Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



to them to be uttering voice like a bird : for 

 if it had been really a dove, how could it 

 speak with a human voice ? '* Apparently Her- 

 odotus was ignorant of the fact that parrots 

 and ravens reproduce the articulate sounds of 

 men. We may be sure that his informants 

 were wrong in attributing the origin of Do- 

 dona, its oak and doves, to Egypt, for there 

 are too many analogies for just such things 

 in Asia and northern Europe. 



Since Dodona was an ancient oracle of the 

 inhabitants of Epirus and Thessaly before the 

 Greeks, we may consider its legends Pelasgian 

 rather than Greek. The northern nations who 

 from time to time sent offerings wrapped in 

 wheaten straw to the fane of Apollo on Delos 

 caused their envoys to cross the Adriatic and 

 deliver up the gifts at Dodona. Thence they 

 were sent to the Maliac Gulf and passed from 

 city to city on to Delos. The stop at Dodona 

 shows a connection between the north of 

 Europe and the Pelasgians. Oracles were 



II 



