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Milvus is often recorded together with accipiter (the importance of
which is relevant in the present paper, as we shall see later on) since
they belong to the same genus. Both of them are included in the list of
the ‘forbidden’ animals in the Bible (Lev. 11, 14-16; Deut. 14,13-15)15.
Plinius and Aelianus stress the rapacious and predatory nature of the
milvus. Thus Plinius:
Milui ex eodem accipitrum genere magnitudine differunt. Notatum in his,
rapacissimam et famelicam semper alitem nihil esculenti rapere e funerum
ferculis...16,
and Aelianus:
’Iktivo«; éq åpTiayiiv aøetSecrcaro;. oi'8e rcov pév é£ åyopåq
épnoXr|Øévt(ov KpeaSicov éåv yévcovtat tcpeircoix;, rjpnaoav
TTpoaneoovre«;...17
The occurrences of milvus are rather frequent in biblical exegesis
where the bird has various connotations. It is usually equated with the
devil, as we read in Gregory the Great who, in his commentary on
Zacharias 5,9 Et habebant alas quasi alas milvi, says:
Milvus semper naturae studet insidiari pullorum. Istae ergo mulieres alas
habent, quasi alas milvi, quia actiones earum diabolo sunt procul dubio
similes, qui insidiatur semper vitae parvulorum18.
In the Clavis S. Melitonis both its rapacious and evil natures have
been put forward:
15 On impure animals in the Bible see P. Testini, ‘Il simbolismo degli animali nell’arte
figurativa paleocristiana’, L’uomo difronte al mondo animale nell’alto Medioevo, Spoleto
1985 (Settimane di studio del centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo, XXXI, 1983),
II, pp. 1107-68, at 1113 ff..
16 Gaio Plinio Secondo, Storia Naturale, ed. by G. B. Conte, 4vols.,Torino 1982-86, II,
Libro X, 12, p. 428.
17 Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals, Books I-XVII, by A. F. Scholfield,
Cambridge, Mass., 1958-59 (repr. 1971-72), Book II, p. 147: »There is no limit to the
robberies of the kite. If they can manage pieces of meat on sale in the market, they
pounce upon them and carry them off«.
18 Gregory the Great, Moralia in lob, Books I-XXXV, ed. by M. Adriaen, Tumhout
1979-85 (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 143-143 B), p. 738.