How an ancient Greek myth still shapes our minds

BBC ^ | 1/26

[nickcarraway]

SNIP

The baby-stealing crane

Growing up, I was frequently confronted with the stork tale. Disney films, cartoons and picture books all told me that newborn babies were found and delivered to their parents by these elegant, long-legged birds. The original myth, however, has a darker twist, with the bird stealing – or rescuing, depending on your perspective – the baby.

The myth can be traced back to ancient Greece, where cranes, which share many similarities with storks, were associated with stealing babies. In Greek mythology, Hera, the goddess of childbirth, turned her rival Gerana into a crane with an elongated neck because she was having an affair with her husband Zeus. Unwilling to part with her newborn child, Gerana picked up the baby, wrapped it in a blanket, and flew off with the infant in her beak.

Over time, the crane was conflated with the stork, says Paul Quinn, senior lecturer in English literature at the University of Chichester in the UK. "There's a link with domesticity because storks nest on people's roofs." Another mythological layer was added by the pelican, which in European medieval literature was a symbol for the Virgin Mary and the nurturing mother, says Quinn. The pelican was also associated with breastfeeding, he says, as the bird is described as picking at its chest to feed its chicks in literature.

[fidelis]

Another mythological layer was added by the pelican, which in European medieval literature was a symbol for the Virgin Mary and the nurturing mother, says Quinn.

In Christian tradition, the pelican has been identified with Christ, not the Virgin Mary. The idea was, just as the pelican feeds her young with her own flesh, so too does Christ feed us with his own Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist.

[RedMonqey]

Leave it to leftist academia to suck all the mysteries out of life.

[ArtDodger]

What bird brings babies? The stork.
What bird keeps them away? The swallow.
:/

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] Cranes, my baby’s just been locked up by cranes...