Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



like nature shows in the name Tydeus, the 

 striker. 



What more natural, considering the preva- 

 lence of bird worship in remote days, than the 

 offerings of doves in the Temple at Jerusalem 

 and the prominence of the dove at Hierapolis, 

 the vast temple of the Syrian goddess described 

 by Lucian ? The latter has left on record that 

 the dove was not eaten at Hierapolis ; it was 

 a sacred bird ; and he refers to a legend that 

 Semiramis was turned into a dove. So we find 

 the Indians of a clan that bears the name of a 

 bird or beast refusing to kill that bird or beast 

 except on certain occasions, when its sacrifice 

 becomes a religious rite and the harm done it 

 is neutralized by the ceremony and appropriate 

 prayers. 



Venus retains in her later shape some bird- 

 characteristics, such as her capture in the golden 

 net made by her husband, who for contrast is 

 a sooty and lame god of the forge. The swan 

 and the sparrow have been assigned to her as 



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