The gate of the year

Illustration showing some specimens of woodpecker (Picus canus), from Naumann, Naturgeschichte der Vögel Mitteleuropas, Vol. IV, Tav. 29, Gera, 1901.
Ovid, in the Metamorphoses (XIV, 320-440) reports the legend of king Picus, son of Saturnus and of beautiful appearance. All the Nymphs of the rivers and woods fell in love with him, but his heart was devoted to Canens, a Nymph who had a unique endowment, that of singing in a wonderful way. While king Picus was preparing to participate to a boar’s hunt, the daughter of the Sun, Circe, saw him and immediately fell in love with him. The beautiful young man refused her amorous advances, arousing the woman’s rage. She, with her magical arts, transformed the king into a woodpecker. This bird was sacred to Mars and was regarded as having oracular properties. It was narrated, furthermore, that a woodpecker had watched over the twins Romulus and Remus, while they were suckled by the she-wolf in the cave. Picus was venerated by Latins as a prophetic deity, to whom it was attributed the paternity of the god Faunus, patron of agriculture and sheep-farming.

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picus_canus_-_Grauspecht.jpg]




Human-Animal Transformation

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Illustration showing some specimens of woodpecker (Picus canus), from Naumann, Naturgeschichte der Vögel Mitteleuropas, Vol. IV, Tav. 29, Gera, 1901. Ovid, in the Metamorphoses (XIV, 320-440) reports the legend of king Picus, son of Saturnus and of beautiful appearance. All the Nymphs of the rivers and woods fell in love with him, but his heart was devoted to Canens, a Nymph who had a unique endowment, that of singing in a wonderful way. While king Picus was preparing to participate to a boar’s hunt, the daughter of the Sun, Circe, saw him and immediately fell in love with him. The beautiful young man refused her amorous advances, arousing the woman’s rage. She, with her magical arts, transformed the king into a woodpecker. This bird was sacred to Mars and was regarded as having oracular properties. It was narrated, furthermore, that a woodpecker had watched over the twins Romulus and Remus, while they were suckled by the she-wolf in the cave. Picus was venerated by Latins as a prophetic deity, to whom it was attributed the paternity of the god Faunus, patron of agriculture and sheep-farming. [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picus_canus_-_Grauspecht.jpg]