Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



the legend we see clearly enough the ill-luck 

 with women that followed Vaino and Fion 

 and Pan. No doubt in the earlier legends 

 she fled wittingly. Ev^en in that which we 

 have Orpheus completes his bad luck by 

 looking back and breaking the charm, where- 

 upon Eurydike flees down again into hell, 

 from which it may be she came with reluc- 

 tance. Orpheus comes to his death through 

 women who tear him to pieces, while Pan, 

 constantly teased and tormented by nyinphs, 

 was bewailed as dead ; while Fion of Ireland 

 is forced to see Grainne his sun-maiden elope 

 with Diarmuid the irresistible. Pan and Vaino 

 have also more serious adventures with wo- 

 men, as we have seen. 



Pan's bird of grandeur was the eagle, but 

 that was so long ago that the earliest Euro- 

 peans must have been at the time in the same 

 stage of culture as American Indians. On the 

 west coast of America there is a belief in the 

 Eagle of the Zenith, a gigantic bird too high 



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