Columba

The constellation Columba, the Dove, can be viewed as either sitting on the stern (Puppis) of the celestial Ship (Argo Navis) or flying before it [1]. In the Argonauta expedition a white dove was sent out of the Argo Navis by Jason. Aided by Athena/Minerva, it shot between the Clashing Rocks, the Symplegades, with such speed that the rocks crashed against each other without killing the bird, only depriving it of a few tail feathers. The constellation Columba is adjacent to Puppis, the Stern of the Ship Argo Navis. An aplustre is an ornamental appendage of wood at the ship's stern, usually spreading like a fan and curved like a bird's feather. An old coin shows a dove perched on an aplustre [2].

The genus Columba, of the family Columbidae, comprises the pigeons and doves. The terms dove and pigeon are used interchangeably. The English word dove comes from the Indo-European root *dheu-¹ 'Also *dheua-, the base of a wide variety of derivatives, meaning 'to rise in the cloud' as dust, vapor or smoke, and related to the semantic notions of breath, various color adjectives, and forms denoting defective perception or wits'. Derivatives: fumarole, fumatorium, fumatory, fume, fumaric acid, fumigate, fumitory, funky¹, perfume, sfumato (these words from Latin fumus, smoke), -thymis, enthymeme, (from Greek thumos, soul, spirit), thyme (from Greek thumon, from thuein ‘to burn, sacrifice’, from its use as incense), fuliginous (from Latin fuligo, soot), thymus, dizzy (from OE dysig, foolish, stupefied, confused), dose (to make drowsy), deer (deer/dear are historically related, deer simply meant 'animal', 'darling' from Old English deorling, is thought to be related), dust, down² (feathers), duvet, duvetyn, eiderdown, (these words from Old Norse dunn, bird's down <'fine like dust'), thio-, thion-, (these prefixes from Greek thion, brimstone, sulfur), thuja (cypress tree, Thuja is Gr. thyia), thurible, thurifer, (from Greek thuos, thuia, cypress), dusk, fuscous, obfuscate ('to make dim, dark, and indistinct'), subfusc (from Latin fuscus, dark, dusky), dun (from OE dun(n), dull brown), Duncan (from Irish Gaelic Donncean, 'brown head'), typhus, stew, stove, typhosole, (from Greek tuphos, blind, tuphein, to smoke), deaf (from German taub), dumb (‘sensory or mental impairment’), dove¹ (from German taube, from old English dove 'dark colored bird'), dwell (from Old English dwellan, to deceive, but influenced in a sense by cognate Old Norse dvelja, to tarry, from Germanic dwellan, to go or lead astray), doldrums (from old English dol, dull), dolt, dull (from middle low German dul, dull. Perhaps Irish dud, pipe; dudeen (clay pipe). [Pokorny 4 dheu- 261 Watkins].

In human anatomy, the thymus is an organ located just behind the sternum. Columba, the Dove, is located behind the stern (Puppis) of the Ship, Argo Navis.

Klein (Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary) supplies a few more cognates to the Indo-European root *dheu-¹ and says: Compare thanato-, Thyiad (a maenad or follower of Bacchus), tumble, down (as in downhill), the obsolete word feral (from Latin feralis, 'funereal, deadly, fatal', probably meaning literally 'pertaining to the feast of the souls', from *dhwesa, 'soul, spirit, ghost'), fury (cognate with Greek thuein, 'bacchante', Greek thein 'to sacrifice', properly 'to cause to smoke'), Furies, furor, the first element in Dukhobors (the name given by the Russian Orthodox Church to a nonconformist sect, literally 'spirit fighters', from duch, 'spirit', and borets, 'wrestler, fighter').

The word thanato- is from the Greek word for death, thanatos, from the Indo-European root *dhwena- 'To disappear, die'. Derivatives: Thanatos, euthanasia, tansy, thanatology, (these words from Greek thanatos, death, the son of Nyx, goddess of the night. Roman equivalent Mors), thanatosis (playing dead). [In Pokorny. 4. dheu- 261. Watkins]

Our words die, and death, comes from the reconstructed Indo-European root *dheu-³. The word dove comes from Indo-European *dheu-¹. Ayto (Dictionary of Word Origins) says about the word 'die'; "This, like English dead and death, goes back ultimately to an Indo-European base *dheu-, which some have linked with Greek thanatos 'dead.'" Death from the Indo-European root *dheu-³ 'To die'. Derivatives are: dead, death, die¹, dwindle. [Pokorny 2. dheu- 260. Watkins]

Klein (Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary) says about funeral, "from Latin funus, genitive funeris, 'burial, funeral', which probably stands for *dhewenos, 'that which pertains to death', from Indo-European base *dhew-, *dheu-, 'to die', whence also Gothic dauths, 'dead', diwans, 'mortal'. See dead and compare words there referred to". Funeral comes from the Indo-European root *dheue- 'To close, finish, come full circle'. Derivatives: down¹, down³, 'down hill', (also becoming -don in such place names as Wimbledon), dune (sandy hill), town ('enclosed place, homestead, village, fortified place, hill, stronghold'), funeral (from Latin funus). [In Pokorny 4. dheu- 261. Watkins]

A dove was released by Noah after the flood in order to find land; it came back carrying an olive branch, telling Noah that somewhere there was land. A dove with an olive branch has since then come to symbolize peace. When a person dies we say they are 'at peace', the spirit leaves the body, and this constellation might represent the Holy Spirit (or perhaps thumos - explained more fully below).

