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was the city of the dove; there the goddess Semiramis
was symbolized by a dove, the form she is supposed to have assumed on
leaving the earth.

The dove, like other birds with religious associations, came to be
regarded as oracular. The poet Virgil tells how two doves, guided the
god Aeneas (the Trojan warrior) to the gloomy vale in whose depth the
Golden Bough grew on a Holm oak: The doves alighted upon the tree,

"whence shone a flickering gleam of gold.." At Dadona in Greece poetic
oracles were listened for in the oak groves, and the prophetic trance
was initiated by the 'Black-Dove' priestess. It was the dove that
whispered in the ear of the Prophet Mohammed and was his oracle.

In Judaism the dove signifies the love of god for his chosen
people, the Israelites and the individual. White doves, as purity,
were sacrificial offerings for purification at the Temple in
Jerusalem. The Old Testament symbolizes the doves in the various
forms. The frequent use of the dove in the 'Songs of Songs' is largely
for terms of endearment through their behavior in which the birds
pair for a long time, "O how beautiful, your eyes are like doves.."
(Songs 1:15). "Oh that I had wings of a dove to fly away and be at
rest.." (Psalms 55:6) express the wish to escape to a place of refuge.

The Hebrew word for dove is 'Yonah' (2) from a root meaning a
moaning sound, "I moan like a dove." (Is 38:14) This would explain
the call of many species of dove. The turtle-dove (Tor - Hebrew) (3) is
far the most common of the dove species and in April the shepherds of
Ancient Israel noted their passage of these birds on their annual
migration, "and the turtle dove, swift and crane keep the time of
coming.." (Jer. 8:7) (In late April and May the turtle-dove, along
with other birds, fly from Africa to Europe via Israel and in late
fall return to Africa.) "My dove, that hides in holes in the cliff or
in crannies on the high ledges." (Songs 2:14) is a conformation of
their nesting habits. Doves make nests of twigs and scraps of debris,
sometimes on rocks or in holes in cliff facing, mostly in trees or
bushes. Jeremiah's simili in the 'Judgement of Moab' telling the
people, "to be like a 'dove' that maketh its nest inside the hole's
mouth" confirms the nesting habit of the bird in ancient times. The
dove has given its name to several gorges in Palestine known as Wadi
Hamam (hamamatu - Arabic).

In Christian lore and tradition (4) the dove is usually the
emblem of the Holy Ghost or 'heavenly messenger', particularly in
portrayals of the Annunciatiation

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