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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0417
The Sim as the Bird of Zeus 341
Helios and the Horai1. It is, therefore, open to us to maintain
that of old, as to-day, the worthy Greek householder hung over his
doorway a solar wreath destined to be burnt as a sun-charm on
the midsummer fire.
(e) The Sun as the Bird of Zeus.
In Egypt the sky-god Horos was early confused with the
sun-god Ra2. ' One by one all the functions of Ra,' says Prof.
Maspero, 'had been usurped by Horus, and all the designations of
Horus had been appropriated by Ra3.' Thus the sparrow-hawk,—
or, as Monsieur G. Benedite has recently contended4, the falcon—
which was originally conceived as the embodiment of Horos5, came
to be regarded as the symbol of Ra6, or in other words was trans-
ferred from the sky to the sun7, and was further developed into the
phoenix8, whose solar connexions are notorious9. Moreover, the
Horos of Edfu (Heru-behutet) was known far and wide as the
winged solar disk10. Now Aischylos in his Suppliants, a play
dealing with a Graeco-Libyan myth11, makes Danaos, the twin-
brother of Aigyptos, say to his daughters—
Call now likewise on yonder bird of Zeus.
1 Schol. Aristoph. eq. 729, Plut. 1054, Souid. s.v. tipeaubvr], cp. Theophrast. ap.
Porph. de abst. 2. 7.
2 E. A. Wallis Budge The Gods of the Egyptians London 1904 i. 146, K. Sethe Zur
altagyptischen Sage vom Sonnenauge Leipzig 1912 p. 5 f.
3 G. Maspero The Dawn of Civilization^ London 1901 p. 100.
4 G. Benedite in the Mon. Piot. 1909 xvii. 5 ff.
5 G. Maspero op. at.4 p. 86, E. A. Wallis Budge op. at. i. 466.
6 G. Maspero op. cit.4 p. 100, E. A. Wallis Budge op. cit. i. 322, A. Erman A Hand-
book of Egyptian Religion trans. A. S. Griffith London 1907 p. 22.
7 So in the Veda the eagle is connected primarily with Indra the thunder-god (A. A.
Macdonell Vedic Mythology Strassburg 1897 p. 152), but secondarily with Surya the sun,
which is not only compared with a flying eagle, but directly called an eagle (id. ib.
P- 31).
8 G. Maspero op. cit.4 p. 136 n. 5, cp. Hdt. 2. 73 (of the phoenix) ra p.ev avrov xpvo~6-
ko[jLa T&v TrrepQu ra 8e epvdpa es ra yudAicra ' aiercp irepiriyqaLv op-OLOTaros Kai to p-eyados,
Plin. fiat. hist. 10. 3 aquilae narratur magnitudine, auri fulgore circa colla, cetero pur-
pureus, caeruleam roseis caudam pinnis distinguentibus, cristis fauces caputque plumeo
apice honestari, Solin. 33. 11 (copies Pliny). Others (H. Brugsch Nouvelles recherches sur
la division de Vannee p. 49 f., A. Wiedemann ' Die Phonixsage im alten Agypten ' in the
Zeitschrift fiir dgyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 1878 xvi. 89—106, id. Herodots
zweites Buch p. 314 ff., A. Erman op. cit. p. 23) derive the phoenix from the heron
(bennu) of Heliopolis. As represented in Egyptian (Lanzone Dizion. di Mitol. Egiz.
p. 198 ff. pi. 70, 1—3), classical and post-classical art (Roscher Lex. Myth. hi. 3465 ff.),
the phoenix is more like a heron than a sparrow-hawk, but does not closely resemble
either. Turk in Roscher loc. cit. p. 3450 is content to describe it as ' ein Wundervogel.'
? D'Arcy WT. Thompson A Glossary of Greek Birds Oxford 1895 p. 182 ff.
