8 A GLOSSARY OF GREEK BIRDS 



AETOI (continued']. 



sometimes evidently a solar emblem, as is Zrjvbs opvis in Aesch. Suppl. 

 212. Its name xpuo-a'eros- is in like manner probably a translation of the 

 ' golden hawk ' of Egyptian Horus. In its combat with the Hare, the 

 Swan, the Bull, the Dragon, and so forth, these latter are probably 

 symbolic of their stellar name-sakes, and in such cases, the hostile 

 Eagle is, in the main, a stellar and not a solar emblem. The following 

 are the principal facts in connexion with the constellation Aquila which 

 seem to bear on the mythology of the Eagle. It rose nearly together 

 with the Dolphin, and shortly after, and as it were in pursuit of, the 

 Swan and the Serpent of Ophiuchus : it set as the Lion rose, whose 

 leading star Regulus was also called ^ao-tAiWos-, the Hare and the Dog- 

 star rising simultaneously ; it set together with Aquarius, known also as 

 Ganymede the cup-bearer, and it was close beside and rose together 

 with the Arrow of Sagittarius. It is not far distant from the constel- 

 lation Lyra, which last constellation is also known as the Vulture ; it 

 and the Eagle are known respectively to later writers (and to the Arabs) 

 as Aquila or Vultur cadens and volans or yty Kadrj^evos and nero^e vos, 

 nesr-el-waki and nesr-el-ta'ir, whence our modern names Vega and 

 Altair applied to their two principal stars. (See for Arabic and other 

 references, Ideler, Sternnamen, pp. 67, 106, &c.; also Grotius' Aratus, 

 Notae ad Imagg. pp. 54, 60, &c., &c.) Aquila rose together with the 

 latter stars of the Scorpion, but Lyra or the Vulture, rising a little earlier, 

 seems to have been the true paranatellon of that sign : accordingly it 

 is probably not the true Eagle but the Vulture or Aquila cadens, which, 

 substituted for the unlucky Scorpion, figures with the other three 

 cardinal signs of Leo, Taurus, and Aquarius, in the familiar imagery of 

 Ezek. i. 10, x. 14, and Rev. iv. 7. A solar myth is discussed s. v. dXideros. 

 The combat with the Hare is interesting from its representation on a 

 famous decadrachm of Agrigentum, as well as for the equally mystical 

 description in Aesch. Ag. 115 jSoa-Kd/zcj/oi \aylvav. (The symbolism con- 

 nected with the Hare seems to me to be peculiarly complicated and 

 difficult, and all tentative hypotheses are more than commonly liable to 

 be overthrown.) The Eagle with the Serpent or Dragon occurs not 

 only in classical coinage (Chalcis, Agrigentum, Gortyna, Siphnos, &c.), 

 but also on Persian and Egyptian sculptures. The Eagle with the 

 lightning (deros Trvpcpopos) or thunderbolt (minis trumfulmtnis, cf. Plin. 

 x. 3, Serv. in Aen. i. 398, Sil. Ital. xii. 58 adsuetis fulmina ferre Un- 

 guibus) occurs on coins of Elis, Catana, Megalopolis, &c. Philo's phrase 

 (i. 628) (pcyyo? yvfja-iov and 0. voQov for sunlight and moonlight is perhaps 

 suggestive or corroborative of a solar symbolism in aero? yvrja-ios. 



afTirrjs, the eagle-stone. Ael. i. 35. Diosc. v. 161. Dion. De Avib. 

 i. 3 ot p.ev avrbv arro TO>V KauKatricoi/ opaii/, ot 8e OTTO rrjs TOV wKeavov o%dr)s 

 $ao-l K0fu'r#a<. : Lucan vi. 676 quaeque sonant feta tepefacta sub alite 

 saxa ; Plin. x. 3, xxx. (14) 44, xxxvi. (21) 39, xxxvii. (u) 72, Horap. ii. 49, 



