SUN" WORSHIP — SPINDEN 



449 



So much that is fanciful or uncertain has been published concerning 

 the migration of sacred symbols that a rule may be drawn wisely: 

 when a symbol is a valid representation of the sun or other celestial 

 body, it is open to independent reinvention. Nevertheless, examina- 

 tion of the early development of sun cults, in the general regions where 

 the most ancient civilizations resting on agriculture arose in the Old 

 World and the New, certainly indicates diffusion for the higher 

 and more artistic concepts, albeit combined with closely parallel 

 reinventions. 



BIRDS AND ANIMALS OF THE SUN 



The association of birds and animals with the sun is found around 

 the world in myths and pictures. Several explanations are given, but 

 in each case it is easily seen how the same thought might have been 

 reached by different peoples. 



Once the sun is accepted as a god, or the sky as the residence of gods. 



FiGCRB 2. — Sun symbols and cosmic symbols of the Mound Builders, painted on pottery, 

 executed on copper and shell gorgets, etc. The sun gives rise to the concept of the four 

 directions, and the four directions furnishes a pattern for the world. 



high-flying birds such as hawks and eagles become appropriate mes- 

 sengers. In Egypt the falcon, called Horus, was a sun god ever alert 

 to protect the pharaoh as a soaring, pouncing bird of prey. Homer 

 calls the hawk "the swift messenger of Phoebus." The same thought 

 presented itself to the observant red man. Francis La Flesche ex- 

 plains that the hawk is the tribal emblem of the Osage Indians and of 

 it he writes: "Accordingly those men of ancient days gave to their 

 sacred emblem the hawk, child of the Sun and the Moon, a shrine that 

 was to typify not only the earth, but the space between the earth and 

 the sky; the vast dome of blue wherein move singly or in groups all 

 the celestial bodies." He records three "little songs of the Sun," say- 

 ing that they refer to the birth of the hawk. 



We also find the hawk associated with the sun in Peru. Sarmiento 

 de Gamboa says the Incas regarded falcons as their guardian spirits. 

 These were called inti, and since they invaded the realm of the sun, 

 their name was transferred to that luminary. 



