Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



instructed Achilleus and went with him to 

 Troy ; after the death of that hero he re- 

 turned to Greece to fetch Pyrrhus (the fiery 

 one) the son of Achilleus. 



This heroic descendant of a primitive eagle 

 god, who all through the Iliad shows his 

 eagle character by disputing over spoils, has 

 his northern namesake in Kalev, the giant 

 founder of Finland and the Esths. Nay, I 

 make bold to identify the name of Achilleus 

 not only with Kaleva the eagle god of Finland, 

 but with the Latin word aquila, eagle. He 

 was the son of Peleus the male pigeon (peleia) 

 and of Thetis, a nymph of the sea, just as 

 i^etes, the eagle of Colchis, was a son of the 

 sun born to a nymph of the ocean. All the 

 brothers born before Achilleus were submitted 

 to the fiery test of the young eagle ; they were 

 placed by Thetis in the flames to burn out 

 their mortal parts ; but they perished. Achil- 

 leus also was thrust by his mother into the 

 fire ; but his father pulled him out. The 



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