Cattle Egrets and Bustards in Greek Art Author(s): Sylvia Benton Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 81 (1961), pp. 44-55 Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/628075 . Accessed: 14/05/2014 20:02 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Hellenic Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 119.40.117.85 on Wed, 14 May 2014 20:02:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CATTLE EGRETS AND BUSTARDS IN GREEK ART (PLATES I-V) I. CATTLE EGRET qpvy('A)Aos' THERE is a bird perched on the neck of a bull on a Late Bronze Age krater1 from Enkomi in the British Museum (PLATE I I). It has long legs and a long neck, and it is much larger than any of the crow tribe, so often seen on cattle. Its long pointed bill is fixed on a point in the bull's neck probably removing a tick or something of the sort. The operation is painful and the bull tosses his head. On the other side of the vase the bird has lost his footing but still keeps the grip of his bill on the neck of the bull (PLATE I 2). That dagger- like bill is longer than the one on the other side of the vase. We must therefore suppose that the bill in the earlier scene has been inserted into the bull's neck to a considerable depth. No wonder the bull is plunging about to dislodge the operator. A bird with long neck, long legs, and long beak can only be a marsh bird, and as it is hunting for insects on the neck of a bull, it can only be a Cattle Egret (PLATE I 4),2 though its body bears some resemblance to the bodies of birds which are probably meant for geese3 or swans4; its beak is more formidable. Presumably this insect-hunting bird is not a deity revealing5 him or herself; but perhaps Cypriots are more secular than Mycenaeans. I find that V. Karageorghis6 has assembled this vase and others that 1 am about to quote, and related the action of the birds on them to those of magpies, though he sees that these birds are not magpies. The publication of Birds of Cyprus7confirms my identifica- tion by stating that Cattle Egrets can still be seen in parties of ten or more near Larnaka. Enkomi may once have been on an estuary,8 and this vase gives us scenes from the water meadows. It is true that these birds are all too heavy even for Cattle Egrets, but the same fault is to be found in the swans mentioned above, and we shall find others. The trouble is partly caused by the method of drawing an outline round all the feathers of a fluffy bird. I expect the Cypriots liked their birds fat. Karageorghis has reversed my order of events, and states that my falling bird is flying towards the bull: it is not flying, its wings are closed,9 but it may be jumping on. He also figures a companion krater10 which may well serve as a sequel: on one side the bird is falling on its head, on the other it has disappeared. 1 BM C46. CVA i pl. 10. 7. 3 E.g. C412, CVA Londoni pl. Io. Io. Note the 2 The cattle egret is called the Tikkie Bird in short legs, the dark necks, and short beaks. Africa: it is more usual for birds to explore the backs 4 Cf. C372, CVA London i pl. 9. 4- See also of beasts. PLATEIV I. See the photographs of a flock, and a bird in Spain 5 See M. P. Nilsson, Geschichteder Griechischen in PLATEI 3, 4. I am indebted to Mr E. Hoskings ReligionS291; T. B. L. Webster, From Mycenae to for permission to use these photographs, and for that Homer 42. in PLATE III 2. For other photographs and per- 6 AJA lx 145, pl. 56, figs. 3 and 4. mission to use them I have to thank the authorities 7 D. A. and W. M. Bannerman, BirdsofCyprus 241. of the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, the 8 Sir George Hill's suggestion (History of Cyprus Pitt-Rivers Museum, the Cyprus Museum, the Agora i 12): Oiniadai built near the mouth of the Acheloos and the German Institute in Athens. The drawings is now one to two miles inland. in PLATESII 6, IV 6 are from Birds in Cyprus,by kind 9 Some Cypriot birds do, however, fly with their permission of Mr and Mrs Bannerman and the wings folded: PLATEIII 5, 6. I shall make much use London Zoological Society; that in PLATEIV 5 from of Karageorghis' articles. A Field Guideto theBirds of Britainand Europe (R. Peter- 10 AJA lx pl. 56, figs. I, 2, the Pierides krater son and others). I have to thank Prof. Ashmole and no. 42. Mr Philip Ashmole for reading this paper. This content downloaded from 119.40.117.85 on Wed, 14 May 2014 20:02:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CATTLE EGRETS AND BUSTARDS IN GREEK ART 45 Note the nice fluffy extended tail that the bird turns sideways to display to us: perhaps it serves as a parachute. All the tails are too long. Note also the well-marked toes and plus-fours. On another kratern1 of the same shape, this time from Klaudia near Larnaka, a bull with three diamonds in the air round its head, is approaching a sleeping bird on the ground (PLATE I 5). The bird is like the Cattle Egret, except that its tail is foblded,perhaps because it is on the ground, and its beak is a little bent. On the other side of the vase (PLATE I 6), the bird has awakened, stretched its long neck upwards and appears to be making a pass at one of the diamonds just beyond its friend's horn. The encounter of bull and bird may be less hostile than Stubbings12 supposed, in fact it almost looks as if the bull has come to the bird for protection from horse-flies. A diamond does not make a good fly, but these 'filling ornaments' do accompany other animals liable to similar attack. On a companion krater13 the bird has gone to sleep again and the bull passes on. A similar bird to these Cattle Egrets can be found under stags on another Cypriot krater.'4 The birds are called swans in the British MuseumCatalogue, but that is impossible, and a stag each with his attendant goose would not be much better. G. Mountfort'5 tells us that there is an alliance between deer and Cattle Egret and evidently the Cypriots knew of it. The birds are turning their pliant heron's necks to search for insects on the ground, which have been attracted by the beasts or disturbed by their arrival; this is a common occupation of Cattle Egrets. They might be meant for another kind of heron such as the Squacco or the Little Egret, which also frequent cattle, but the birds with the stags are so like the bird actually on the animal, that it is fair to suppose that the Cattle Egrets are intended. Mrs Immerwahr'6 adds three more of these birds by themselves on an oinochoe from Enkomi (PLATEII I). A fragment with a Cattle Egret, undoubtedly by the same hand as the oinochoe in the British Museum,17 and one with similar stags, were found by Schliemann at Mycenae.18 The ornithological evidence rather favours a Cypriot origin for the style, but it is not of course decisive. Schliemann's drawing of this bird carries con- viction, but some of Furumark'sg9 drawings are less satisfactory. It is possible that a deep bowl20presents a pair of Cattle Egret in flight. They have bushy tails, long legs and long bills. This is the way the birds would come in to land (PLATEI 3). It is here claimed that all these Cypriot Bronze Age vases show close observation of bird-life in spite of faults of presentation noted above. It is a bird of which we in England can know little at first hand, so it has been hard for us to identify it. All these vases surely give us scenes taken straight from country life. The Cattle Egret is a striking and beautiful bird and deserves to be commemorated (PLATE I 3, 4). I have neither leisure nor opportunity to follow the presentation of marsh birds in Cyprus far into the archaic period, though I am convinced that it would repay study. There is a series of squat, round-bottomed oinochoai, obviously made to be hung on pegs and used as dippers. We encountered the shape in Ithaca in the fabric confusingly called Argive Monochrome. The workmen christened them Papades. In Cyprus these vases 11 BM C4o2, CVA i pl.