Physiologus: On the Natures of Twelve Animals

¶ On the Eagle.

They say the eagle is the first among all winged things,
Who thus renews itself when old age weighs it down.
It seeks out where there is a fountain that never ceases to flow;
It goes above this toward the sky and becomes close to God.
Then the burning sun sets both its wings aflame,
And diminishes the large ones and lightens the heavy ones.
Then also the darkness is consumed by the nearby fire,
Which a long life brought upon its eyes.
Soon it rushes and plunges itself into the clear waters of the fountain,
And it falls into the nest; thus it suddenly becomes new.
There is, however, a beak by which food is taken, which is rounded;
It is scarcely able to take a little from any food.
But by striking a rock or biting it as it usually does for food,
It wears down the crooked part and thus takes food thereafter.

¶ In this second section original: "distinctio"; a formal division in a text, the author proceeds first in hexameter and second in pentameter referring to the alternating rhythmic structure of the Latin verses above, in which the author speaks about the eagle, setting down its natures. And this present part is divided into two parts: for first he sets down the historical sense historical sense: the literal, factual description of a subject or the "history" of the eagle’s natures; and second he sets down the allegorical sense allegory: a story where the literal details represent deeper spiritual or moral meanings or the "allegory." The second part begins there: Man is in sins. This indicates the upcoming section where the eagle's renewal is compared to a sinner's repentance

¶ Therefore, he first says thus: The eagle is of such a nature that when old age weighs it down, or when it is too old, then by natural instinct it knows it can be renewed. It seeks a fountain that never ceases to flow; having found the fountain, the eagle begins to fly directly toward the clouds near the sphere of fire In medieval science, the "sphere of fire" was thought to be a layer of the atmosphere closest to the heavens. Then, by the beating of its wings and the friction of its feathers from the clashing of the wings, they are burned by the solar rays, and its eyes lose their former darkness. Once those wings are burned, it falls back again to the fountain from which it flew, and thus the old feathers fall from it and new ones grow for it.

¶ Then, at the point: There is, however, a beak.
¶ The author adds the second nature of the eagle, saying that the eagle sometimes has a beak that is too curved and crooked, so much so that it cannot eat. Then it goes to a rock and strikes its beak, which is curved by old age, against it and grinds? it against the rock just as...