Bird Gods in Ancient Euro 



pe 



through a perspective that changed the sim- 

 plest things into the most complex. A rude 

 nature worship, akin to an Australian's for a 

 bird or beast, had been complicated by ex- 

 plaining that worship as one of heavenly con- 

 stellations, or of dawn, or of thunder, or of 

 night. 



Then the humanizing tendency set in and 

 the gods of the sky were brought down to 

 earth and mixed up with earthly men whose 

 deeds historical were interpreted partially in a 

 superhuman way. So it came about that a 

 swan myth arose in which Pan, or later, Jupi- 

 ter as a swan demon begat on Leda a swan- 

 Valkyr the lady moon Selene 

 or Helena, as well as the war- 

 rior twins Castor and Pollux, 

 these three issuing from eggs 

 like the Karakutengu of the 

 Japanese. That this is the probable origin 

 of the Leda myth appears from what has been 

 in the present century learned from the bal- 



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