Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



moral traits. I venture to say that in almost 

 every legend in which we find a father fighting 

 with a son whom he does not recognize one 

 may detect from other traits that it is based on 

 a cuckoo plot, the root of which is the sin- 

 gular habit of the female cuckoo in Europe, 

 Asia and Africa of causing other birds to hatch 

 her eggs. Such are not only the Sohrab- 

 Rustem combats and the Cuchullaind-Con- 

 laech, but the Russian combat of Ilya of 

 Murom with his son Falcon, and the early 

 fragmentary German tale of Hildebrand fight- 

 ing with his son Hadubrand — nay, the epi- 

 sode in classical mythology of Saturn overcome 

 by his son Jupiter. 



Hitherto no satisfactory explanation has 

 been given for the remarkable recurrence of 

 marriages between brother and sister in the 

 mythology and legends of many countries: 

 such as Saturn with Rhea, Zeus with Hera — 

 divine marriages which were undoubtedly taken 

 as precedents for the historical marriages of 

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