The dove

It held a dove in its talons, and the feathers, as it tore them off, fell to the ground midway between Telemakhos and the ship.

I have come to such fear that, were a dove to pass by — I would say:

they call the brave man a lion, and the man quick to spring a leopard, and they call the graceful girl a gazelle or a dove.

as they say Dabūrā (a bee), and Arbah (a lion), and Yūnā (a dove), and Rāḥīl (a ewe), and Shuwāl (a fox), and Kālib (a dog), and Dīsān (a gazelle);

And with them Umm Ḥubayn is the locust, Umm ʻAwf the dove, Umm Mahdī the hen, Umm Ḥafṣ the hoopoe, Abū al-Mayt the dung-beetle, Abū al-Ṣarāt the louse, Umm ʻUqbah the serpent and Umm Yaqẓān the scorpion — and so on.

Our dove's house is simple too, ever on heights and open and toward the light.

"Be wise as serpents, and simple as doves.

Then that most Holy Spirit, gladly from the Father, descends upon bodies cleansed and blessed, and over the waters of baptism, recognizing them as it were its ancient seat, it rests, having glided down in the figure of a dove upon the Lord, that the nature of the Holy Spirit might be declared through a creature of simplicity and innocence — since the dove even bodily is without gall.

when he calls us to the simplicity of the dove, a bird not only harmless but also chaste, which one male alone knows;