Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



of iEaea. Kirke means " she-hawk " ; she 

 was the daughter of King iEetes (eagle) of 

 Colchis. The universal cuckoo myth then 

 returns. After he leaves Kirke, she bears 

 his son Telegonos ("born-afar-off ") who when 

 grown up lands on Ithaka in search of his 

 father and kills him, not knowing who he is. 



Penelope the weaver, the wife of owl-wise 

 Ulysses, is of bird origin too, a daughter of 

 Icarius, in whom one finds the wings of Icarus 

 again, and first cousin to Helen, the egg-born 

 daughter of Leda (swan) and of her mortal 

 father Tundareos, the woodpecker; therefore 

 first cousin likewise to Pollux, whose name, as 

 we shall see, means owl. 



And speaking of weaving, I am minded of 

 the Maeonian nymph Arachne who contended 

 with Pallas Athene in that useful art and was 

 turned by her into arachne, a spider. In this 

 legend we are close upon the explanation of 

 that great puzzle for archaeologists on which 

 Max Miiller, d'Arviella and others have 

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