Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



representative of him. But why, oh, why 

 did the ancient Italiots choose just this bird, 

 and place him in a line of ancestry that vied 

 with and perchance claimed precedence of 

 Jove ? 



After all, I reasoned, what do we really know 

 about Greek and Latin mythology, despite the 

 centuries during which we have been pretend- 

 ing to study the classics and nothing but the 

 classics, seeing it, as we still do see it, through 

 the spectacles of ancient writers who lacked the 

 wide sweep of the world's Hteratures and the 

 world's humbler races to obtain materials ex- 

 tensive enough from which to make compari- 

 sons that throw light? Although the men of 

 religion in their day were not so hot to throttle 

 knowledge as they have been since, perhaps 

 because they were not so deadly sure that they 

 knew it all, and that theirs was the only way to 

 save mankind, nevertheless, the heathen too 

 were influenced by fear of oflFending the pious. 

 Some have broken their confidences regarding 



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