Look at this

[gregory]

Oof.

PS have telescope, will travel.....

PPS I am very old and have no beard.....

[marigold's]

I've always loved pictures of the Annunciation, but this is a very pretty one with all the varried birds...including a peacock! A ton of them really. Most of them look like pea-hens. Does anyone know the religious significance of pea-hens? Generally I think doves are supposed to represent the holy spirt and Annunciation pictures usually contain lilys in them to represent chastity or purity. (Of course, I just like art and am not a religious studies buff : ) ) Yep, there's a lily in the Archangel's hand.

I'd be interested in understanding the subtext of the other birds like the peacock. It reminds me of the myth of Leda and the Swan--esp. the divine conception part--and the way Christianity built upon many of the old ways to make it easier for new believers to comprehend the metaphors.

The story of Leda's a Greek myth with old shape-shifter Zeus changing into whatever form he needed to to get the girl (much to his wife's chagrin) and change into another bird (once into the sly cuckoo, appropriate since the bird's name has it's roots in "cuckhold", the very thing he wanted to avoid having done to him : )) Anyway, another myth, this time from Zeus' wife Hera's side--she knew of Zeus' philandering and sent her faithful servant and watchman Argus (who had a hundred eyes placed all over him and never closed more than one to sleep) watch to make sure Zeus wasn't philandering with his latest mortal sweetheart, Io, who he'd turned into a cow to avoid getting caught. Long story short, Zeus had Argus lulled *all* the way to sleep so his lover Io could escape and Argus could be killed. Hera was so ticked by the situation, she placed all her faithful Argus' eyes on a peacock, her favorite bird, that he might never be forgotton. So maybe the peacock is supposed to carry the message of the Christian god's omnicience--a symbol that heaven and nature witnessed the event and an assurance that Mary would always being watched over, or something : ) (Poor Hera! Being married to a philanderer who was also her brother...hmm...there's a cautionary tale in there somewhere... : ) )