Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



in the cradle. This idea persisting in the 

 nursery while colleges of auspexes were suc- 

 ceeded by convents of Christian priests gives 

 an inkling of what that primitive thought may 

 have been which lies at the origin of Pallas 

 Athene and Minerva ; it measures the strength 

 of superstitions as to spiders, owls and such 

 small fry in surviving the crash of empires 

 and the downfall of vast religious systems. 

 Who would have thought 

 that Pallas Athene, the wise 

 and helpful virgin goddess, 

 could have been evolved 

 from a cruel owl god of in- 

 determinate sex, a murderous god, to whom 

 the slaughter of men was a joy ? 



Long before wisdom was associated with the 

 deity or with the owl, Pallas Athene must 

 have been evolved from an owl into a soul 

 guide, into a kind of valkyr, softly flitting on 

 owlet's wings to carry off the souls of brave 

 men to the shades. At Orte in Central Italy 

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