Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



In a far completer state than the story of 

 Tereus and Philomela already mentioned in 

 the chapter on the woodpecker. 



In Ireland it is not Cuchullaind alone who 

 IS a cuckoo god made man ; the cuckoo shows 

 in his ancestry. We have seen how his uncle, 

 who was also his father, has the cuckoo trait. 

 Now that same parent Conchobar robs his own 

 stepfather of his kingdom, as the young cuckoo 

 was thought to devour its foster-father. His 

 wife Meave elopes from him with another 

 chief, as the female cuckoo was supposed to 

 be inconstant ; and their daughter pursues 

 the same course with regard to her husband. 

 To cap the climax, in an aberration of mind, 

 Conchobar marries his own mother Nessa and 

 has a son by her, Cormac Conlingeas by name, 

 a famous warrior in his day ! 



These ghastly domestic tragedies can now 

 be understood as poetic changes and exag- 

 gerations in old legends, based on observation 

 of cuckoos, their actual deeds and attributed 



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