Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



In the minds of the inhabitants of Greece 

 and Italy, before the Greeks and Latins held 

 sway a connection existed between the swan 

 and wine. We see that by the frequency of 

 swans on early jars and wine-cups. On what 

 is called the Anubis vase found at Clusium 

 there are swans behind the dog-headed deity 

 and behind the bearded god with wings who 

 stands next to the Gorgon. The handles of 

 bronze wine-strainers found in Etruscan tombs 

 often end in a swan's neck and head. In the 

 Etruscan Museum at Florence is a small 

 bronze group of a young man on whose 

 shoulders a teasing genius has alighted with 

 a wine-cup in his hand. This genius of wine 

 wears a most singular tall cap which is nothing 

 more nor less than the neck and head of a 

 swan. Here is a curious problem for archae- 

 ologist and myth interpreters. 



Dionysos the wine god is by some myth- 

 ologists traced to a night god, and the wild 

 revel of his train by night with torches over 

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