The Double-Headed Eagle Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

Such is indeed the myth, especially in Russia. It's an appealing notion. The only problem is that there isn't any historical evidence to support it.

Answer: The Hittites

The Hittite depictions of this 'beastie' are in works of art. The Hittite civilization lasted from about BC 1750-BC 1200, and it was located in eastern and southern Anatolia.

Answer: The Levant

As far as can be established, the double-headed eagle was not used at all in Europe at this time. However, it is found in works of applied art, especially in the decoration of textiles, made by the Seljuk Turks in the Levant. It seems that it reached Europe via the crusaders late in the 12th century.

Answer: The Papacy

The eagle (whether single- or double-headed) was also a spiritual emblem. 'The eagle is the atrribute of Zeus ... and of Christ ... ', Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, "A Dictionary of Symbols", translated from the French by John Buchanan-Brown, Penguin Books, 1996, p. 323. Also, 'Medieval mystics often ... compared prayer with the eagle's soaring flight into the sunlight', op. cit., p.326. So the adoption of the double-headed eagle by the Patriarchate of Constantinople is, perhaps, not as strange as may at first appear.

Answer: It represented Muscovy's claim to be the successor to Byzantium

In formal terms, the Muscovite claim was bolstered by the marriage in the same year (1472) of Ivan III to Sophia (Zoë) Palaelogus, the niece of the last Emperor of Byzantium. Ivan III adopted the title 'tsar', meaning 'emperor', though he didn't have himself crowned as such. Perhaps the proudest statement of the claim to be the true successor to Byzantium was made in a frequently quoted letter from "a monk named Philotheus ... to Basil III (1505-1533): 'The first and second Rome have fallen, but the third will stand till the end of history, for it is the last Rome. Moscow has no successor; a fourth Rome is inconceivable.' ". Quotation and information from Nicholas Zernov, "Moscow: The Third Rome", new edition, SPCK, London 1938, pp. 35-36. (This fascinating, scholarly book was first published in 1937). From the reign of Catherine the Great onwards, successive Russian Tsars used this notion to claim the right to intervene at will in the Ottoman Empire and more generally in the Balkans.

Answer: Sigismund

The double-headed eagle had been used intermittently and unsystematically by some Holy Roman Emperors since the late thirteenth century. In 1433 Emperor Sigismund (reigned 1411-1437) formally adopted both the single- and double-headed eagles on a golden ground as the official arms of the Holy Roman Empire.

The single-headed eagle represented Germany, while the double-headed eagle represented the Empire. Rather oddly, the double-headed eagle had already been incorporated into the official arms of the office of the Viceroy in 1402.

Answer: 1261 (return of the Byzantine Emperor from Nicea to Byzantium)

In 1204 the Fourth Crusade, instead of fighting in Palestine, seized Byzantium and set up their own 'Latin' Empire, which lasted till 1260-61. In 1204 the Emperor of Byzantium moved his court to Nicea (in Asia Minor), from where he ruled a small portion of the Eastern Empire, but in 1261 Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus succeeded in ejecting the crusaders from the European part of the Byzantine Empire.

Answer: Colombia and Panama

The Museum of Art in Worcester, MA has a a gold pendant in the form of a double-headed eagle from the Popayan civilization which flourished in this region from c. 700-1500.

Answer: Gold

The most likely reason is the long-standing myth that the eagle could stare directly at the sun. In the insignia of the Holy Roman Empire the eagle was black with a red tongue. Later the claws and feet were also coloured red. These colours - black, red and gold - were adopted in 1848 by German liberal nationalists. (At the time, many liberals romanticized the Middle Ages as an era of relative freedom).

In 1919 the Weimar Republic adopted these colours for the German flag, much to the anger of conservatives.

In 1949 both German states again adopted the black-red-gold flag. (In the case of the German Democratic Republic, a socialist device was superimposed on the colours).

Answer: Albania

The Albanians call their country 'the land of eagles'. It has no imperial significance in this case. Some sources say that it was the flag of the Albanian national hero, Skanderbeg, who resisted the Ottoman Turks till 1468, while other sources simply say that the red represents the blood shed in the struggle for independence. Serbia re-adopted the double-headed eagle in 1838, having previously used it in the late Middle Ages, but has ceased to use it.