132 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



shore near by told Jason, who had arrived there on his 

 journey in search of the Golden Fleece, and who wanted 

 to go on into the Euxine, how to escape the fatal grasp 

 of the island-gates. He was to sail or row the Argo as 

 near as he dared to the entrance, then let loose a dove. 

 The bird would fly onward, the islands would rush to- 

 gether to crush it; and the instant they had swung back 

 Jason must drive his ship on between them before they 

 could close again. This plan, so clever except for the 

 poor bird, succeeded, and broke the magic spell. Living 

 heroes had passed safely between them, and ever since 

 then the malicious Symplegades have remained stable. 

 This story has been scientifically analyzed by the 

 mythologists in various ways, but none has deigned to 

 consider why a dove was chosen, rather than some other 

 bird, as the martyr of the occasion. I am inclined to think 

 it was because among sailors of those days the dove was 

 believed to help them ; and that, in turn, was owing to its 

 association with the "foam-born" Aphrodite, who was 

 worshipped by mariners, especially about Cyprus, as god- 

 dess of the sea. 



I have dwelt somewhat at length on these antique 

 fables, not only to give a glimpse of the nativity of 

 certain far more modern, or even existing, ideas and 

 customs connected with the dove, but more especially to 

 display the background of tradition and feeling that 

 affected the minds of people toward this familiar bird at 

 the time when Christianity began to manifest itself in 

 Italy, and began to replace by a Christian symbolism the 

 previous figurative significance of the dove. The highest 

 place given it in early Christian thought and art was as 

 a representative of the third member of the godhead — 

 the Holy Ghost, and it still holds this significance, as 



