Scoutmaster's Minute - Eagle & Peacock

Eagles and peacocks are both impressive looking birds.

Peacocks are known for their elegant, showy, appearance, and for strutting around and their impressive display of feathers; “proud as a peacock”. If you’ve ever spotted an eagle in the wild you’d agree they are an impressive sight. A symbol of power, nobility and freedom the eagle’s flight through human history is steeped in myth and legend.

Assyrian carvings blended the lion and the eagle – a symbol that spread to Greece where Herodotus believed the griffin lived in the mountains of India, where it made a nest of gold.

Dante’s griffin in Paradise drew a noble chariot. In Hindu mythology Garuda, the king of birds, is ridden by the god Vishnu. In Norse mythology an Eagle sat on the topmost branch of the world tree representing wisdom & light. In Ancient Egypt, the eagle was a symbol of the Nile and the royal bird of the Thebans. Use of the eagle symbols on the Rosetta stone was an important key to deciphering hieroglyphics. The Greeks depicted the eagle with wings outstretched, a serpent in its talons representing the triumph of good over evil, of supreme spiritual energy. The constellation Aquila, the sacred bird of Zeus, is an eagle. To the Romans the eagle was the symbol of the god Jupiter, and of victory. It became the emblem of the Caesars representing supreme authority.

Chinese warriors, especially those who are fearless, tenacious or keen of vision, chose the eagle as their symbol. The Athabaskan people of western North America portrayed eagles as the deliverers of people from famine. The Comanche eagle dance tells the legend of a young son of a chief died and was turned into the first eagle as an answer to his father’s prayers. Many Native North Americans speak of how the Thunderbird is responsible for creating thunder and lightning by beating its wings. The Pawnee see the eagle to be a symbol of fertility and honor it with songs, chants, and dance.

Aztecs revere the eagle as a symbol of honor and strength In Celtic mythology the eagle is known as the oldest of all creatures, so ancient that the rock he perched on in his youth towered among the stars, but has since been weathered to the size of a fist. To early Christians the eagle symbolized ascension. And early iconography depicted it as a symbol of Saint John the Evangelist. On June 20, 1782, the eagle was chosen to symbolize the new United States of America.

Zambia, Zimbabwe, the Philippines , Panama, Botswana, Mexico, Germany and Indonesia have also adopted it as their national symbol. The Apollo Eleven crew named the Lunar Module ‘Eagle’ and with the words of Eagle Scout Neil Armstrong… “the Eagle has landed.”… man was on the Moon. In 1911, the Boy Scouts of America chose the Eagle to symbolize its highest achievement. The first Eagle Scout medal was awarded in 1912 to Arthur Rose Eldred, a 17-year-old member of Troop 1 of Rockville Center, Long Island, New York.

Eldred was the first of three generations of Eagle Scouts; his son and grandson hold the rank as well.

I suppose we could have chosen the peacock.

Peacocks have a certain elegance and nobility, and they are a lot more colorful, but I’m glad we chose the eagle.

Eagles are noble without being extravagant. You wouldn’t expect a peacock to act like and eagle, or vice-versa.