Have you ever wondered: "Are birds free?" Probably this question has never even crossed your mind. Or it may even seem strange to you. If you try to find an answer to this question, you will laugh that birds flying all over the place are not free...

So, can a caged bird be free? The answer is very simple, don't you think? How can a caged bird be free... Then is flapping wings freedom? While these questions weave labyrinths in my head, Alejandro Jodorowsky sometimes confuses me... He says; "Birds born in cages think flying is a disease."

Well, can we reconcile a bird and a human being in the same thought and philosophy? Do you think it would be right? What would be the links of the chain that forms this bond? Let me tell you a mythology about eagles, the symbol of freedom, and then we will concretize our thoughts. First, let's take a look at these verses. "Alone is the eagle that flies towards the sun, it has no nest with it. Alone they scatter into the void and alone they seek the power of life" says Halil Cibran...

On the other hand, "The upper man lives on the hills where eagles fly," says Nietzche. "There he drinks from springs far away from the water drunk by the rabble and unpolluted by their lips" he says... "The weather is harsh and cold on the high hills of the eagles, those without developed lungs cannot withstand this harsh weather" he praises the heights where the eagles live and the upper man of the future he dreams of...

In ancient Greek history and mythology, the eagle was a symbol of battlefields, courage and freedom. It was also the symbol of Zeus, the god of the gods. It represented his power and intelligence. It was characterized by holiness, its flight was scrutinized, meanings were deduced and prophecies were made.

Periphas, the king of the city of Athens, who was loved as much as the gods, was an incredible being for his subjects with his deeds, justice and stance, and one day he was going to be struck by a lightning bolt and destroyed by Zeus, who was jealous and angry. Understanding the situation, Apollo intervened and stopped his father Zeus. Nevertheless, Zeus, who succumbed to his anger, turned the king into an eagle. Periphas, now an eagle, won the love of Zeus with his loyalty, courage and splendor, and Zeus made him the king of birds and never let him leave his side. From then on, if an eagle soared down from the sky, it meant that Zeus was coming after it.

In Christianity, the eagle represented the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, in Catholicism John the Evangelist, and in Latin mythology Jupiter.

In Norse mythology, Votan, the god of gods, was disguised as an eagle when he wanted to leave or enter a place. In some indigenous beliefs, storms were even caused by eagles flapping their wings...

In ancient Turkic tradition, among the Yakut Turks and in Shamanism, eagles were sacred. It was even believed that the first shaman was an eagle. In some archaic beliefs, it was believed that eagles took the souls of the dead to the afterlife, while in others it was so sacralized that the eagle made the sun... Zoroaster's sacred animal, the eagle, flew through the air in wide swirls, while in Tibet they would dismember the bodies of the dead and throw their flesh and bones to the eagles from high hills.

From the eagle-headed pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the eagle totemism of the Indians, the eagle, the sacred symbol of heaven and earth, was considered a sin even to kill by many indigenous peoples. They even considered its feathers sacred and wore them on their clothes.

Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man as a gift, was chained by Zeus on the Caucasus Mountain, his liver was gnawed by an eagle sent every night, and his regenerated liver was gnawed again and again until the morning, and he was punished with the same torture.

In another eagle mythology; Artemis, one of the nymphs around her, Ethemea, the wife of Merops, the king of Kos Island, was enraged because she left her side and pierced her with her arrows. Hera, the wife of Zeus, took pity on the king and turned Ethemea into an eagle, because her husband, who was very upset about this situation, wanted to die.

Eagles, the noblest and most majestic inhabitants of the skies, with only one nest and one mate for life, live in the highest places and fly the highest. And yet, when they reach the age of 40, they are on the verge of a difficult decision. By this age, their talons have hardened, their beaks have grown long and curled, their feathers thick and heavy. This age is the turning point in their lives and they have to make a decision and a choice. They will either choose to die or to be reborn... Those who choose to live will first ascend to a very high place and be alone. The first job is to knock their beaks against a hard rock. No matter how painful the process, even if they are covered in blood, they have to do it. They wait for a while for their beaks to grow back. The eagle, whose beak grows back, must now use its beak to dislocate its talons. Again covered in blood, the eagle waits for its claws to heal and new claws to grow. After the claws grow, one last difficult task remains. Plucking its thick and heavy feathers one by one with the help of its claws and beak. With the plucking of the feathers and the growth of new feathers, this difficult process, which lasts about 150 days, is over and they gain another twenty years, lighter and more agile as if they were reborn... Those who cannot afford the painful process of this rebirth have already chosen death...

What is the utopian harmony and key word between the motifs of freedom, the eagle and man, which we tried to compare and match at the poles of the triangle above? What I have described is all symbolism! The only thing that makes all living beings, animals, birds and humans common is their attitudes and behaviors. At this point, a quote of Abdul Kalam comes to my mind. He says: "While all birds find shelter in the rain, the eagle makes a difference by flying above the clouds."

This difference has made eagles the symbol of freedom, the symbol of Zeus, the hero of myths for thousands of years and the source of inspiration for different cultures.

Well, then, how about being different?

Mukaddes Pekin Başdil

Researcher-Author

Source: Denizli Haber