Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



given at Dodona not only from the sound in 

 the oak-tree but the voices of doves. 



There can be little doubt that the grove 

 at Dodona was a primeval spot sacred to 

 divinities much ruder than Zeus and Aphrodite 

 his daughter. In the time of Herodotus it 

 was the fashion to trace everything to Egypt ; 

 we must look the other way for traces of sim- 

 ilar worship among the peoples of middle and 

 northern Europe, among the Hyperboreans, 

 as the Greeks called them. And so, if we 

 take the old Italian name of Aphrodite, Venus 

 male and Venus female (for Italy had both) 

 we discover among the Finnic nations on the 

 Baltic a legend in the Kalevala of the old god 

 Vaino, together with his female double Aino, 

 the young girl who spurns him, drowns her- 

 self— 



*< Like a pretty song-bird perished *' 



and becomes a teasing or mournful water- 

 sprite, according to the mood of the poet. 

 After she has returned to Aphrodite's ele- 



12 



