Even their voices are at once harsh and spirited. Ravens are larger than crows. They are relatively solitary and make their nests far from human beings, while crows generally move about in flocks and are attracted to human settlements by the promise of food. Both, however, are associated with death and share a reputation as birds of prophecy. They are also monogamous, making them symbols of conjugal fidelity. People probably did not distinguish sharply among ravens, crows, rooks, and related birds in the ancient world, and they all appear much the same in heraldry. The blue jay is one corvid that is not black, but among the Chinook and other Native Americans along the northwest coast of the United States and Canada it shares the family reputation as a trickster. Sometimes identified with corvids in myth is the vulture, which the Egyptians associated with Nekhbet and other goddesses.
The ambivalent character of ravens is apparent in the Bible, where, though described as “unclean,” they sometimes appear to have a special intimacy with God. After the Flood had raged for forty days, Noah sent out a raven to find land. It flew back and forth until the waters receded but did not return (Gen. 8:6-8). Later, however, ravens fed the prophet Elijah every morning and evening after he had fled from Ahab into the wilderness (1 Kings 17:4). According to the Talmud, when Abel had been slain, Adam and Eve, who had no experience with death, did not know what do. A raven slew one of its own kind, dug a hole, and performed a burial, thus demonstrating to the first man and woman how the dead ought to be treated. In gratitude, God feeds the children of the ravens, which are born white, until they grow black plumage and can be recognized by their parents. The crow even taught people how to die in a myth of the Murinbata, an aboriginal people of Australia. Crab demonstrated what she believed was the best way to die by going to a hole and casting off her wrinkled shell. Then she waited for a new one, so that she might be reborn. Crow responded that there was a quicker, more efficient way, rolled his eyes, and immediately fell over.
The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that two “black doves” flew from Thebes in Egypt; one settled in Libya while the other went on to Greece and settled in the sacred grove of Dodona, where it rustled the leaves and brought forth the prophetic voice of Zeus. Herodotus believed the birds were originally dark-skinned priestesses, but scholars have suggested that they may have been crows or ravens. Closely bound with their reputed wisdom is their reputation for longevity, and corvids can indeed live for decades. In The Birds, by the Greek comic playwright Aristophanes, crows are said to live for five times the life of a human being. In the dialogue by Plutarch entitled “On the Use of Reason by So-Called "Irrational" Animals,” the wise pig Gryllus states that crows upon losing a mate will remain faithful for the remainder of their lives, seven times that of a human being. Precisely because of this reputation for fidelity, however, the Greeks and Romans considered a single crow at a wedding to be an omen of possible death to one partner. The god Apollo took the form of a crow or hawk when he fled to Egypt to escape the serpent Typhon. The crow remained sacred to Apollo, but the relationship between the god and corvids was not without ambivalence. As Ovid tells the story in Fasti, Phoebus (Apollo) was preparing a solemn feast for Jupiter and told a raven to bring some water from a stream. The raven flew off with a golden bowl but was distracted by the sight of a fig tree. Finding the fruits unfit to eat, the raven sat beneath the tree and waited for them to ripen. He then returned with a water snake that he claimed had blocked the water, but the god saw through this lie. As punishment for lateness and for deceit, the god later decreed that the raven from that time on could not drink of any spring until figs had ripened on their trees. Aconstellation of depicting a raven, a snake, and a bowl was placed in the sky, and the voice of the raven is still harsh from thirst in the spring. The call of the raven was often said to be “cras,” Latin for “tomorrow,” and through the Renaissance the raven often symbolized the procrastinator.
The intelligence of crows and ravens has amazed people from ancient times. A fable about this, traditionally attributed to the legendary Aesop, is “The Crow and the Pitcher.” A thirsty crow came upon a pitcher of water but was unable to reach inside and drink. The bird began to pick up pebbles and drop them one by one into the pitcher until the water had risen to the top. The usual moral given this story is, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” This is one anecdote that could well be based on fairly accurate observation. The Romans viewed birds as mediators between gods and human beings, at times in homey as well as solemn ways. Pliny the Elder told of a raven that had been born on the roof of a temple in Rome that had flown down to the shop of a shoemaker. The owner, wishing to please the gods, welcomed the bird. By watching the customers, the raven soon learned to talk. Every day he would fly to the podium across from the forum and greet Emperor Tiberius by name. Then he would fly around and say hello to various men and women before returning to the shop. One day a neighbor killed the raven, perhaps thinking the bird had left some droppings on his shoes. The people of Rome were incensed and lynched the man. Then they gave the raven a splendid funeral in which Ethiopian slaves carried the bier and many people left flowers along the path.