The word Columba comes from Latin for 'dove, pigeon', cognate with Greek kolumbos, kolumbis, 'diver' (name of a bird), Old Slavonic golobi, 'dove', literally 'the blue bird''. These words derive from Indo-European base *qel-, *qol-, 'of a dark color', whence also Greek kelainos, 'black'. Compare columbine. This base is related to base *qal-, whence Latin caligo, 'darkness'. See caliginous (dark, misty, and gloomy), and compare Celaeno (Klein). A less common English word for dove or pigeon is culver, diminutive of Columba, 'dove'.

A columbarium, is a dovecote, it also means a vault with niches for urns containing ashes of the dead. "Greek funerary urns depict a dove 'drinking from a vase which symbolizes the fount of memory'" [3].

In Christian iconography, a dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit either personally or in his works, or the Holy Ghost?

The words dove and thymus (gland) are related. Thumos (also commonly spelled 'thymos') is an ancient Greek word expressing the concept of spiritedness. The word indicates a physical association with breath or blood [4]. 

Hormones produced by the thymus gland are central importance in the maturation of T cells, T-lymphocyte, that make a type of white blood cell, leukocytes. Once mature, T cells emigrate from the thymus and constitute the peripheral T cells responsible for fighting infections, cancer, virus, bacteria. The thymus continues to grow between birth and puberty and then begins to atrophy, at the time of production of sex hormones.

Amongst themselves doves or pigeons are far from peaceful despite doves being the symbols of peace (according to Klein the word fury is from the same root as dove). Perhaps reflecting this thymus gland duty of fighting off infections, these birds are actually very combative, and quarrelsome, constantly squabbling, though not with their mates. The young doves and pigeons are called 'squabs'. Young pigeon meat is often sold under the name squab.

Nestor is said to have "put thumos and daring into every man" (VI, 72). Thumos is strongly connected to the idea of motivation and will--e.g., why did the fighter lunge into battle? Because his thumos told him to. The thumos seems to be able to infuse the whole body--thumos can move into the limbs and muscles--but its source is the phrenes, or diaphragm. Upon death, thumos leaves the limbs but, unlike the psyche, it does not then continue its existence elsewhere; it seems merely to dissipate. Also unlike the psyche, animals as well as humans are said to have thumos, and when animals die they are often said to lose their thumos (as when Agamemnon sacrifices lambs in III, 292-294). [Source lost.]

In the Iliad, Achilles says:

"Waking like smoke in the breasts of men, even as Agamemnon angered me, but we will let bygones be bygones, quieting the thymos in our breasts.' Thus, thymos was metaphorically a rising of smoke in the breast, as its Indo-European roots imply." (Diamond, M.D., page 129) [5]

The thymus grows until puberty and then begins to atrophy at the time of production of sex hormones at puberty. An atrophied thymus gland suggests a useless thing, but it must be transformed into something that is not yet discovered by science, because these birds have the reputation for being amorous, and the condition of being amorous starts at puberty. Doves are notable for both their devotion to their mates, and also their fidelity in marriage. A pair of white doves is a popular love symbol as can be seen in the expression 'lovey dovey', and their cooing to their mates. `My dove' is an apt term of endearment (Song of Songs 5.2; 6.9). The words dear and darling are related to dove and deer (from *dheu-¹). In courtship each bird takes the other's beak in its own, much like lovers kissing. Pliny said: 'Though most amorous, they have a great sense of modesty and do not know adultery'. Fidelity even after death, because once its companion is gone, this bird never unites with another [6]. Eros (the word erotic comes from his name) is usually depicted as a young winged boy, with his bow and arrows at the ready, to either shoot into the hearts of gods or mortals which would rouse them to desire. His arrows came in two types: golden with dove feathers which aroused love, or leaden arrows which had owl feathers that caused indifference.

The Thuja is the cypress tree, from Greek thyia, and is related to the word dove and deer. Cypress is not officially related to the country Cyprus by modern linguist. This webpage says "there is more than one story about how the tree became known as 'cypress.' One is that it was named for the island of Cyprus, or the other, that it was named for a beautiful young man whose name was Cyparissus." Ovid in his 'Metamorphoses' tells the story of Cyparissus. Apollo gave the boy a tame deer as a companion, but Cyparissus accidentally killed it with a javelin. Cyparissus asks Apollo to let his tears fall forever. Apollo turns the sad boy into a cypress tree, whose sap forms droplets like tears on the trunk. Afterwards there was the tradition of a Cypress-tree branch being placed at the door of a Roman house where a dead body was lying. Aphrodite came from the sea carried by a scallop shell and came to shore in Cyprus. Cyprus was where copper was mined in the ancient world. Latin cuprum, 'copper', from earlier cyprum. A number of birds of the family Columbidae have a slightly coppery metallic gloss on their feathers. The variety nicobar, is mainly metallic green with green and copper hackles on the neck. Copper the symbol Cu (rather like the cooing of courting doves). It was in Cyprus that Pygmalion carved an statue of his ideal woman, and Aphrodite gave it life [7]. "The Holy Spirit fills us with life" [8] (maybe thumos).

© Anne Wright 2008.