Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



princess and her maid-servant follow him in 

 the shape of swans. She was the daughter of 

 the King of Lochlan, the land of lakes, vari- 

 ously identified as Scotland or Norway, but 

 really the land under the sea, the under- 

 world. 



The great roll played by birds in the old 

 Greek myths is particularly evident in the 

 story of Leda, the mother of Pollux (polio the 

 owl) and Helena (selene the moon). Leda is 

 the same as Linda, Esthonian for bird, the 

 mother of Kalevipoeg. 



Jupiter approaching Leda in the form of a 

 male swan rouses disgust or laughter, as the 

 case may be ; but when we discover that such 

 stories are the natural result of confusion in 

 the Greek mind, owing to the variety of 

 materials and forgotten origin of the myths, 

 one ceases to wonder. Long before Christ 

 the ponderer on the meaning of gods, temple 

 ceremonials, legends and myths was the vic- 

 tim of lack of records. He was gazing back 



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