Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



doubtful, a god of soldiers, to whom captives 

 and slaves were immolated, a deity of rapine 

 and darkness whose visible symbol was the 

 owl. 



Concerning this god on the Baltic we have 

 a peculiarly rude trait. When represented as 

 a human deity he carried a long shaft of iron 

 in place of a spear and was said to have heated 

 one end of it red hot — not in order to chas- 

 tise men at all, but to keep the lower gods 

 and demons in order ! One thinks of Isvara, 

 one of the forms of Siva, who picked up a red- 

 hot iron his enemies the Rishis laid in his way 

 and used it as a sword or club. 



One thinks of Charon, an infernal deity, 

 jeating the souls with his oar, or else, as he 

 is depicted on Etruscan coffins and ash-boxes, 

 brandishing with a frightful scowl an axe or 

 hammer. And one recalls the Japanese de- 

 mon queller who is so great a favorite with the 

 painters and carvers in ivory. Perhaps it was 

 the tyranny exercised by owls toward other 

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