Eagle is the name given to the largest predatory birds. The various species and subspecies of eagles can be found almost anywhere in the world except Antarctica. They are members of the birds of prey, of the order Accipitriformes, (or Falconiformes according to a previous classification), family Accipitridae, subfamily Buteoninae. They belong to several genera, which are subject to a more appropriate reclassification since the experts do not reach a consensus opinion. Eagles are mainly characterized by their large size, stocky build, heavy head and beak.
Like all birds of prey, eagles have a large, powerful, pointed beak to detach meat from their prey. They also have powerful claws and shanks. Also striking is the strength of the eagles, which enables them to lift much heavier prey into flight. They also have extremely sharp eyesight that allows them to visualize potential prey at a distance, for example the golden eagle has two focal points in its eyes, one to look straight ahead and another to locate the look to the sides by scrutinizing the distance.
Eagles have been used by many peoples as a national symbol and especially an imperial symbol, showing both power and beauty. From the Roman Empire is that, in general, other states have taken the most usual form of the emblem with an eagle; the Byzantine Empire contributed the symbol of the double-headed eagle.
The eagle as a symbol
The eagle has been the symbol of majesty and victory throughout history.
In hieroglyphic language it designated the cities of Heliopolis, Emesus, Antioch and Tyre. The Persians and the Epirensians first took it as a military insignia and later it was the emblem of the Roman Republic and of the emperors of the East and West. The eagle was a figure that was placed as an attribute on the capitals of the temples of Jupiter.
Heraldry
The eagle is a heraldic figure used since the Crusades. Resulting from the Roman eagle, restored by Charlemagne, it becomes the symbol of the empire and gains a second head at the time of the merger between the Eastern Empire and the Western Empire.
The concurrence with the lion is quite significant, and can be used to mark supremacy: she can rule the same zones as the lion, while the latter has no power in the air, which automatically becomes a superior world.
The double-headed eagle is a symbol present in the iconography and heraldry of various Indo-European and Mesoamerican cultures. In Europe, it comes from the Hittite double-headed eagle, reaching the Western Middle Ages through Byzantium.
The eagle of Saint John, as a symbol of the evangelist, becomes heraldry in an important part of some coats of arms, especially the one incorporated by Isabella the Catholic as a support for the shield of the Catholic Monarchs. It should not be confused with the imperial eagle that appears on many others, such as those of the Spanish Habsburgs or the Russian tsars, which derive from the coat of arms of the Byzantine emperors.
roman symbol
The eagle also figured as a national symbol of the Roman legions. At the second consulship of Gaius Marius (104 BC) the quadrupedal animal symbols were set aside as banners, keeping only the eagle (Aquila). It was made of silver or bronze, with outstretched wings, but was probably small in size, since the bearer of the standard (signifer) under Julius Caesar is said to have torn the eagle from its pole in dangerous circumstances and concealed it in the folds of his sash.
With later emperors the eagle was carried, as it has been for many centuries, with the legion, and the legion is therefore sometimes called simply aquila.
Alchemy
In alchemy, the eagle has the following meaning:
- White Eagle: sweet mercury.
- Black Eagle: spirit of poisonous cadmium or cobalt supposed to be matter of philosophical mercury
- Celestial Eagle: kind of panacea or remedy against all ills. It is a preparation of mercury reduced to essence.
- Águila de Venus: saffron composed of verdigris by means of a reverberatory fire to which ammonia salt is added, sometimes sublimated.
- Flying eagle: sublimated mercury.
- Dilated eagle: sublimated ammonia salt.
- Eagle devouring the lion: volatilization of the fixed by the volatile or of the sulfur by the mercury of the wise.
Numismatics
The eagle is a common representation on coins and is a sign of divinity or empire.
Source: Wikipedia
birds in the bible
Eagle and its biblical symbology