RELIGION & OCCULT myths and symbols in the world of Carnivàle   Have content you'd like to contribute? Contact Management!

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES
BY JEFFERY FRY

Taking a hint from the last names "Crowe" and "Hawkins", I pulled some info on the mythology behind the "bird" roots of the names and found some interesting info.

Most notably, while both are very contrasted in their symbolism (night and day), both are associated with the Greek God Apollo (The Greek God of the Sun).

Crows, and their raven cousins, have always held a spot in mythology as the symbols of occult knowledge and power, wisdom, and, above all, war. Associated with the Otherworld, war, night and death. Perhaps from their macabre attendance on the battlefield, corvids have accompanied such mythological figures as the Norse God Odin, the Greek god Apollo, and the Celtic Goddess Morrigan. Because of their connection with war and death, crows have generally been seen as symbols of ill fortune.

In Polynesian stories, the hawk appears as a prophetic bird, with healing powers. In Celtic mythology, hawks were very often malevolent birds. In many mythologies, the hawk is a solar bird, associated with sun gods. In Ancient Egypt, the hawk, was a royal bird. Gods depicted as being hawk-headed, or accompanied by hawks, were Ra (the sun god), Horus, Khensu, Ptah, Mentu, Rehu, Sokar & Keghsenuf. The hawk was also associated with the Great Mother Amenti. In Greek myth, the goddess Circe was associated with hawks. A hawk was the messenger of Apollo.