Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

iv] The Weather-birds and the teirea 97
it is no longer seasonable to dig about the vines. The snail 'fleeing
from the Pleiades'—a strange conjunction of earth and heaven.
We are in a world truly magical where anything can ' participate
with ' and, in a sense, be the cause of anything else. If you are
a woman, you must watch to see ' when the soaring spider weaveth
her web in the full day,' and when ' the Wise One, the ant,
gathereth her heap.' You will find that it is on the 12th day
of the waxing moon and then is it well that a woman should set
up her loom and lay the beginning of her work 1 . But
first and
foremost you should watch the birds who are so near the heavenly
signs, the reipea, and who must know more than man. This
watching of the birds we are accustomed to call the ' science of
augury'; we shall presently see that in its origin it is pure magic,
'pure doing; the magical birds make the weather before they
2 .'
portend it
Take heed what time thou hearest the voice of the crane
Who, year by year, from out the clouds on high
Clangs shrilly, for her voice bringeth the sign
For ploughing and the time of winter's rain,
And bites the heart of him that hath no ox 3 .
If the warning of the crane be neglected there is yet for the
late plougher another chance of which already we have learnt
And if thou ploughest late, this be thy charm
When first the cuckoo cuckoos in the oak,
Gladdening men's hearts over the boundless earth,
Then may Zeus rain 4 .
Again the advice to the Vine-grower
But when Zeus hath accomplished sixty days
After the solstice, then Arkturos leaves
Okeanos' holy stream, and first doth rise
In radiance at the twilight. After him
Comes the shrill swallow, daughter of Pandion,
Uprising with the rising of the spring.
Before she comes, prune thou thy vines. 'Tis best 6 .
The short practical mandates cut sharply in through the poetry
and all the lovely blend of bird and constellation, which are alike
reipea, heavenly signs.
On a black-figured vase in the Vatican 6 (Fig. 15) we have the
scene of the coming of the swallow. We have a group of men and
1 Hes. Op. 776.
2
I owe this suggestion
kindness of Mr Halliday.
and much help in the matter of bird-magic to the
3
v. 450.
6 From a photograph.
* v. 486.
See Baumeister, Denkmaler, in. Fig.
B
v. 564.
2128, p. 1985.
H. 7
:
:
: