ANCIENT EGYPT

The History, People and Culture of the Nile Valley

Volume Four  Issue Three -- December 2003 / January 2004

The peacock is, as everyone knows, legendary the world over for the male’s proud gait and gorgeous plumage, and its glittering long train (adorned with eye-like markings) which can be spread out in display like a huge fan. Precisely when the peacock was first introduced into Egypt from Asia is uncertain, but there is at least one piece of tantalizing evidence, as Patrick F. Houlihan describes.

A possible peacock drawn on a limestone ostracon dating from the Ramesside Period. Courtesey of the Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm.

One will not find an article about the peacock (Pavo cristatus), also called peafowl, in the magisterial Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Nor is it dealt with in any standard reference pertaining to the pharaonic animal world, including my The Birds of Ancient Egypt. There is an absence of conclusive evidence for the creature in the country prior to the arrival of Alexander III, the Great, in the autumn of 332 BCE. Thereafter the peacock held religious significance for both Hellenistic and Roman inhabitants. It was subsequently adopted as a potent symbol of resurrection by the early Christian Church, and is frequently encountered as a decorative element in Coptic iconography (Byzantine Period). Here we briefly highlight the roles of the showy peacock in post-dynastic imagery and beliefs.

Earliest Egyptian example?

In antiquity the peacock was transported far outside of its native range in India and Sri Lanka, and kept for pleasure in parks, gardens, and aviaries by royalty and wealthy private individuals. The bird’s charm and grace was its ticket to distant far-flung lands. It was already known in Mesopotamia by the 7th or 6th century BCE, in Greece by the 5th century BCE, and in Italy by the 2nd century BCE. The earliest attestation of this zoological marvel on Egyptian soil could be from the Ramesside Period. A small limestone figured ostracon, only 9.1 x 7.2 cm in size, likely to be from the secluded artisans’ village at Deir el-Medina, and now housed in the Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm, bears a unique ink sketch which has been described in the Museum’s catalogue of ostraca as a peacock. There is no mistaking an obvious resemblance. What else could it possibly be? The proposed identification of it as a peacock is strengthened, moreover, by the fact that its close relative, another renowned Asiatic import, the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), the ancestor of the domesticated chicken, also makes its début in pharaonic art on an ostracon dating from this same epoch.

The peacock ostracon was discovered by Howard Carter in the course of Lord Carnarvon’s excavations in the Valley of the Kings during the winter of 1920-1921. On these paper-white flakes gifted Egyptian draughtsmen captured the file of prestigious foreign fauna which marched into Egypt in the New Kingdom. Such exotic animals as bear, elephant, giraffe and so on were likely to have been exhibited with pride in the royal menagerie. It would therefore, not be surprising to come across a rare peacock recorded in this popular medium. I was quite tempted to include the species in my study of ancient Egyptian avian life on the basis of this ostracon alone. In the end, however, there are simply too few diagnostic features present to enable us to draw a firm conclusion about the identify of the bird depicted. The extant monuments otherwise maintain a total silence concerning the peacock, but of course this could be pure chance.

Peacock painted on a wooden Coptic sarcophagus. 4th or 5th century CE. Courtesy of the Ägyptologisches Institute der Universität Heidelberg.

Curiosity of Saqqara

Let us now wing our way to Saqqara, necropolis of the city of Memphis. Here Auguste Mariette uncovered in 1850-1851, in close proximity to the Serapeum, a curious semicircle of Greek statuary of famous philosophers and poets, carved in purely a Classical style from local stone: Pindar, Hesiod, Homer, Plato, and others. There are also sculptures of the Ptolemaic regimes’ patron deity, Dionysos, the god of wine, and the symbol of earthly pleasure and luxury, mounted on real and imaginary beasts, including a pair of strutting peacocks in full display. This entire group was probably set up by Ptolemy I (304-284 BCE). In recent years, several scholars have opined that these figures may have been affiliated with the entombment of Alexander at the site: an intriguing possibility to be sure. According to the Roman author Aelian (c. 170-235 CE), a special tie existed between this Macedonian king and the peacock, stemming from his victorious campaigns in northern India. He writes that Alexander ‘was so amazed when he saw these birds, and entranced by their beauty, that he threatened anyone who killed a peacock with the direst penalties.’

Aelian also relates a story about an unnamed Ptolemaic monarch receiving an Indian peacock, who in turn then dedicated it to Zeus Polieus. This would appear to be a further indication that this species was revered in Egypt during this Greek dynasty. In Ptolemy II’s grand celebratory procession of amazing splendour, which was staged in Alexandria in the early 270’s BCE, peacocks were carried in cages along with his vast assortment of wondrous creatures. The peacock is known from its appearance in minor works of art during the course of the Graeco-Roman Period, including terracotta figurines. There is also a lovely likeness of this bird on a mosaic floor in an élite Roman residence, the socalled ‘Villa of the Birds’, at Kom el- Dikka, Alexandria.

Bird of immortality

The peacock exemplifies the fluid transformation of a motif taken from Hellenistic mythology Christianized for use as a striking design in ecclesiastical and funerary contexts. The association of its spotted train with the starry heavens and, by extension immortality, led artisans to create legions of deftly executed pictures of the peacock in Coptic art. St. Augustine (c. 354-430 CE) remarked in The City of God: ‘Who except God, the creator of all things, endowed the flesh of the dead peacock with the power of never decaying.’ The legend that this bird was incorruptible after death added to its symbolic importance in the early Church. Even a quick visit through the galleries of Coptic Museum in Cairo, or of another outstanding collection, will reveal examples of the peacock incorporated into a fairly wide range of secular and sacred objects. These include architectural fragments, woodwork, textiles, tomb stelae, bronzes, and more. While this species was apparently only introduced late in history, it went on to claim a distinguished place in the Egyptian bestiary following the days of the pharaohs.

Further Reading

Habib, R. ‘The Peacock in Coptic Art.’ The Egypt Travel Magazine 23 (1956), pp. 26-28;

‘The Peacock & the Eagle in the Coptic Period.’ The Outstanding Aspects of the Coptic Arts (Cairo, 1980?);

Houlihan, P.F. The Birds of Ancient Egypt (Warminster, 1986) New Edition (Cairo, 1988);

Houlihan, P.F. ‘Zoological Gardens.’ The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Ed by D.B. Redford. Vol. 3 (Oxford and New York, 2001), pp. 531- 533;

Hünemörder, C. ‘Pfau.’ Der Neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike. Ed. by H. Cancik and H. Schneider. Vol. 9 (Stuttgart, 2000), cols. 689-690;

Lauer, J.-P. and C. Picard Les statues ptolémaïques du Sarapieion de Memphis (Paris, 1955);

Pollard, J. Birds in Greek Life and Myth (London, 1977);

Rice, E.E. The Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus (Oxford and New York, 1983);

Tammisto, A. Birds in Mosaics: A Study on the Representation of Birds in Hellenistic and Romano-Campanian Tesselated Mosaics to the Early Augustan Age (Rome, 1997);

Wilkinson, C.K. ‘Early Christian Paintings in the Oasis of Khargeh.’ The Egyptian Expedition 1927-1928: Part 2 of the Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art December (1928), pp. 29-36.

Patrick F. Houlihan is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and California State University, Sacramento. He has written scholarly and popular articles on Egyptological topics for many journals and encyclopaedias. His books include: The Birds of Ancient Egypt, The Animal World of the Pharaohs, and Wit and Humour in Ancient Egypt. He is the American correspondent to AE magazine and a frequent contributor.

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