Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



" golden " and " beauty " also with other 

 terms of admiration; but he seems to have 

 been also feared. Perhaps because he is so 

 " awke " on the ground, his name is often 

 the synonym for lubberliness and stupidity. 

 Zeus took the form of a cuckoo to approach 

 Hera, at once his sister and his wife, and a 

 bass-relief shows the cuckoo on the sceptres 

 he and she carry in a marriage procession. 

 "Why the cuckoo myth can be detected even 

 among the haughtiest gods of Olympus will 

 be seen when we come to speak of Pan. 



The birds carved in soapstone found by 

 Bent in the ruins of Zmbabwe, Mashonaland, 

 which were left there by some as yet unde- 

 termined race of intruders and gold miners, 

 may prove to be rude attempts to portray 

 the cuckoo, rather than the woodpecker. 



When we recall the superstitions as to birds 

 that still live in Europe — as, for example, 

 that a bird flying into a house Is unlucky, a 

 stork deserting a homestead portends death, a 



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