DOVE IN ART. Semiramis was symbol ized by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians by a dove, the form she is supposed to have assumed on leaving the earth. Venus (Astarte) is generally found accompanied by a dove as an attribute, in mythological art. In Christian sym bolism the dove is figurative of the Holy Spirit In this sense it figures in pictorial representa tions of such scenes as the baptism of Christ, the annunciation of the Virgin, the creation of the world; with the same intent artists have introduced the dove hovering over the heads of saints. Again, for the same reason the dove form was carved on most baptismal fonts of the older churches.
As Noah's messenger returning to the Ark with an olive branch, the dove has become a symbol of peace, and accompanies the inscrip tion in the Catacombs. Figuring on tombs or sarcophagi the dove is said to repre sent grief and martyrdom. In profane symbolism the dove usually represents love or affection: Giovanna de Medici adopted two turtle doves as her device to represent conjugal fidelity.
In ecclesiastical furniture the pyx (contain ing the consecrated Host) suspended from the ciborium over the altar in the earlier Roman Catholic churches frequently took the form of a dove; it was known as the peristerium, from the Greek peristeirion —a dove-cote. Dr. Rock
says they were used in many French churches up to a century or so ago; the custom appears to have died out generally long before as none are known to have been produced later than 1200 A.D. The dove stood, usually, on an enamel decorated dish from which it was detachable. Very few specimens of these ecclesiastical doves are extant. In Germany, the Salzburg and Er furt cathedrals and the monastery church of Gottweih each possess one. Numerous saints have been depicted as accompanied by a dove, such as: Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Fabian, Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Louis, Saint Dunstan and a number of others.
or HOLY GHOST PLANT (Peristeria elata), an orchid of Cen tral America, much reverenced by the pious natives because of its resemblance to a dove with outstretched wings, the symbol of the Holy Ghost; called also Holy-Spirit flower.
a bird parasite (Argos re flexus), the blind tick which infests doves and other birds. Some of the species are said to cause death by their sting. See Time.