VULTURES: EXEGESIS OF A SYMBOL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14795/j.v3i4.204Keywords:
VULTURES, SYMBOLAbstract
Depending on the different cultures and historical periods, vultures have been considered both impure or sacred. But, since they usually do not prey upon living animals, their symbolic dimension, associated to the idea of purification, is present in many myths, religions, burial praxis of ancient populations and remains in some religions today.
In the ancient Mediterranean civilizations, they have been carved in some of the most ancient bas-reliefs of the history by stone age people; were sacred to Egyptians, who even took them as symbol of gods; in the classical times they were supposed to be all feminine and breed by parthenogenesis, and therefore appreciated by some early Christian authors, who came to comparing them even to the Virgin Mary; they have been studied and described by ancient scientists, naturalists, philosophers, playwrights; involved in many of the most enduring Greek and Roman myths and legends; many parts of their body were considered as a medicine or even a talisman for happiness; and they were so proverbial for Romans to become even one of the symbols of the founding of Rome itself.
But they were also so fragile that perfumes, myrrh and pomegranates were supposed to be lethal for them ….Downloads
References
BAILLEUL-LE SUER 2012
Bailleul-Le Suer, R. (ed.), Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt (Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago).
BEAZLEY 1947
Beazley, J. D., Etruscan Vase-paint (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
BETRÒ 1995
Betrò, M. C., Geroglifici (Milano: Mondadori).
CANFORA 2015
Canfora, L., Augusto figlio di Dio (Roma - Bari: GLF editori Laterza).
CRAMPS 1980
Cramps, S. (ed.), Handbook of the Birds of Europe the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palearctic, vol. II Hawks to Bustards (Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press).
DAVIES/SMITH/FRAZER 2005
Davies, S./Smith, H. S./Frazer, K. J., The Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara: The Falcon Complex And Catacomb, Archaeological Report (London: Egypt Exploration Society).
DONADONI 1997
Donadoni, S., La religione egiziana. In: Filoramo, G. (ed.), Storia delle religioni. Le religioni antiche, (Roma-Bari: Laterza).
DONADONI 1936
Donadoni, S., Note sulla composizione degli Hieroglyphiká di Orapollo, SIFC 13, 293-298.
DUMÉZIL 1989
Dumézil, G., Feste romane (Genova: Il Melangolo).
GARDINER 1957
Gardiner, A., Egyptian Grammar: being an introduction to the study of hierogliphs, 3rd ed. (London: Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University Press).
GARDINER 1971
Gardiner, A., La civiltà egizia (Torino: Einaudi).
JACQ 1994
Jacq, C., Le petit Champollion illustré (Paris: Robert Laffont S. A.).
LANCIANI 2004
Lanciani, R. A., Roma pagana e cristiana: la trasformazione della città attraverso i secoli, dai templi alle chiese, dai mausolei alle tombe dei primi papi (Roma: Newton & Compton editori).
LEHMANN 1977
Lehmann, J., Gli Ittiti (Milano: Grarzanti).
MITHEN 2004
Mithen, S., After the Ice: A global human history, 20,000-5000 BC. (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press).
MORINI 1996
Morini, L. (ed.), Anonimo umbro, Bestiario moralizzato, edizione di riferimento: Bestiari medievali, (Torino: Einaudi).
PETERS/SCHMIDT 2004
Peters, J./Schmidt K., Animals in the symbolic world of Pre-Pottery Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey: a preliminary assessment, Anthropozoologica 39, 1, 180-218.
PRESTON 1966
Preston, M. D., On the Cultural Ecology of Sky Burial on the Himalayan Plateau, East and West 46, 3–4, 353-370.
SCALF 2012
Scalf, F., The role of birds within the religious landscape of Ancient Egypt. In:Bailleul-Le Suer R. (ed.), Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt (Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago), 33-40.
SCHMIDT 2009
Schmidt, K., Göbekli Tepe. Eine Beschreibung der wichtigsten Befunde erstellt nach den Arbeiten der Grabungsteams der Jahre 1995–2007. In: Schmidt, K. (ed.), Erste Tempel-Frühe Siedlungen. 12000 Jahre Kunst und Kultur, Ausgrabungen und Forschungen zwischen Donau und Euphrat (Oldenburg: Sensee Verlag).
STRATTON-PORTER 1909
Stratton-Porter, G., Birds of the Bible (Cincinnati: Jennings and Graham).
THOMPSON 1923
Thompson, D'arcy W., A Glossary of Greek Birds (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
TOYNBEE 1973
Toynbee, J. M. C., Animals in Roman Life and Art (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press).
WINTER 1985
Winter, I. J, After the Battle is Over: The 'Stele of the Vultures' and the Beginning of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East. In: Kessler, H./Shreve Simpson, M. (eds.), Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Studies in the History of Art 16 (Washington: National Gallery of Art), 11-32.
WILKINSON 2003
Wilkinson, R. H., The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (New York: Thames & Hudson).
WILFORD 2009
Wilford, J. N., Flutes Offer Clues to Stone-Age Music, Nature 459 (7244), 248-252.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal, we use CC BY-NC-ND license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs) wich only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).