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Coppersuch as recently during the Octavian War [87 bc] appeared as harbingersof great calamities” (De Natura Deorum 2.14). During the Civil Warbetween Caesar and Pompey (49–45 bc),according to Lucan,there weremany celestial portents,including “the hair of the baleful / star,thecomet that portends a change of reign (mutantem regna) on earth”(1.528–29).A particularly famous comet was the Star of July (or Julius),the sidusIulium,which appeared four months after the death of Julius Caesar andduring the month named after him; it was taken as a sign that he hadbeen deified as well as an apocalyptic portent. Ovid tells how Venus tookup the soul of Caesar,which glowed as it rose,leaving a fiery train (Met.15.849–50). It remains a star,protector of Caesar’s adopted sonAugustus,who wears it,according to Virgil,on his crest (Aeneid 8.581);see also Horace, Odes 1.12.46–47. Shakespeare’s Calphurnia tells herhusband Caesar,“When beggars die there are no comets seen; / Theheavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes” (JC 2.2.30–31),andHoratio tells Barnardo that just before Julius fell there were such portentsas “stars with trains of fire” (Hamlet 1.1.120). At the time of Nero,according to Tacitus, “a comet blazed,of which vulgar opinion is that itportends a change in reigns (mutationem regnis)” (Annals 14.22).Tasso echoes Lucan’s and Tacitus’ phrases: “with its bloody streaminglocks a comet shines through the parching air,which changes reigns(i regni muta) and brings fierce pestilence,an ill-omened light for princesof the purple” (Jerusalem Delivered 7.52). Shakespeare’s Bedford opens theHenry VI plays by calling on “Comets,importing change of times andstates,/ [To] Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky” (1H6 1.1.2–3).Milton,following Tasso,likens Satan to a comet that “from his horridhair / Shakes pestilence and war” (PL 2.710–11); behind that simile alsolies Virgil’s simile for Aeneas,whose shield spouts flames “as whenbloody mournful comets shine red in the clear night” (Aeneid 10.272–73).CopperCricketCrocusCrowCuckoosee Bronzesee Cicadasee Saffronsee RavenThe cuckoo,like the swallow and the nightingale,is a harbinger ofspring.“When the cuckoo first calls in the leaves of the oak,” Hesiodtells us,we know it is March (Works and Days 486). The medieval “CuckooSong” is famous: “Sumer is ycomen in,/ Loude sing cuckou!”(“summer” referring here to what we call spring and summer together).Spenser calls it “The merry cuckow,messenger of Spring” (Amoretti 19);Wordsworth the “Darling of the Spring” (“To the Cuckoo”).“I shouldlearn spring by the cuckooing,” according to Dylan Thomas (“Here inthis Spring”).Its call is so distinctive that its name in every European language is47