Editing Peafowl (section)

== Cultural significance ==

=== Indian peafowl ===
[[File:Murugan by Raja Ravi Varma.jpg|thumb|The Hindu god [[Kartikeya]] with his wives on his peacock mount]]

The peafowl is native to [[India]]<ref name="q163">{{cite web | title=Indian Peafowl | website=San Francisco Zoo & Gardens | date=2021-10-16 | url=https://www.sfzoo.org/indian-peafowl/ | access-date=2024-09-20}}</ref> and significant in its culture.<ref name="s256">{{cite web | title=Why Are There So Many Peacocks in India's Arts, Culture, and Legends? | website=Fodors Travel Guide | date=2021-10-20 | url=https://www.fodors.com/world/asia/india/experiences/news/why-are-there-so-many-peacocks-in-indias-arts-culture-and-legends | access-date=2024-09-20}}</ref> In [[Hinduism]], the Indian peacock is the [[Vahana|mount]] of the [[List of war deities|god of war]], [[Kartikeya]], and the warrior goddess [[Kaumari]], and is also depicted around the goddess [[Santoshi]].<ref>Clothey, Fred W. Many Faces of Murakan: The History and Meaning of a South Indian God. Walter De Gruyter Inc., 1978. {{ISBN|978-9027976321}}.</ref> During a war with [[Asuras]], Kartikeya split the demon king [[Surapadman]] in half. Out of respect for his adversary's prowess in battle, the god converted the two halves into an integral part of himself. One half became a peacock serving as his mount, and the other a rooster adorning his flag. The peacock displays the divine shape of [[Om]]kara when it spreads its magnificent plumes into a full-blown circular form.<ref name=Ayyar>{{cite web|last=Ayyar|first=SRS|title=Muruga – The Ever-Merciful Lord|url=http://murugan.org/ayyar_1.htm|work=Murugan Bhakti: The Skanda Kumāra site|access-date=31 March 2014|archive-date=9 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140209025930/http://murugan.org/ayyar_1.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In the [[Hindu tantric literature|Tantric]] traditions of Hinduism the goddess [[Tvarita]] is depicted with peacock feathers.<ref>Slouber, Michael. 2017. [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Early_Tantric_Medicine/tGl4DQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Tvarit%C4%81&pg=PA99&printsec=frontcover Early Tantric Medicine: Snakebite, Mantras, and Healing in the Garuda Tantras]. Page 99. [[Oxford University Press]].</ref> A peacock feather also adorns the crest of the god [[Krishna]].<ref name="w643">{{cite web | title=Why does Lord Krishna wear a peacock feather on his head? | website=The Times of India | date=2024-03-01 | url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/soul-search/why-does-lord-krishna-wear-a-peacock-feather-on-his-head/photostory/108112604.cms?picid=108112627 | access-date=2024-09-20}}</ref>

[[Chandragupta Maurya]], the founder of the [[Mauryan Empire]], was born an orphan and raised by a family farming peacocks. According to the [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] tradition{{Which|date=May 2023}}, the ancestors of the Maurya kings had settled in a region where peacocks (''mora'' in [[Pali language|Pali]]) were abundant. Therefore, they came to be known as "Moriyas", literally, "belonging to the place of peacocks". According to another Buddhist account, these ancestors built a city called Moriya-nagara ("Moriya-city"), which was so called, because it was built with the "bricks coloured like peacocks' necks".{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=14}} After conquering the [[Nanda Empire]] and defeating the [[Seleucid Empire]], the Chandragupta dynasty reigned uncontested during its time. Its royal emblem remained the peacock until Emperor Ashoka changed it to a [[Asiatic lion|lion]], as seen in the [[Lion Capital of Ashoka]], as well in his [[Edicts of Ashoka|edicts]]. The peacock continued to represent elegance and royalty in India during medieval times; for instance, the [[Mughal emperors|Mughal]] seat of power was called the [[Peacock Throne]].

The peacock is represented in both the [[Burmese zodiac#Weekdays|Burmese]] and [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]] [[zodiacs]]. To the [[Sinhalese people]], the peacock is the third animal of the zodiac of [[Sri Lanka]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BoJEAAAAcAAJ|title=The history and doctrine of Budhism, popularly illustrated|first=Edward|last=Upham|date=20 June 2018|publisher=Ackermann|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Peacocks (often a symbol of pride and vanity) were believed{{By whom|date=May 2023}} to deliberately consume poisonous substances in order to become immune to them, as well as to make the colours of their resplendent plumage all the more vibrant – seeing as so many poisonous flora and fauna are so colourful due to [[aposematism]], this idea appears to have merit. The Buddhist deity [[Mahamayuri]] is depicted seated on a peacock. Peacocks are seen supporting the throne of [[Amitabha]], the ruby red sunset coloured archetypal Buddha of Infinite Light.

