THE PAGAN-CHRISTIAN OVERLAP OF THE WISE BIRD. 1 27 



preserved and nourished by a great flock of pigeons, who not only 

 nestled upon her and kept her warm, but constantly fed her with 

 milk, which they brought in their beaks from the shepherds' huts. 

 When she was a year old they began to feed her with cheese. 

 But the shepherds, finding their cheeses pecked out, followed the 

 birds and discovered a very beautiful child, whom they brought to 

 the king's herdmaster, and he adopted her and called her Semiramis, 

 a name derived from pigeons, which the Syrians ever after adored. 

 In the end she surrendered her throne to her son and disappeared, 

 metamorphosed into a dove, as if she had been translated to the gods, 

 according to the words of the oracle of the Temple of Ammon." 



On coins found in Cyprus appears the Temple of Paphos, on 

 which rest the holy doves of Aphrodite. Elsewhere, on sculptured 

 monuments, they hover round goddesses ; Astarte presses them to 

 her bosom ; priests and sacerdotal women carry them. They were 

 encouraged to breed in sacred precincts. A terra-cotta model of a 

 temple, found at Dali, has in its upper storey a multitude of pigeon 

 holes. A dove that was believed to be the messenger of Moham- 

 med used to perch upon his shoulder. And to-day, in the court- 

 yard of the great mosque at Mecca, are more than two thousand of 

 these birds ; and to feed them is the duty of all worshippers. 



Here, then, we have a vast mass of popular belief and practice of 

 great antiquity that confronted Christianity from its birth onwards 

 all through the Middle Ages. And we may confidently expect, on 

 a priori grounds, that a careful investigation will discover many 

 examples of a religious overlap on points of resemblance ; that the 

 myth of wise birds has influenced, if not Christian creed, at any 

 rate Christian iconography, 



When we enter the catacombs of Rome we find that the dove, 

 symbolically used, had several meanings. Usually it was the 

 emblem of peace, for it often bears the legend PAX ; and it often 

 carries an olive-branch in its beak, reminding us of the promise to 

 Noah, though it also recalls the diluvian hero's wise bird. The 

 injunction " Be ye harmless as doves " made them the sign of 

 innocence ; and the Virgin with the inscription Maria is placed in 



