BIRD AND BEAST IN ANCIENT SYMBOLISM. 



185 



varies somewhat in relation to the imaginary and variable figure of the Bull. 

 Hipparchus set it near the Bull's thigh, but it is more usually and more anciently 

 placed, as by Aratus, on the Bull's back. In many languages the Pleiades are mixed 

 up with the names or images of birds. Besides the well-known and ancient belief that 

 ■n-XeidSes was originally 7re\eidSes, we have the fact that the Chinese still picture the 

 constellation as a bird, and the existence of the old English name "the Hen and 

 Chickens," to which correspond the French Poussiniere, the Pillalou codi of the 

 Indians, the Succoth Benoth of the Hebrews, and many similar names. Add to these 

 the names of the individual stars themselves, or so many of them as we can understand. 

 The first Pleiad is ' ' AXkvovvj, the Halcyon, and the second is MepoTt}, which is connected 

 not only with fiepo^b but with the remarkable word nepov-n-as, which Mr Bent found 

 used in Syra in the Cyclades to mean simply a bird, opvis. I think from all these 

 analogies I am justified in taking the bird figured on the Bull's back in coins of 

 Eretria, Thurium, &c, and on Egyptian representations of the Sacred Bull, to be nothing 

 more nor less than the associated constellation of the Pleiades. 



Fig. 7. — Archaic Gem, probably Parthian. 

 (Imhoof-Blvmier and Keller, pi. xxi. 

 14). 



Fig. 8. — Tetrarlrarhm of Eretria. 



Not to be dissevered from this connection is the story of the Dove of the Argonauts, 

 which Hew between the clashing rocks in the passage of the Hellespont. Was not 

 that BoWojooc a transit through the Heavenly Bull, and is it going too far into the 

 regions of hazard to see in the Sym-Plegades a name (corrupt by popular misunder- 

 standing) akin to Plejades ? 



In considering the relative positions, at critical periods, of the Sun and the Pleiades, 

 we seem to light on an explanation of the great myth of the Halcyon's Nest. On the 

 day of the winter solstice, mid-winter's day, the Pleiades occupied at sun-set the mid- 

 point of the heavens : — 



vb^ /ULUKp)] koi X € ^f JLa l JL ^ (r> l v ^ ^ 7r ' n\eui<5a Svvet, 



' The Pleiad is in mid-heaven as the long(est) winter night sets in." It was precisely 

 at this period that the Halcyon was said to lay her egg, when the turning sun rose to 

 renovate the year. What is the meaning of the line following that which I have 

 just quoted : — 



vv£ /uaKprj Kai ^eijua /mecrtjv <T exJ IlXeidoa ouvei, 

 k ay u> -rap irpodvpois velaao/uai vofievos, 



