BIRDS IN '* THE ILIAD.' 



KMII.V C. THOMPSON. 



THE universe is so ordered that 

 Birds are essential to the life of 

 Man. To-day we believe this 

 and value them accordingly. 

 Years ago as well as now the birds held 

 the same relation toward man but the 

 latter did not then understand this re- 

 lationship as we do in this age of scien- 

 tific enlightenment. About twenty- 

 eight hundred years ago, nine hundred 

 years before the beginning of our era, a 

 poet flourished in the East, or certain 

 poets as some scholars maintain. He 

 is supposed to have been a blind bard, 

 who wandered around to the courts of 

 the petty kings, sang his heroic lays and 

 left them for our inheritance, and a no- 

 ble inheritance it is to those who have 

 the desire and will to go to the depth 

 of the treasure. These poems tell of 

 the people of that time and show us 

 many sides of their life and the chief 

 characteristics of their civilization. 



One scarcely expects from a great 

 poem, dealing with war and adventure, 

 to gather information about birds. Yet 

 it is there, but not so much scientific as 

 ethical. Birds, they believed, were here 

 on earth as the messengers of the gods. 

 Rarely did a bird appear before them or 

 raise a cry which did not do so by the 

 direct command of some ruling divinity. 

 Imagine with what anxiety these old 

 Greek heroes watched for and listened 

 to the heaven-sent messages. Great 

 was the fear at certain omens, and great 

 the rejoicing at others. As a rule only 

 special men could interpret these signs 

 and these men were of immense impor- 

 tance in a community. They were 

 almost a priesthood in nature, as nearly 

 so as any order which the people then 

 possessed, for the priesthood was not 

 developed at that time. 



In the Iliad, at four of the critical 

 points in the story a bird appears and 

 shows the will of the gods to mortals. 

 It is related that before the Greeks 

 sailed to Troy, while the ships were yet 

 assembled at Aulis, one of these omens 

 occurred and was interpreted thus: 

 Near the ships was an altar and by the 



altar stood a plane-tree, upon the bough 

 of which a little bird had built its nest, 

 and already within the nest were nine 

 fledglings. Suddenly a serpent darted 

 forth from beneath the altar straight 

 toward the tree; the nine little birds 

 were soon devoured and at last the ser- 

 pent ended his feast by catching the 

 mother which had flown crying about 

 it. At once the serpent was turned into 

 stone. This wonderful prodigy was 

 shown by one of the prophets to mean 

 that for nine years the Greeks would 

 toil fruitlessly before Troy as the ser- 

 pent had devoured the nine little birds; 

 but in the tenth year they would seize 

 the city. 



The flight of birds was watched and 

 upon this rested often the movements 

 of whole armies. As the seer had fore- 

 told for nine years the Greeks had been 

 fighting before the walls of Troy; their 

 ships were drawn up on the shore of 

 the sea and before them they had built 

 a waH and dug a ditgh for protection. 

 The nine years had passed, the tenth 

 year was already going by and never 

 had the people from the beleaguered 

 city dared to approach their ships. 

 But now, after so many years, all was 

 changed. The great hero of the Greeks, 

 the great swift-footed Achilles, was an- 

 gry and refused to fight for them and 

 sat apart at the stern of his ship on the 

 shore of the barren sea wearing out his 

 heart with anger. Now the Trojans, 

 never before so successful, had reached 

 the wall and were encamped there for 

 the night. The Greeks felt that it was 

 necessary to send out spies to observe 

 the movements of their foes. Diomede 

 volunteered his services and chose 

 Odysseus for his comrade. They crept 

 away from their companions in the 

 darkness but had gone only a few steps 

 when the cry of a Heron was heard on 

 their right. This meant good luck for 

 them, for they knew that Athene, the 

 protecting goddess of Odysseus, had 

 sent this favoring sign, and it proved 

 true, for their sally was prospered and 

 thev returned unharmed, having slain 



234 



