A prominent motif among origin myths is the cosmo-
gonic dive, in which a swan or other aquatic bird is sent by
God to the depths of the primordial waters to bring back the
“seed of earth,” from which God creates the world. This
image existed in manifold versions among prehistoric popu-
lations of northern and eastern Europe and, from the third
millennium BCE, among the peoples of America.
In Hindu iconography the swan personifies brahman-
a ̄tman, the transcendent yet immanent ground of being, the
Self. Brahma ̄ is often depicted borne on a swan, the divine
bird that laid upon the waters the cosmic egg from which
the god emerged. Variations of this image are common in
Bali and Sri Lanka. The param:ahamsa (“supreme swan” or
gander) represents freedom from bondage in the phenome-
nal sphere and is a term of honor addressed to mendicant as-
cetics. The ham:sa bird is carved on the ornamental bands of
Kesava temple at Somnathpur, erected in 1268 and dedicat-
ed to Vis:n:u.
In ancient Egypt, swans were associated with the mystic
journey to the otherworld, as they are in the shamanistic reli-
gions of North Asia. In ancient Greece, priests of the Eleu-
sinian mysteries were regarded as descendants of the birds;
after their immersion in the purifying waters they were called
swans. Vase paintings of the fifth century BCE show the swan
as their attribute. In its amatory aspect, the swan was sacred
to Aphrodite and Venus and was the form assumed by Zeus
as Leda’s lover.
As a solar sign, the swan was the sun god’s vehicle in
Greece; it was assimilated to the yang principle in China and
inscribed on one of the wings of Mithra, the Persian god of
light. In Celtic myths, swan deities represent the beneficent,
healing power of the sun. In the ancient religion of the Sioux
Indians of the North American Plains, birds are reflections
of divine principles, and the sacred white swan symbolizes
the Great Spirit who controls all that moves and to whom
prayers are addressed.
An ambivalent symbol in Judaism, the swan (or the
duck or goose) is conspicuous on ceremonial objects al-
though categorized as a bird of defilement in the Bible. In
the Christian tradition, it symbolizes purity and grace and
is emblematic of the Virgin. The belief that swans sing with
their dying breath has linked them with martyrs.
Folklore is rich in legends of swan maidens and swan
knights. Believed to have been totemistic figures and original
founders of clans, the half-human, half-supernatural beings
who metamorphosed into swans became images of spiritual
power. The skiff that carried the archangelic grail knight Lo-
hengrin, a savior sent by God to overcome evil, was drawn
by a swan. The motif of the swan maiden or knight is widely
disseminated in mythology and ritual throughout Europe,
India, Persia, Japan, Oceania, Africa, and South America.
The bird’s sweet song has made it a perennial metaphor
in the arts. The Egyptians associated it with the harp; the
Greeks, with the god of music; and the Celts deemed its song
magical. Shakespeare was known as the Swan of Avon;
Homer, the Swan of Maeander; and Vergil, the Mantuan
Swan. Ever since Plato had Socrates aver that swans “sing
more merrily at the approach of death because of the joy they
have in going to the god they serve,” the term swan song has
been an epithet for an artist’s last work.SEE ALSO Horses; Prehistoric Religions.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bachelard, Gaston. L’eau et les rêves: Essai sur l’imagination de la
matière. 4th ed. Paris, 1978. A poetic and psychological med-
itation on the symbolic meaning of the swan in literature and
poetry. The author’s views are based mainly on poetry and
dreams but are cognate with sacred and archaic myths.
Brown, Joseph Epes, ed. The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of
the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux. Norman, Okla., 1953.
The swan as symbol of the Great Spirit; the concept of birds
as reflections of divine principles.
Campbell, Joseph. The Flight of the Wild Gander. New York,- An examination of the complex of motifs in which the
swan, interchangeable with the gander, is linked to the flight
of the entranced shaman and to the brahman-a ̄tman with
which the yogin seeks to identify.
Eliade, Mircea. Zalmoxis, the Vanishing God: Comparative Studies
in the Religions and Folklore of Dacia and Eastern Europe. Chi-
cago, 1972. The relation of the swan to prehistoric myths of
the cosmogonic dive.
ANN DUNNIGAN (1987)
SWAZI RELIGION. The Swazi are part of the vast
Bantu-speaking population of southern Africa, and their rich
cultural heritage is a fusion of Nguni and Sotho elements.
Prior to the incursion of colonial and Western influences
they were Iron Age horticulturalists and cattle pastoralists,
organized into centralized chieftancies. Polygyny and patri-
lineal descent characterize the kinship system.
The Swazi developed their particular national identity
under a dual monarchy represented by a hereditary king of
the Nkosi Dlamini clan and a queen mother (the mother of
the king or, if she is dead, a surrogate). Unlike other African
kingdoms that came under British colonial rule, the Swazi
were never conquered by direct force, and much of their tra-
ditional culture survived and flourished under the leadership
of King Sobhuza II (1899–1982). A direct lineal descendant
of the founder of the royal Dlamini dynasty, Sobhuza was
internationally acknowledged in 1968 as king and head of
the newly created, independent state of Swaziland.
In 1982 approximately half a million Swazi lived in the
Kingdom of Swaziland, an arbitarily demarcated country of
6,705 square miles wedged between the Republic of South
Africa and the People’s Republic of Mozambique. This tiny
kingdom, the heartland of traditional culture, is ecologically
diverse and rich in natural resources. Its wealth includes fer-8894 SWAZI RELIGION