Primitive Athens as described by Thucydides

by Jane Ellen Harrison

And hither tend. I warn you all

To golden house and marble wall

Approach not. Once again my bow

Zeus’ herald-bird, will lay thee low;

Of all that fly the mightiest thou

In talon! Lo another now

Sails hitherward—a swan! Away

Away, thou red-foot!

In days when on open-air altars sacrifice smoked, and there was abundance of sacred cakes, birds were real and very frequent presences. To the heads of numbers of statues found on the Acropolis is fixed a sharp spike to prevent the birds perching[46]. They were sacred yet profane.