India adopted the peacock as its national bird in 1963 and it is one of the [[national symbols of India]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.culturalindia.net/national-symbols/national-bird.html|title=Indian Peacock: A Symbol of Grace, Joy, Beauty and Love|access-date=6 March 2018|archive-date=26 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226083809/http://www.culturalindia.net/national-symbols/national-bird.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Middle East ===
==== Yazidism ====
Tawûsî Melek ({{lit|Peacock Angel}})<ref name=":0">{{cite news |title=Sembolîzma teyran di Êzîdîtiyê de (1) |language=ku |url=http://www.bued.boun.edu.tr/turik.asp?id=47 |access-date=27 December 2019 |archive-date=24 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224193133/http://www.bued.boun.edu.tr/turik.asp?id=47 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |author=Omarkhali, Khanna |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1329211153 |title=The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition : From Oral to Written Categories, Transmission, Scripturalisation and Canonisation of the Yezidi Oral Religious Texts |date=2017 |publisher=Harrassowitz |isbn=978-3-447-10856-0 |oclc=1329211153}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aysif |first=Rezan Shivan |url=http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?univerlag-isbn-978-3-86395-514-4 |title=The Role of Nature in Yezidism: Poetic Texts and Living Tradition |date=2021 |publisher=Göttingen University Press |isbn=978-3-86395-514-4 |location=Göttingen |doi=10.17875/gup2021-1855|s2cid=246596953 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=13 April 2021 |title=مەھدى حەسەن:جەژنا سەر سالێ‌ دمیتۆلۆژیا ئێزدیان دا |url=https://www.lalishduhok.com/ckb/%da%af%db%86%d8%aa%d8%a7%d8%b1/post/332436/,%20https://www.lalishduhok.com/ckb/گۆتار/post/332436/ |access-date=18 November 2022}}</ref> one of the central figures of the [[Yazidism|Yazidi religion]], is symbolized with a peacock.<ref name="Asatrian-Arakelova 2003">{{cite journal |author1-link=Garnik Asatrian |date=January 2003 |editor-last=Asatrian |editor-first=Garnik S. |title=Malak-Tāwūs: The Peacock Angel of the Yezidis |journal=[[Iran and the Caucasus]] |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] in collaboration with the Caucasian Centre for Iranian Studies ([[Yerevan]]) |volume=7 |issue=1–2 |pages=1–36 |doi=10.1163/157338403X00015 |issn=1609-8498 |eissn=1573-384X |jstor=4030968 |lccn=2001227055 |oclc=233145721 |author1-last=Asatrian |author1-first=Garnik S. |author2-last=Arakelova |author2-first=Victoria}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> In Yazidi [[Creation myth|creation stories]], before the creation of this world, God created seven [[Yazidism#Holy figures|Divine Beings]], of whom Tawûsî Melek was appointed as the leader. God assigned all of the world's affairs to these seven Divine Beings, also often referred to as the Seven [[Angel]]s or heft sirr ("the Seven Mysteries").<ref name="Asatrian-Arakelova 2003" /><ref name="Allison 2017">{{cite encyclopedia |title=The Yazidis |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=[[Oxford]] |url=https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-254 |access-date=15 May 2021 |date=25 January 2017 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.254 |isbn=9780199340378 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190311065225/https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-254 |archive-date=11 March 2019 |author-last=Allison |author-first=Christine |doi-access=free |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Asatrian-Arakelova 2014">{{cite book |author1-last=Asatrian |author1-first=Garnik S. |title=The Religion of the Peacock Angel: The Yezidis and Their Spirit World |author2-last=Arakelova |author2-first=Victoria |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-84465-761-2 |series=Gnostica |location=[[Abingdon, Oxfordshire]] |pages=1–28 |chapter=Part I: The One God - Malak-Tāwūs: The Leader of the Triad |doi=10.4324/9781315728896 |oclc=931029996 |author1-link=Garnik Asatrian |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y1RsBAAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Omarkhali, Khanna |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1007841078 |title=The Yezidi religious textual tradition : from oral to written categories, transmission, scripturalisation and canonisation of the Yezidi oral religious texts |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-447-10856-0 |pages=26 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |oclc=1007841078}}</ref>

