Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



The old writer Adam of Bremen mentions the 

 worship of Tarapilla by the Esthonians and 

 says that slaves without blemish were bought 

 to be sacrificed to the owl god. 



In this connection we may recall what a 

 commentator on the Iliad states about the 

 Palladium, the talisman on which the safety 

 of Troy depended. It was not a statue of 

 Pallas Athene herself, but a small wooden 

 image of an animal. May it not have been 

 such a bird image, or more definitely such an 

 image of an owl as the Esthonians worshipped 

 on the Baltic ? It would not be in the least 

 peculiar if Lapps, Finns and Esths had pre- 

 served until recent times an ancient, rude 

 worship that represents the beginnings of the 

 worship of Pallas Athene in Attika. At the 

 period in question, the gods could not yet 

 have been organized on Olympus and Pan 

 rather than Zeus was the great god of the 

 sun and the thunderbolt. We may consider 

 this early Pallas a cruel god whose sex was 

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