Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



landed, was attacked as an enemy and slain by 

 his son before explanations could be made. 

 Here we have the cuckoo story brought into 

 connection with the peacock under a name 

 that is probably not Greek at all, for in all 

 likelihood Katreus is not a Greek name. 



How readily the peacock might find its tri- 

 umphant way about the world is seen in the 

 remains of a tomb of a Viking leader preserved 

 at Christiania. The galley of war was his 

 coffin ; his armor and weapons were buried 

 with him. And among his belongings one sees, 

 shining still bright after a rest of eight centuries, 

 the plumes of a peacock embedded in a mass of 

 charred stuff. In the Middle Ages the peacock, 

 stuffed and brought ceremoniously to table, 

 was a feature in various solemnities, oaths 

 being taken on the bird. These oaths, these 

 ceremonies, can have been no other thing than 

 survivals from the past when the bird was after 

 a fashion worshipped, if not as a bird, then as a 

 symbol. 



138 



