#pelican in her piety
@howdyboyhowdy,@stark-reading-mad, and anyone else who might be wondering what’s going on with these images - these all depict what’s known as “the pelican in her piety” or “a pelican vulning” (from the Latin vulno - “to wound”).
The belief at the time was that, if pelican mothers had no other food available to them, that they would pierce their own breast and allow their young to feed on their blood for sustenance. It most likely came about from misunderstanding about why the pelican may press its bill to its chest (to help emptying the pouch), and combined with the fact that at least one variety of pelican has a blood red pouch early on in the breeding season, the idea of the pelican piercing its own chest to nourish its children was born.
There’s an older version of the myth whereby the pelican mother who accidentally killed her own chicks from being too rough with them can resurrect them with her blood.
In Christian lore, it’s seen as a symbol of self-sacrifice, the image of the caring and self-sacrificing parent, and also a symbol of the Eucharist. It’s also used in the Society for Creative Anachronism [SCA] as the symbol of the Order of the Pelican, one of the few Society-wide titles reserved for people who have provided consistent, exemplary service to the Society, usually for at least 10 years.
