The Raven in Mythology

The raven, with its glistening purple-black plumage, large size and apparent intelligence has inspired man from ancient times.  He is regarded as an omen of both good fortune and bad.  Europeans often associated the raven with war, death and departed spirits.

In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (act V, scene 1) Cassius tells Masala of his concerns preceding battle.  Omens seem to abound. Where, earlier, eagles had flown about and even eaten from his soldiers’ hands,

 “This morning they are fled away and gone;
            And in their steads do ravens, crows and kites
            Fly o’er our heads and downward look on us,
            As we were sickly prey: their shadows seem
            A canopy most fatal, under which
            Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.”

 Edgar Allen Poe certainly did the raven no favor when he presented this magnificent bird as some cryptic, inscrutable representation of dark and painful memories.  Poe presents the raven as an ominous and sinister “other-worldly” presence.  But, of course, Poe could make a children’s birthday party seem ominous and sinister.

But the raven has not always been associated with death, spirits and darkness.  Quite the contrary, the raven was believed by some to be the bringer of light, truth and goodness.

The ancient Greeks included a raven in their mythology.  They used the terms for “crow” and “raven” interchangeably and in their stories, Corvus, the Crow, is allied with Apollo.  It is Apollo whose chariot provides daily passage across the sky for the sun and it is under Apollo’s influence that life was illuminated by truth and excellence. Perhaps it is this association with illumination that made prophecy one of Apollo’s most important attributes.

Corvus was a servant to, and messenger for, Apollo.  It was through the raven that Apollo made known his prophecies.  The raven was Apollo’s “talisman.” Perhaps some part of the “mystery” surrounding the raven may be associated with the enigmatic prophecies of the oracle at Delphi.  Poe may be referencing this “enigmatic” association when he perches his raven upon the bust of Pallas (Athena). Whatever the case, it was through Apollo, accompanied by Corvus, that the will of Zeus was revealed to the believers of that time.  Apollo made use of Corvus in averting evil as well.  In one tale, Apollo takes the form of a raven “to battle the Titans when the Olympian gods are contending for jurisdiction over the world.”¹ 

Apollo does not provide the raven’s only association with light.  Native Americans of the Northwest considered the bird a mythic champion who stole the sun from a box where it had been concealed.  Having done this he released it into the sky for the benefit of mankind.  Other stories make the raven responsible for releasing the stars and the moon from bags and/or boxes where they had been kept hidden. This heroic view of the raven crosses the Bering Strait into Asia as well. 

Peter Goodchild, in Raven Tales (1991) has collected stories from the Pacific Northwest that celebrate the raven’s use of trickery and intelligence to transform the environment into something man can use.  It is Raven who is responsible for releasing the sun, establishing a rhythm to the seasons and providing shamans with their visionary and healing powers.

It is this brighter side of the raven, this intelligence and ingenuity, an ability to use cunning – this association with light, illumination, truth and goodness, that is the mascot for Alonso High School.

Still ..... there may be a darker side ......... there are Mr. Joeb’s classes ...........


¹ E.C. Krupp, “Theft of Light,” EBESCO Publishing