Back Aa

Birds and All Nature, Vol. IV, No 6, December 1898

Close

<h2>BIRDS IN "THE ILIAD."</h2> EMILY 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 relationship as we do in this age of scientific 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 noble 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 importance 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 serpent 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 serpent 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 foretold 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 wall and dug a ditch 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 angry 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 they returned unharmed, having slain [Pg 237] thirteen of the enemy, and bringing as booty a noble pair of steeds, a prize in which all Greeks took delight. Even in Homer we see the dawning of skepticism, a skepticism of which we approve and the sentiment of which we cannot but admire. The next day after the favorable sign of Athene to her favorite, after nine long years of terrible war the Trojans stand at the very edge of the ditch before the Greek ships. Hector their noble leader, a hero who may well inspire modern men to noble deeds of patriotism, stands at their head. One rush more, one impetuous dash through the ditch and against the wall, and the ten years' war may be ended with the weary Trojans victors. But at this critical moment a bird appears, it is the favorite bird in Homer and also the favorite bird with us, for it is our national bird, the Eagle. Homer calls it the bird that is surest to bring fulfillment with its omens and tells us that it belonged to mighty Zeus the thunderer, the ruler of gods and men. The bird appeared flying at the left. The people halted. A bird flying at the left meant disapproval. It held in its mouth a snake not yet dead, which, coiling its head, bit at the breast of the bird. The bite was effective, and with a sharp cry, the bird dropped the serpent at the feet of the awe-inspired Trojans and fled shrieking away. Well might the people halt. What was to be done, an onward move against such a portent, or a calm withdrawal when everything was in their favor? One of the common people declared that they must withdraw or death would come upon them. Then noble Hector with frowning brows answered him: "Polydamas, no longer do you speak words pleasing to me. You know how to speak another word better than this. If you speak this truly in earnest, the gods themselves have taken away your senses from you who bid me to forget the counsels of high-thundering Zeus, the promises he made me and the plans to which he nodded assent. You bid me put my trust in long-winged birds which I do not heed or regard at all, whether they fly to the right toward the sun and the dawn, or to the left toward the murky darkness. Let us trust the counselings of great Zeus who holds sway over gods and men. One bird is the best to defend one's fatherland." In the last book of the Iliad in the sad scenes surrounding the death and burial of this hero we have again an omen. Priam, the aged, feeble man, determined to go to the strange, wrathful Achilles and beg for the body of his dear son Hector, which the swift-footed hero had been mutilating in his wrath, dragging it behind his chariot about the city walls. Priam was determined to go. His wife tried to dissuade him from such a dangerous undertaking, he bade her not to be a bird of ill omen in his halls, but she insisted, and finally persuaded him to pray to Zeus to send him an omen that his journey would be successful. He prayed; thereupon an Eagle appeared flying at his right. Hecuba was now satisfied and the old lord of windy Troy started out on his errand of love. The omen was true this time for he did persuade the heart of Achilles and returned to his city with the remains of his son. There are other instances of omens given by the presence and flight of birds, but these are sufficient to show us the great importance which the men of two thousand years ago attributed to them. Although birds are most prominent in Homer in this connection, still we find them mentioned many times just as parts of the physical world and without divine import. Among the birds thus mentioned we find names which our scholars have interpreted to designate Cranes, Meadow Larks, Jackdaws, Geese, Swans, Nighthawks, Vultures, and Eagles. Birds are especially noted for their quickness in flight, and the horses were most prized which flew like the birds. Birds were always mentioned in connection with the dead, and a favorite curse was to wish that one might be left a prey to the dogs and birds. Gods often honored this part of the animal world by assuming their forms. We find Athene and Apollo in the likeness of Vultures settling down upon the Oak tree to watch the battle of the Greeks and Trojans. Sleep watches the wiles of Juno toward her lord while he sits as a Nighthawk upon a tree. But Homer is essentially a poet, and in [Pg 238] many places a nature-poet, and in these touches of nature he does not forget the birds, but very often compares the movements of his heroes to them. "As a tawny Eagle darts upon the flocks of winged birds feeding by the river, flocks of Geese, of Cranes, of long-necked Swans, so Hector darted upon them." "The Trojans went with hue and cry—like the birds when the cry of the Cranes is in the front of heaven, who, when they flee from the winter and portentous storms, with cries fly to the streams of Oceanus bearing death and fate to the Pygmies, and at dawn they bear forth with them their evil strife." "As a bird bears a morsel for its unfledged young whenever it obtains any, but fares badly itself, so I have toiled for other men and gained naught myself." "As many flocks of birds, of Geese, Cranes, long-necked Swans, in an Asian meadow by the banks of the Cayster fly hither and thither exulting in their wings as they settle down with cries and the meadow reëchoes, so flocks of men poured from the tents and ships into the plain of the Scamander." "As a flock of Meadow Larks or Jackdaws comes with full, unbroken cry when they see before them a Hawk which bears destruction to small birds, so with full, unbroken cry went the youths of the Achæans before Æneas and Hector." <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

1 of 2

2 of 2