Editing Cuckoo (section)

== In human culture ==
[[File:Suomenniemi.vaakuna.svg|thumb|upright=0.7|A golden cuckoo in the coat of arms of [[Suomenniemi]], Finland]]
In [[Greek mythology]], the god [[Zeus]] transformed himself into a cuckoo so that he could seduce the goddess [[Hera]], to whom the bird was sacred.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lang |first1=Andrew |title=Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Volume 2 |chapter=Chapter 17: Greek divine myths |date=1887 |publisher=Ballantyne Press |page=179 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Myth,_Ritual,_and_Religion/Volume_2/Chapter_17}}</ref> Three sacred cuckoos appear in the Finnish epic the Kalevala, connected to the death of a young girl who was being forced into marriage.  In England, [[William Shakespeare]] alludes to the common cuckoo's association with spring, and with [[cuckoldry]], in the courtly springtime song in his play ''[[Love's Labours Lost]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Shakespeare |first1=William |title=Song: "When daisies pied and violets blue" |url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174378|publisher=Poetry Foundation|access-date=22 July 2015}}</ref><ref name="RhodesGillespie2014">{{cite book |last1=Rhodes |first1=Neil |last2=Gillespie |first2=Stuart |title=Shakespeare And Elizabethan Popular Culture: Arden Critical Companion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SxdnAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA178 |date=13 May 2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4081-4362-9 |page=178}}</ref> 

In [[India]], cuckoos are sacred to [[Kamadeva]], the god of desire and longing, whereas in [[Japan]], the cuckoo symbolises unrequited love.<ref name="Werness2006">{{cite book|last=Werness|first=Hope B.|title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in World Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iBSDddO-9PoC&pg=PA123|year=2006|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-1913-2|page=123}}</ref> Cuckoos are a sacred animal to the [[Bon]] religion of [[Tibet]].<ref name="Dzogchen">{{cite journal|last=O'Donovan|first=Siofra|date=Spring 2004|title=The Great Perfection of Non-Sectarianism: rDzogs chen in the Bon and Buddhist Traditions of Tibet|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43300941|journal=The Tibet Journal|volume=29|issue=1|page=60|jstor=43300941}}</ref> Additionally, the brood parasitism of some cuckoo species gave rise to the term "[[cuckold]]", referring to the husband of an [[Adultery|adulterous]] wife.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Janet |date=2009-07-04 |title=Cuckolds, horns and other explanations |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8133615.stm |access-date=2024-12-22 |work=[[BBC News]] |language=en-GB}}</ref>

The orchestral composition "[[On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring]]" by [[Frederick Delius]] imitates sounds of the cuckoo.<ref name="Delius IMSLP">[https://imslp.org/wiki/2_Pieces_for_Small_Orchestra_(Delius,_Frederick)"On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring".] IMSLP Petrucci Library. Retrieved 4 October 2019.</ref>