Research source

THE CUCKOO, THE HERON, THE HEATHCOCK, THE PARTRIDGE, THE NIGHTINGALE, THE SWALLOW, THE SPARROW, AND

Date of account: English edition published 1872
Source: Zoological Mythology; or, The Legends of Animals, Volume 2 (of 2)
Reference: Zoological Mythology; or, The Legends of Animals, Volume 2 (of 2) · selected passage 41
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-25

Record summary

It is on this account that in Pausanias, the moon-goddess instructs the exiles who are searching for a propitious place to found a city, to build it in a myrtle-grove into which they should see a hare flee for refuge

Published source text

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Source passage

Source text · mention only

It is on this account that in _Pausanias_, the moon-goddess instructs the exiles who are searching for a propitious place to found a city, to build it in a myrtle-grove into which they should see a hare flee for refuge. The moon is the watcher of the sky, that is to say, she sleeps with her eyes open; so also does the hare, whence the _somnus leporinus_ became a proverb. In the ninth Esthonian story, the thunder-god is compared to the hare that sleeps with its eyes open; Indras, who transforms the hare into the moon, has already been mentioned; Indras becomes a eunuch in the form of sahasrâkshas, or of the thousand-eyed god (the starry sky in the night, or the sun in this starry sky); the thousand eyes become one, the _milloculus_ becomes _monoculus_, when the moon shines in the evening sky; hence we say now the hundred eyes of Argos, and now simply the eye of Argos--the eye of God.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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