In Yazidism, the peacock is believed to represent the diversity of the world,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Pirbari |first1=Dimitri |url=https://www.academia.edu/2464521 |title=Holy Lalish, 2008 (Ezidian temple Lalish in Iraqi Kurdistan). |last2=Grigoriev |first2=Stanislav |pages=183 |access-date=8 June 2023 |archive-date=9 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109123141/https://www.academia.edu/2464521 |url-status=live }}</ref> and the colourfulness of the peacock's feathers is considered to represent of all the colours of nature. The feathers of the peacock also symbolize sun rays, from which come light, luminosity and brightness. The peacock opening the feathers of its tail in a circular shape symbolizes the sunrise.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Aysif |first=Rezan Shivan |url=https://www.univerlag.uni-goettingen.de/handle/3/isbn-978-3-86395-514-4 |title=The Role of Nature in Yezidism |date=2021 |isbn=978-3-86395-514-4 |pages=61–67, 207–208, 264–265 |doi=10.17875/gup2021-1855 |s2cid=246596953 |access-date=8 June 2023 |archive-date=29 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529093320/https://univerlag.uni-goettingen.de/handle/3/isbn-978-3-86395-514-4 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Consequently, due to its holiness, Yazidis are not allowed to hunt and eat the peacock, ill-treat it or utter bad words about it. Images of the peacock are also found drawn around the sanctuary of [[Lalish]] and on other Yazidi shrines and holy sites, homes, as well as religious, social, cultural and academic centres.<ref name=":3" />

==== Mandaeism ====
In ''[[The Baptism of Hibil Ziwa]]'', the Mandaean [[uthra]] and emanation [[Yushamin]] is described as a peacock.<ref>{{cite book|last=Drower|first=Ethel S.|author-link=E. S. Drower|title=The Haran Gawaita and The Baptism of Hibil-Ziwa: The Mandaic text reproduced together with translation, notes and commentary |location=[[Vatican City]] |publisher=[[Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana]] |year=1953 |page=52}}</ref>

=== Ancient Greece ===
[[File:Peacock walking.jpg|thumb|A peacock walking freely around a zoo]]

Ancient Greeks believed that the flesh of peafowl did not decay after death,{{cn|date=October 2023}} so it became a symbol of immortality. In Hellenistic imagery, the Greek goddess [[Hera]]'s chariot was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]. Alexander's tutor, [[Aristotle]], refers to it as "the Persian bird". When Alexander saw the birds in India, he was so amazed at their beauty that he threatened the severest penalties for any man who slew one.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aelian, De Natura Animalium, book 5, chapter 21|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0545.tlg001.perseus-grc1:5.21|access-date=8 February 2023|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|archive-date=4 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604090056/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0545.tlg001.perseus-grc1:5.21|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Claudius Aelianus]] writes that there were peacocks in India, larger than anywhere else.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aelian, De Natura Animalium, book 16, chapter 2|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0545.tlg001.perseus-grc1:16.2|access-date=8 February 2023|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|archive-date=6 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806082854/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0545.tlg001.perseus-grc1:16.2|url-status=live}}</ref>

One myth states that Hera's servant, the hundred-eyed [[Argus Panoptes]], was instructed to guard the woman-turned-cow, [[Io (mythology)|Io]]. Hera had transformed Io into a cow after learning of [[Zeus]]'s interest in her. Zeus had the messenger of the gods, [[Hermes]], kill Argus through eternal sleep and free Io. According to [[Ovid]], to commemorate her faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in the peacock's tail.<ref>[[Ovid]] I, 625. The peacock is an Eastern bird, unknown to Greeks before the time of Alexander.</ref>

