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    Prev: Agreed. Eighteen vultures announced the death of Remus.
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    Author: * Lucius Aelius - 3 Posts on this thread out of 319 Posts sitewide.
    Date: Dec 18, 2002 - 17:57

    Plutarch, a priest himself and should know about such things, goes on to say that the vulture

    “…is a creature the least hurtful of any, pernicious neither to corn, fruit-tree, nor cattle; it preys only upon carrion, and never kills or hurts any living thing; and as for birds, it touches not them, though they are dead, as being of its own species, whereas eagles, owls, and hawks mangle and kill their own fellow-creatures....Besides, all other birds are, so to say, never out of our eyes; they let themselves be seen of us continually; but a vulture is a very rare sight, and you can seldom meet with a man that has seen their young; their rarity and infrequency has raised a strange opinion in some, that they come to us from some other world; as soothsayers ascribe a divine origination to all things not produced either of nature or of themselves.”
    No wonder the scientific name is Cathartes aura, from the Greek kathartes, meaning “purifier.”

    I’m sure Aelian has something nice to say, as well.


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