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

VI] The Cuckoo as Spring-Bird 177
Upon the thunder-axe we expect to see the thunder-bird of
Zeus, the eagle, but this is assuredly no eagle, however 'con-
ventionally treated.' It is the bird of spring, with heavy flight
and mottled plumage, the cuckoo 1
.
When first the cuckoo cuckoos in the oak,
Gladdening men's hearts over the boundless earth,
Then may Zeus rain?.
Fig. 38.
1 Many birds have been suggested. The raven has the high authority of
Mr Warde Fowler; Dr Hans Gadow suggested to me the magpie. The woodpecker
was tempting, because of the analogy between ire\eKvs and weXeK&v, but as
Dr Petersen (op. cit. p. 163) points out, the pose of the bird, with wings open, not
closed, when perching, is characteristic of the cuckoo, though here it may be
depicted to show the bird has just alighted. The particular bird intended is not
of great moment. The idea, the coming of a life-spirit from the sky, is the same
whatever bird be the vehicle. I have elsewhere (Bird and Pillar-Worship in
connexion with Ouranian divinities, in Transactions of the Third International
Congress for the History of Religions, Oxford, 1908, n. p. 154) hazarded the
conjecture, suggested by Mr Cook, that the ritual robe of the celebrant and other
worshippers on the sarcopha'gos is a feather dress ending in a bird-tail—but Sig.
Paribeni has brought evidence, op. cit. p. 17, to show that the feather-like drawing
on the robe is used to indicate a bull's skin.
2 Hesiod, Op. 486 ; see p. 97.
it. 1: