I3 o BIRDS IN LEGEND 



ancient of oracles, that at Dodona. Tradition ascribed its 

 origin to a dove that spoke with a human voice; and 

 among those who served the shrine were three priestesses 

 popularly called "Doves," whose duty it was to announce 

 oracles requested as if real birds uttered them from the 

 foliage of the surrounding oaks — divine trees. Con- 

 nected with the cult of Zeus at Dodona was that of 

 Aphrodite, then regarded as the goddess of exalted love, 

 not of the sensual passion by which in later times her cult 

 in Rome, as Venus, became degraded. It was natural, 

 as we have seen, that the dove should be associated with 

 this pristine Aphrodite, and equally suitable that it should 

 be adopted subsequently as the attendant of lascive 

 Venus, for as De Kay 18 observes, doves are forever mak- 

 ing love and caressing each other. "Chaucer speaks of 

 'the wedded turtil with her herte trewe'. ... So the 

 bird is by its nature and habits fitted to be the attendant 

 and symbol of the goddess of love — the bird that draws 

 her flower-studded chariot through the air." A Persian 

 poet asks: 



Knowest thou why round his neck the dove 



A collar wears? — it is to tell 

 He is the faithful slave of love, 



And serves all those who serve him well. 88 



An interesting memorandum here is the observation by 

 A. B. Cook, 37 the erudite author of Zeus, that the oracle 

 in the oasis Ammon (Siwah), which Alexander the 

 Great took such prodigious trouble to visit and consult, 

 was, like that at Dodona, founded by a dove. "More- 

 over," Mr. Cook remarks, "Semiramis is said to have 

 learned her destiny from Ammon, and to have fulfilled 

 it by becoming a dove. ... In short, it appears that the 



