Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



the surface. They are the guardians of the 

 Gorgons — notwithstanding their single eye ! 

 and they have these disquieting names: Peph- 

 redo " horrifier/' Enyo " shaker " and Deino 

 " terrifier." Their swan nature is not ex- 

 pressed in music, as in the case of Kuknos, 

 nor can they be assigned to joyful themes 

 such as occupied the swan formerly on the 

 island of Riigen in the Baltic. There the 

 swan had the task that is elsewhere now-a-days 

 given to the stork, that of bringing the newly 

 born child to its parents. 



Though the musical swan is not quite so 

 large or so graceful as the greater swan, it has 

 qualities that must have made a deep impres- 

 sion on the early peoples of Europe, Asia 

 and North Africa at a time when it was very 

 common because difficult to shoot with arrows. 

 In fact a very powerful shaft would be needed, 

 were it not to rebound from the strong feathers 

 of the bird. The Icelanders likened the " klee- 

 klee " and " ang " tones of this swan to the 

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