The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 2 (of 6)

Chapter 282: CHAP. 6. (5.)—AN EAGLE WHICH PRECIPITATED ITSELF ON THE FUNERAL PILE OF A GIRL.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

The volume assembles an encyclopedic survey of the known world and its living inhabitants, moving from detailed regional geography and descriptions of seas, rivers, islands, and peoples to extended treatments of humanity, its generation, anatomy, and the origins and inventions of arts. Subsequent books catalog terrestrial animals—their habits, capture, and uses—followed by comprehensive observations on fish and marine creatures, their sizes and behaviors. Accounts mix naturalistic description, reported marvels, medicinal uses derived from animals, and travel and secondhand reports, organized as topical chapters intended as a practical compendium of natural and human phenomena.

CHAP. 6. (5.)—AN EAGLE WHICH PRECIPITATED ITSELF ON THE FUNERAL PILE OF A GIRL.

There is a very famous story about an eagle at the city of Sestos. Having been reared by a little girl, it used to testify its gratitude for her kindness, first by bringing her birds, and in due time various kinds of prey: at last she died, upon which the bird threw itself on the lighted pile, and was consumed with her body. In memory of this event, the inhabitants raised upon the spot what they called an heroic monument,2911 in honour of Jupiter and the damsel, the eagle being a bird consecrated to that divinity.