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Hoopoe

Maryann’s talons and the bird lady statue are the key to her real identity.

Those who are familiar with the SSNs, know they are littered with were-animals of all kinds–were-lynx and  were-owls to name a few. I think in her human life, Mary Ann was a were-hoopoe. All the references to flightless birds this season (ostrich roundup, penguin dick, and numerous chicken comments) allude to her identity. Only one variety of hoopoe is, or was, flightless, the  extinct giant hoopoe.

Hoopoes are colorful dramatic proud birds that often frequent vineyards and build their nests in the nooks and crannies of trees and walls. In flight they are often mistaken for very large butterflies. They fly in on an indirect, wandering path and when on the ground, hold their wing our and up toward the sun in an unusual position, not unlike Maryann’s when she was doing her shakey shakey thing. Hoopoes migrate, prefer warm weather, and are monogamous, as Maryann seemed to be.

When female hoopoes begin to brood, they transform from pretty little songbirds into filthy smelly reviled creatures. (Mary Ann wasn’t kidding when she told Tara at their first meeting that she got dirty.) Hoopoes line their nests with debris and secrete a liquid that smells like rotten meat. They rub the  liquid all over their wings, nest, and eggs to deter predators. Once the chicks hatch, they are also capable of defending the nest by spraying directed streams of feces. The creepy guy in Sookie’s kitchen sink playing with intestines is an allusion to this capability. Speaking of that incident, when Mike started screaming to alert the others that Sookie was in the house, he was actually cawing like a bird, and if you listen to the cacophony that Maryann creates when she is displeased,  it is actually a flock of birds screeching.

After the chicks hatch, the hoopoe nest becomes increasingly filthy because in addition to the raw meat stench, it fouls its own home. By the time the fledglings leave, it is little more than a big pile of droppings.

The hoopoe was holy to the Egyptian and Minoan cultures but regarded as a thief in most European folklore and as a harbinger of war in Scandinavia. (In addition to the war on vampires that Steve Newlin is gearing up for, the Witch War is on the horizon.) Hoopoes and hoopoe eggs are also strongly associated with magic.

There are also many stories about hoopoes as advice givers, including to the biblical king Salomon. Remember Tara always repeated Maryann’s words of wisdom? Advice giving is an odd character trait to give a maenad who represents chaos, the natural world, and unbridled passion, but not if she is also a hoopoe.

Maryann's hoopoe dress

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Tereus, a king who raped his wife’s sister and cut out her tongue was transformed into a hoopoe. The bird’s crest indicates his royal status and his long, sharp beak is a symbol of his violent nature.

Mary Ann with Feathers

Aristophanes included Tereus in his hoopoe form as a character in The Birds. In this drama, the birds decide to build a city between earth and heaven with the intention of usurping the gods’ position and transferring earthly worship from the gods to themselves and gluttonously taking all of the sacrifices for themselves, leaving the gods to starve. This is exactly what Maryann did.  Daphne thought she was a god herself, and her table was always overflowing with the best produce, no doubt offerings diverted from their intended destination.

By eating a magical herb, a group of humans transform themselves into birds and leave behind the worries of money, work, and politics (the Apollonian, rational world) and go live in the city of the birds (the Dionysian world) where they were free to transgress all manner of societal bounds. This is where Maryann’s followers come in (and Karl’s soup).

The play includes a skirmish between humans and birds using kitchen utensils, which was alluded to with the standoff in Merlotte’s kitchen when a number of Maryann’s followers armed themselves with cooking tools and in Sookie’s kitchen when she brained Coroner Mike with Gran’s frying pan.

The Birds also includes a wedding procession, and a hymn to Hymen. While we don’t hear any such hymn in TB, we do have a rather protracted conversation about Jessica’s hymen and Hymen’s torch, a necessity for all weddings in ancient Greece, did turn up last season when Rene hid Arlene’s engagement ring in his flashlight.

Apparently immortality isn’t compatible with weres. Maryann seems to have lost the ability to transform fully. She was still capable of producing talons and eggs when needed, though.

Read part II for the rest of the story.