Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



Nyctlmene (nux the night) evidently means 

 the night creature ; her father's name Opop- 

 eus is plainly that of the hoopoe (upupa) ; 

 therefore the legend itself is one more example 

 of bird myth humanized, like the crimes of 

 heroes and heroines already traced back to the 

 natural history of the cuckoo. 



The fact that the owl is useful to husband- 

 men in ridding the grain fields of mice, which 

 often bring famines by a sudden vast increase 

 in their numbers, only confirmed the owl as 

 a symbol of the Immortal Maid. These little 

 screech-owls which are said to have been 

 always common about the acropolis may well 

 have protected other crops from mice beside 

 grain, the olive for instance, a branch of which 

 accompanies the owl on Attic coins. In 

 Germany its names are many : Kauz is the 

 commonest, but corpse-bird, corpse-hen, death- 

 owl, sorrowing mother, indicate the supersti- 

 tions to which its nocturnal habits and startling 

 cry have given rise. In Austria one of its 

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