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Among
the symbols that identify Jesus Christ, the pelican has an important
place. This marine bird, we know, captures the fish then keeps
in a bag that was under the spout. Reached the nest, feeds her
children with the prey kept in its beak: an effective method
for transporting the food. But the ancient people this naturalistic
details did not know and it seemed at first glance that the
pelican chicks nourish with his own flesh that is torn from
her arms. For this reason the sacrifice, in early medieval times,
was associated with the figure of Jesus, who sacrifices himself
for the salvation of humanity. |
But, as always happens
in these cases, the Christian myth is the reworking of an older
myth. The Pelican is actually an ancient symbol, associated with
the figure of the white bird, like stork and swan. According to
an authoritative scholar, the pelican was first mentioned in history
in the Texts of the Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphics dating back
to the third millennium BCE. Here we read how the pelican is out
of his mouth every day of the disc representing the cosmogonic Sun-God
Atum. Also in these texts there is also a description of the end
of time, when the pelican opens its mouth and the Sun do not come
out. Is clear the similarity with the swan that gives birth to the
Sun: this is the same myth, perhaps in an earlier version. The myth
of Egypt was absorbed by the Christian Gnosticism in Alexandria
and from there entered the medieval symbolism. The reference to
Christ comes from the fact that the pelican it pierces his chest
to feed its chicks, with its own meat and blood: clear reference
to the Last Supper and the Holy Grail. For this reason, the Pelican
is present on many esoteric churches.
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