=== Christianity ===
The symbolism was adopted by early Christianity, thus many early Christian paintings and mosaics show the peacock.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Birds, symbolic |last1=Murray |first1=Peter |last2=Murray |first2=Linda |title=Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art |date=2004 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofchri0000murr/page/61 |chapter-url-access=registration |page=61 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-860966-3}}</ref> The peacock is still used in the Easter season, especially in the east. The "eyes" in the peacock's tail feathers can symbolise the all-seeing Christian God,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Keating |first=Jessica |date=November 2021 |title=Hidden in plain sight: on copiousness in the Kunstkammer of Emperor Rudolf II |journal=Journal of the History of Collections |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=448 |doi=10.1093/jhc/fhab009}}</ref> the Church,<ref name=Mercatante >{{Cite book |last=Mercatante |first=Anthony S. |url=https://archive.org/details/factsonfileencyc00merc/page/518 |title=The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend |date=1988 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=0-8160-1049-8 |page=518}}</ref> or angelic wisdom.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mathews |first=Thomas |date=2022 |editor-last=Alpi |editor-first=F. |editor2-last=Meyer |editor2-first=R. |editor3-last=Tinti |editor3-first=I. |editor4-last=Zakarian |editor4-first=D. |chapter=The iconography of the visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel |title=Armenia Through the Lens of Time |publisher=Brill |page=28 |doi=10.1163/9789004527607_003 |isbn=978-90-04-52760-7}}</ref> The emblem of a pair of peacocks drinking from a vase is used as a symbol of the eucharist and the resurrection, as it represents the Christian believer drinking from the waters of eternal life.<ref name=Migotti>{{Cite journal |last=Migotti |first=Branka |date=1997 |title=An early Christian fresco from Štrbinci near Đakovo |journal=Hortus Artium Medievalium |volume=3 |pages=215–216 |doi=10.1484/J.HAM.2.305110|url=http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/264547 }}</ref> The peacock can also symbolise the cosmos if one interprets its tail with its many "eyes" as the vault of heaven dotted by the sun, moon, and stars.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Patricia Cox |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=519gDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 |title=In the Eye of the Animal: Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity |date=2018 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-5035-0 |page=21}}</ref> Due to the adoption by [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] of the ancient idea that the peacock's flesh did not decay, the bird was again associated with immortality.<ref name=Mercatante/><ref name=Migotti/> In Christian iconography, two peacocks are often depicted either side of the Tree of Life.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=James |url=https://archive.org/details/illustrateddicti0000hall_y4v3/page/38 |title=Hall's Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art |date=1994 |publisher=John Murray |isbn=0-7195-4954-X |page=38}}</ref>

The symbolic association of peacock feathers with the wings of angels led to the 
belief that the waving of such liturgical fans resulted in an automated emission of 
prayers. This affinity between peacocks' and angels' feathers was also expressed in 
other artistic media, including paintings of angels with peacock feather wings
<ref>Green, N. (2006). Ostrich Eggs and Peacock Feathers: Sacred Objects as Cultural Exchange between Christianity and Islam. Al-Masāq, 18(1), 27–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/09503110500222328</ref>

=== Judaism ===
Among [[Ashkenazi Jews]], the golden peacock is a symbol for joy and creativity, with quills from the bird's feathers being a metaphor for a writer's inspiration.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishfolksongs.com/en/golden-peacock |title=The Golden Peacock |publisher=Jewish Folk Songs |language=en |access-date=14 May 2017 |archive-date=29 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329051221/http://www.jewishfolksongs.com/en/golden-peacock |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Renaissance ===
The peacock motif was revived in the [[Renaissance]] iconography that unified Hera and [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], and on which European painters focused.<ref>Seznec, Jean (1953) ''The Survival of the Pagan Gods: Mythological Tradition in Renaissance Humanism and Art''</ref>

=== Contemporary ===
In 1956, John J. Graham created an abstraction of an 11-feathered [[peacock logo]] for American broadcaster [[NBC]]. This brightly hued peacock was adopted due to the increase in colour programming. NBC's first colour broadcasts showed only a still frame of the colourful peacock. The emblem made its first on-air appearance on 22 May 1956.<ref>{{cite book |title=The New York Times Encyclopedia of Television |first=Les |last=Brown |publisher=Times Books |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-8129-0721-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newyorktimesency00brow/page/328 328] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/newyorktimesency00brow/page/328 }}</ref> The current, six-feathered logo debuted on 12 May 1986.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Caucasian albanian stone azerbaijan mingechaur2.jpg|Stone from [[Mingachevir Church Complex]] (4th-7th century AD)
File:Kesi roundel with five-clawed dragon design.jpg|Roundel with dragon design. China, [[Qing-dynasty]], late 17th century. Peacock feather [[barbule]]s are used to highlight the dragon's scales.
File:Abramishvili1.JPG|''Peacock'' by [[Merab Abramishvili]] (1957–2006)
File:The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius - Carlo Crivelli - National Gallery.jpg|''Annunciation with St. Emidius'' (1486) by [[Carlo Crivelli]]. A peacock is sitting on the roof above the praying [[Virgin Mary]].
File:PeacockInTheWoods.jpg|Painting by [[Abbott Thayer]] and Richard Meryman for [[Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom|Thayer's 1909 book]], wrongly suggesting that the peacock's plumage was [[camouflage]]
File:Pavo Cristafus- Common Pea Fowl. 64.98.209.jpg|Common peafowl, by John Gould, {{Circa|1880}}. [[Brooklyn Museum]].
File:Bowl with Peacock Motif, ca. 1200–1230, 78.81.jpg|Syrian bowl with peacock motif, {{circa|1200}}. Brooklyn Museum.
File:Golingeswara temple complex Biccavole 02.jpg|Peacock sculpture at Golingeshwara temple complex in [[Biccavolu]], India
</gallery>