Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



chariot through the air. Venus was the dove 

 itself once upon a time, when people about 

 the Mediterranean were rising from the stage 

 when they could conceive of bloodthirsty 

 warrior-gods only, such as existed on the Bal- 

 tic down to the Middle Ages, into the concep- 

 tion of gods or goddesses with lovable traits, 

 such as Pallas Athene and Apollo and Aphro- 

 dite. The bird that the Greeks called the 

 " quaker " formed naturally the model for the 

 sweet love goddess who fled, trembling, before 

 the spear of Diomedes on the windy plains 

 of Troy. It was owing to his irreverent 

 treatment of Aphrodite that Diomedes lost 

 the love of his wife, and, on his voyage to 

 Italy to found a new colony, the services of 

 his men, whom the vindictive goddess turned 

 into birds. If i^neas, like his mother Venus, 

 seems to descend mythologically from the 

 dove, Diomedes, like his father Tydeus and 

 his patroness Pallas Athene, seems to de- 

 scend from some bird of prey whose war- 



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