10 Supra p. 205 ff.
11 Lnfra ch. ii § 9 (d) ii (a):
Helios and the Horai1. It is, therefore, open to us to maintain
that of old, as to-day, the worthy Greek householder hung over his
doorway a solar wreath destined to be burnt as a sun-charm on
the midsummer fire.
(e) The Sun as the Bird of Zeus.
In Egypt the sky-god Horos was early confused with the
sun-god Ra2. ' One by one all the functions of Ra,' says Prof.
Maspero, 'had been usurped by Horus, and all the designations of
Horus had been appropriated by Ra3.' Thus the sparrow-hawk,—
or, as Monsieur G. Benedite has recently contended4, the falcon—
which was originally conceived as the embodiment of Horos5, came
to be regarded as the symbol of Ra6, or in other words was trans-
ferred from the sky to the sun7, and was further developed into the
phoenix8, whose solar connexions are notorious9. Moreover, the
Horos of Edfu (Heru-behutet) was known far and wide as the
winged solar disk10. Now Aischylos in his Suppliants, a play
dealing with a Graeco-Libyan myth11, makes Danaos, the twin-
brother of Aigyptos, say to his daughters—
Call now likewise on yonder bird of Zeus.
1 Schol. Aristoph. eq. 729, Plut. 1054, Souid. s.v. tipeaubvr], cp. Theophrast. ap.
Porph. de abst. 2. 7.
2 E. A. Wallis Budge The Gods of the Egyptians London 1904 i. 146, K. Sethe Zur
altagyptischen Sage vom Sonnenauge Leipzig 1912 p. 5 f.
3 G. Maspero The Dawn of Civilization^ London 1901 p. 100.
4 G. Benedite in the Mon. Piot. 1909 xvii. 5 ff.
5 G. Maspero op. at.4 p. 86, E. A. Wallis Budge op. at. i. 466.
6 G. Maspero op. cit.4 p. 100, E. A. Wallis Budge op. cit. i. 322, A. Erman A Hand-
book of Egyptian Religion trans. A. S. Griffith London 1907 p. 22.
7 So in the Veda the eagle is connected primarily with Indra the thunder-god (A. A.
Macdonell Vedic Mythology Strassburg 1897 p. 152), but secondarily with Surya the sun,
which is not only compared with a flying eagle, but directly called an eagle (id. ib.
P- 31).
8 G. Maspero op. cit.4 p. 136 n. 5, cp. Hdt. 2. 73 (of the phoenix) ra p.ev avrov xpvo~6-
ko[jLa T&v TrrepQu ra 8e epvdpa es ra yudAicra ' aiercp irepiriyqaLv op-OLOTaros Kai to p-eyados,
Plin. fiat. hist. 10. 3 aquilae narratur magnitudine, auri fulgore circa colla, cetero pur-
pureus, caeruleam roseis caudam pinnis distinguentibus, cristis fauces caputque plumeo
apice honestari, Solin. 33. 11 (copies Pliny). Others (H. Brugsch Nouvelles recherches sur
la division de Vannee p. 49 f., A. Wiedemann ' Die Phonixsage im alten Agypten ' in the
Zeitschrift fiir dgyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 1878 xvi. 89—106, id. Herodots
zweites Buch p. 314 ff., A. Erman op. cit. p. 23) derive the phoenix from the heron
(bennu) of Heliopolis. As represented in Egyptian (Lanzone Dizion. di Mitol. Egiz.
p. 198 ff. pi. 70, 1—3), classical and post-classical art (Roscher Lex. Myth. hi. 3465 ff.),
the phoenix is more like a heron than a sparrow-hawk, but does not closely resemble
either. Turk in Roscher loc. cit. p. 3450 is content to describe it as ' ein Wundervogel.'
? D'Arcy WT. Thompson A Glossary of Greek Birds Oxford 1895 p. 182 ff.
10 Supra p. 205 ff.
11 Lnfra ch. ii § 9 (d) ii (a):