The Eggcellent Egg Eggsplained

The egg is the star of many legends and old wives' tales. Eggs have been revered, exchanged, and used in rituals since ancient times and continue to this day as metaphors of possibility whether of ideas or the start of new things.

Just where did our love affair with the egg begin?

May we first answer the age-old question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Actually, the answer to that is the egg came first. Eggs existed before chickens were chickens. They were not the first to lay them. The domestication of the chicken came about before documented history, but the earliest known date is 3,200 B.C. recorded in Indian history. Egyptian and Chinese records indicate 1,400 B.C.

One of the first known reptiles to lay an egg was the Hylonomus of Nova Scotia in Canada. The earliest unhatched bird fossil ever found was unearthed in China. It is estimated at 121 million years old. The extinct elephant bird, a 10 ft. flightless bird in Madagascar, laid the largest egg of all. At 24 lbs., its contents would fill a two-gallon bucket.

Beginning in ancient times, eggs were considered to be symbols of life. Many cultures in history believed an egg was involved in creation. This egg is called the cosmic egg. One example is from Greek and Roman mythology where a goddess born from chaos created a serpent partner. She laid a huge egg which the serpent fertilized. Everything then hatched from this egg.

Tibetan creation myth includes a primordial cosmic egg as well. Some of the elements differ, however. One version of this egg story has a luminous egg that can fly with no wings, and it could see, hear and speak even though it had no eyes, ears or mouth. When this egg hatched, a man came out who ordered the world. He was given the name "He Who Assigns" or "the Elect, He who Knows the Visible World." Many different versions of this story and other stories of eggs, including magic eggs, appear in Tibetan myth.

African egg myths follow along the same basic lines with many variations in their stories. Hindus have a twist in their cosmic egg in that it contained a spirit that would be born, then die and be reborn. Phoenicians had the birth of heaven and earth from two halves of a huge egg as well. The Egyptians had their god, Ptah, as creator of an egg made from the sun and moon.

Caves inside Uluru, a massive rock formation which is a sacred site of the Aboriginies of Australia, have formations which resemble eggs. Uluru is believed to be the Great Rainbow Serpent that came from higher spirit realms of the universe and brought forth a great rainbow. To the Aboriginies, the eggs at Uluru represent fertility.

Strange customs with eggs include one from Slavic myth where they believed a sorcerer could be forced to flee by holding the first egg of a young hen in someone's outstretched hand while in a church. Nero's consort Livia warmed an egg on her bosom to foretell the sex of her unborn child. When it hatched, the sex of the chick predicted the sex of the child. Because of an egg's association with life, they sometimes were considered aphrodisiacs. Peasants used to rub eggs on their ploughs in Central Europe to improve their harvest. Brides in France broke eggs on the doorsteps of their new homes before entering to guarantee they would have many children. At certain times in history, young girls presented their suitors with eggs, the amount representing how much they loved them.

More than one legend has been handed down regarding how eggs came to symbolize Easter. Egyptians and Persians dyed eggs in the spring and gave them as presents signifying renewed life. The rabbit or hare was the symbol of fertility, new life and the moon in Egypt as well, so it may have become connected to Easter because the date of Easter is determined by the cycle of the moon. Traditions abound regarding the coloring of eggs. A Polish legend, for example, says that on the way to market to sell his eggs, a man set his eggs down and helped Christ carry the cross. When he went back for the eggs, he found them decorated in beautiful colors and designs. Some of the most well-known decorated eggs are by Carl Faberge, the most famous court jeweler in history. Faberge designed an Easter egg for the wife of the Czar in 1884. It was so well received that he made another egg each year for the next eleven years until the Czar died. The tradition was continued with the Czar's son.

Ukrainian Easter egg decorating dates from 1,300 B.C. These are hand decorated eggs made by a process using wax. Words are encoded on the egg by way of the symbols and colors.

These days, Oology is the study of eggs. In the bird kingdom alone, 9,000 kinds of birds each lay their own kind of eggs. Hummingbirds lay the smallest; Ostriches and Kiwis, the largest. Why do different species lay different colored eggs? The color of an egg depends upon where it is laid. White eggs are normally hidden, but colored eggs match the colors in the environment of the nest for camouflage.

A vast amount of life comes from eggs of all kinds whether incubated internally or externally. The earth itself resembles an egg with a crust (shell), magma (egg white) and core (yolk). No matter what may change, the egg remains prime to our continued existence.

Sources:
Various Authors (1997-1999). Myth and Mankind: Vols. Greek & Roman, Tibetan & Mongolian, Slavic, African Myths. London: Duncan Baird Publishers/Time Life Books
History of the Easter Egg
Landhotels Austria - Austrian Easter Traditions
History and Symbolism of Ukrainian Easter Eggs
National Geographic News - Earliest Unhatched Bird Fossil Found
Veggs Australia - Egg Facts and Fun
Australian Sacred Sites
The Sacramento Zoo - Egg Layers
How the Egg Came to Symbolize Easter
Treasures of the World - Faberge Eggs