Rara avis

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The rara avis is from the Latin -derived metaphor of the language of education and "a rare bird" both literally and figuratively means. This means a person or thing that appears very seldom in a certain environment, such as a stray visitor among the native birds.

For Horace the rare bird is a fried peacock . Persius uses the metaphor in the satires (Saturae I, 46). Juvenal extends it (Satires VI, 161) to include the image of the “black swan”: rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno (“a rare bird in all countries, most like a black swan”). What is meant is the faithful wife. Black swans were unknown in Europe at that time. Subsequently, Juvenal (Satiren VII, 202) also speaks of the "white raven": corvo quoque rarior albo ("rarer than a white raven").

Martin Luther uses the corresponding metaphor in German in 1523 in his book Von Secular Authority : And should know that from Anbegyn der wellt gar eyn seltzam vogel umb eyn wise prince (“and you should know that since the beginning of the world a wise prince rare bird is ”). Even Erasmus of Rotterdam uses the term in his Colloquia Familiaria : Sic olim rara avis erat abbas indoctus, nunc nihil est vulgatius what Justus Alberti 1545 translated as: "So was vorzeyten a ungelerter abt a seltzam bird. But Nu is nothing more common and common ”. As with Luther, "strange bird" means "rare bird".

literature

Ricarda Liver, Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences Kuratorium Singer (ed.): Thesaurus proverbiorum medii aevi . - Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 2001. Vol. 12: dull - weeping, p. 273. ISBN 3-11-008529-1

See also

  • "Rara Avis" is the name of a private rainforest area of ​​over 1000 hectares that has been part of the Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica since 1986 . Web link
  • Eduardo Kac : “Rara Avis” - telepresence installation with 30 rare birds in 1996 on the occasion of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. On-line

supporting documents

  1. ↑ posito pavone velis quin // hoc potius quam gallina tergere palatum // corruptus vanis rerum quia veneat auro // rara avis et picta pandat spectacula cauda (“Why would you rather touch your palate with a peacock in front of you than with a chicken? are misled by the trivial fact that the rare bird is expensive and by the spectacle of how it spreads its brightly colored tail ”). - Horace, Sermones 2.2, 23-26.