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"Ignarres bubo dirum mortalibus omen," said Ovid; whilst speaking of the fatal prognostications of the crow Virgil wrote: "Saepe sinistra cava praedixit ab ilice cornix." A number of crows are stated to have fluttered about Cicero's head on the day he was murdered.
Bochart connects the term with the Hebrew meaning 'great' or 'mighty, which epithet would be naturally applied to the Atlas, and all mountains, by either a savage or civilized people. We have, also, on the northern coast, Russadirum, the name given by the Moors to Cape Bon, which is evidently a compound of Ras, head, and dirum, mountain, or the head of the mountain.
Avarice, instigated by ladies and milliners, has looked with covetous eye on its downy and beautiful plumes; while ignorance and superstition have feared and hated the owl in all countries and all ages. In ancient Rome it was a bird of evil omen. Foedaque fit volucris venturi nuncia luctus, Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen.
Saxonicas toties qui fudit Marte cruento Who vanquisht Saxon troops so oft, with battels bloudie broiles, Turmas, & peperit spolijs sibi nomen opimis, And purchast to himselfe a name with warlike wealthie spoiles, Fulmineo toties Pictos qui contudit ense, Who hath with shiuering shining swoord, the Picts so oft dismaid, Imposuítque iugum Scoti ceruicibus ingens: And eke vnweldie seruile yoke on necke of Scots hath laid: Qui tumidos Gallos, Germanos quíque feroces Who Frenchmen puft with pride, and who the Germans fierce in fight Perculit, & Dacos bello confregit aperto: Discomfited, and danted Danes with maine and martiall might: Denique Mordredum è medio qui sustulit illud Who of that murdring Mordred did the vitall breath expell, Monstrum, horrendum, ingens, dirum, sæuúmque tyrannum, That monster grislie, lothsome, huge, that diresome tyrant fell, Hoc iacet extinctus monumento Arthurius alto, Heere liuelesse Arthur lies intoomd, within this statelie hearse, Militiæ clarum decus, & virtutis alumnus: Of chiualrie the bright renowme, and vertues nursling fearse: Gloria nunc cuius terram circumuolat omnem, Whose glorie great now ouer all the world dooth compasse flie, Aetherijque petit sublimia tecta Tonantis.
"En quoque quod mirum, Quod dicas denique dirum, Sanguinem equus sugit, Neque bellua victa remugit!" "And, yet more strange! his veins a horse shall drain, Nor shall the passive coward once complain!" It is farther asserted, in the concluding lines, that the horse shall suck the lion's blood.
Ovid, nearly two thousand years ago, was extremely severe against the owl. In his Metamorphoses he says: "Foedaque fit volucris, venturi nuncia luctus, Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen." In his Fasti he openly accuses it of felony: "Nocte volant, puerosque petunt nutricis egentes." Lucan, too, has hit it hard: "Et laetae juranter aves, bubone sinistro:"
Ante oculos natos Calceatos et cruciatos Jam feret ignavus, Vetitaque libidine pravus. En quoque quod mirum, Quod dicas denique dirum, Sanguinem equus sugit, Neque bellua victa remugit! These lines he carefully copied, accompanied, in his letter of July 19, with the following translation.
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