CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus)

Behaviour:

Ancient Associations:

Known for its breeding call (verb kokkyzein), its cowardice, and its habit to lay its eggs into the nests of other birds (Aristotle, History of Animals 563b 29ff.; 618a 8ff.; Procreation of Animals 750a 11). Aristotle debates the myth, based on their similar plumage, that the cuckoo was a transformed hawk (Aristotle, History of Animals 563b 14ff.).

The fact that smaller birds often harass and pursue the cuckoo(1) was interpreted as a sign of cowardice. Aristotle writes: "This bird surpasses (all others) in its cowardice: For it is being picked at by small birds, and its flees from them" (History of Animals 618a 29-31).

The cuckoo's meat was considered a delicacy (Pliny, Natural History 10.27).(2) Aristotle similarly mentions their sweet-tasting meat (History of Animals 564a 3-4).

A cuckoo sat on top of the sceptre of Polyclitus' cult statue of Hera in Argos, presumably in memory of a story according to which Zeus transformed himself into a cuckoo when he fell in love with her so that she would want him as a pet and chase him (Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.17.4). Agamemnon's sceptre may have had a similar decoration (cp. Aristophanes, Birds 508-10) because Hera was the patron goddess of his city, Mycenae.

(1) B. Bruun/ H. Delin/L. Svenson, Der Kosmos Vogelführer: Die Vögel Deutschlands und Europas, 10th ed. Stuttgart: Franck-Kosmos, 1993, pp. 170-71.
(2) E. Mensching, "Kuckuck", in Der Kleine Pauly, München: dtb, 1979, vol. 3, col. 371.
(3) J. Pollard, Birds in Greek Life and Myth, London: Thames & Hudson, 1977.