Bird epiphany of gods in Pre-Homeric Greece

Abstract

With the intent of analyzing the divine epiphany in Homer, in many instances onemay note how the distinction between the narrative and the metaphorical dimensionis unclear: for example, when the deity appears to the human being and is likenedto a bird, describing its attitudes, the boundary between a real metamorphosisand a similitude to animal behaviour seems to vanish.This element of uncertainty with regards to the deity’s description generated a strongdebate in the second half of twentieth century. On one hand, the possibility of anintention to represent the gods’ metamorphosis was excluded, on the other hand, the“numinous” dimension of the poems was defended by underscoring the relationbetween metamorphosis’ descriptions and Homeric characters’ reactions.The aim is to compare the role of birds in Homeric divine epiphanies with thepresence of the same animals in the Aegean Bronze Age iconography and texts, tounderstand whether the same relation can be established between birds and deities inpre-Homeric cult contexts.