil' – of the Western world as personified by Colonel White and his team.
But all of a sudden, it was as if we were no longer seen as Curt and Rob, or even regular customers, but as gay marriage personified.
More often, however, Mrs. King has been seen as an inspirational figure, a woman of enormous spiritual depth who came to personify the ideals Dr. King fought for.
Once seen as a master manager who could serve as the bridge between the old media and the new, Mr. Pittman came to personify the failures of the AOL-Time Warner merger.
But more often, Mrs. King has been seen as an inspirational figure around the world, a tireless advocate for her husband's causes and a woman of enormous spiritual depth who came to personify the ideals Dr. King fought for.
