Description
This is a dove of peace car sticker. And it is not stuck to the rear window of the vehicle but to the rear windshield wiper. Because that way, the dove moves back and forth when you use the wiper. The dove of peace symbol took some development before it came to its present form on stickers. Therefore, there was a historical process in which the dove with the olive branch became a symbol of peace for people to use and put on cars. While the dove of peace sticker is a well known motive against war no matter if it is worn as a badge on a jacket or if it is used as a sticker. And apart from stickers and badges, the famous symbol is also printed on flags and banners. Other than the flags, you can buy the stickers from us.
Already in the third century BC the dove was the symbol of goddess Ishtar. But in that time 5000 years ago the dove was not a sign of peace. Archeology found 2600 years old figurines of lead in the Temple of Ishtar in Assur. And also in the Temple of Ishtar in Mari there was found a painting of a huge dove, as stickers were not yet invented, which starts off of a palm tree. But even though the dove was used in this context as a symbol it is not yet a dove of peace, as the Goddess which it symbolizes does not stand for peace. Tho goddess Ishtar who was also known as Inanna stand for love, war and also fertility.
In the Semitic religion then also doves were used in connection to the goddess Ashera, who is sometimes thought of as being the wife of Jahwe. And also in connection to her cult neither were stickers used, nor does the dove symbolize peace.
Then followed the Greek classic, in which there still were no cars in the modern sense. And also in the time referred to as the classic from about 500 BC to 400 BC there were no stickers yet. And if there would have been stickers, then there would still not have been any with the dove of peace as this symbol was not invented in its current, modern form. Therefore, we can definitely say that no stickers were used in connection to the Olympic gods or any other deity of that era. While actually the story which inspired the dove of peace symbol was already written at that time. But the process of deriving the symbol of the dove of peace off of a biblical story did not happen until many centuries later in the early Christian communities. Therefore, in this time the dove was used symbolically in connection to the Olympian goddess Aphrodite as the use of the symbol shifted from Inanna onto her.
During that time, the car engine was not yet invented. And even though the Greek experimented with steam power, as far as we know they did not put it to use as the driving force of a vehicle or ship. So back then vehicles were drawn by animals, like horses for example. And also even though vehicles might have had ornaments they were not equipped with stickers. Therefore, 3 prerequisites for our product were not invented during that age, which are the car, the sticker and the dove as a symbol of peace, as we know it by now. As of course, the tradition of using stickers on cars can not be invented before the car itself.
The sticker showing a dove of peace needed the invention of the symbol itself. But when was the dove of peace invented. The concept of the dove of peace as it is featured on our sticker was invented by early Christians in Rome. But stickers were also not yet invented, even though this historic Roman era is later than the Greek period we just talked about. And the self-propelled car of course was also not known to the Romans in that time. As the Cristian religion starts with the teachings of Christ, which can not be delivered earlier than the year 0. So in that time we are about 2000 years ahead of the invention of the gasoline fueled car, which was patented by Carl Benz in 1886. And even when the car was invented, there were still no stickers, because it was not before Stanton Avery came up with the first adhesive label paper in 1935, that the production of stickers could take place. Therefore, we can say with certainty, that there could not have been stickers on the first cars. And because there were definitely no stickers in ancient Rome, the early Christians could not represent the dove of peace, which they invented on an adhesive label. Therefore, the dove of peace was represented in other ways.
While the Dove in a religious context was known to the early Christians from the Bible, where it appears in two different parts of the text. The Dove plays a role in the Story of Noah and his ship the Ark, and also appears in the paragraphs about the baptizing of Jesus. In the mythological story about Noah, God was angry with the sinful humans and sent a flood to destroy them. But he told Noah to build a ship, to save himself, his families and the animals. When the flood was over, Noah saw a rainbow, which was said to be a sign of peace God made with the humans after the flood. And in this context after the flood Noah sent out a dove, which returned with a leaf of the olive tree, signalling that there was land above water again.
While in the story about the baptizing of Jesus, when Jesus was just baptized, a dove appeared flying down from heaven. And the writers of the bible believed, that it was the Holy Spirit coming down on Jesus in the form of a dove. And the early Christians adopted the dove as a sign of peace.
While another sign of peace at that time was known from the Greek and the Romans, who used a branch of the olive tree as a peace sign. And therefore the Christians of that time combined the two images using that of the dove in conjunction with the branch of olive by changing the olive leave, which was brought back in the doves beak with a complete branch of olive being carried. And with this they invented the dove of peace in the form we know it today. But stickers were not available at that time, so they had to paint the symbol to the walls. Nevertheless, even though they had neither cars nor stickers, they did have the dove of peace. Therefore, since the sticker was the final invention of those three prerequisites, there could not have been car stickers of the dove of peace before the year 1935.
The exchange of the leaf of the olive tree for a branch of olive in the beak of the dove of peace lead later translators of the Bible to change the translation to also adopt the branch, even though it is a wrong translation. And with this, the image of the dove of peace in the form we know it today in turn became part of the bible. Which then led to the use of the actual dove of peace image in medieval depictions of the scene of Noah, as the dove also was shown with a complete branch instead of a leaf. While in medieval times the codices also could not make use of stickers as they are written before it became possible to create those. But it was not only the adhesive paper, which prevented the use of stickers back then, as also printing itself was not possible. And so the images in the codices were hand painted. So we can see that a lot of different feats of ingenuity throughout history were necessary for us to nowadays be able to have dove of peace car stickers. From the invention of the symbol itself in Rome after the start of Christianity to the invention of cars, the necessary paper and the ability to print in general.
Augustine of Hippo wrote in his book De Doctrine Christiana (About the Christian teachings) in the 4. century CE that eternal peace is symbolized by the olive branch which the dove carried when it returned to the Ark.
Up until now, the dove of peace has been a frequent subject for paintings. And so Sir John Everett Millais painted an image of the dove of peace, which he completed in 1851. By now, the dove image is in the Thomas Combe collection, which can be visited at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. There is a painting which in turn shows John Everett Millais painted by Robert Leslie. So the painting by Leslie does not show a dove, but instead it shows a picture of a person who painted a dove.
And also other artists painted doves, like for example Pablo Picasso, who learned to draw these types of birds from his father. While one of his paintings depicting a dove was called La Colombe and became the emblem of the World Peace Council in Paris 1949. And later on, the same dove image was also used for the World Peace Congress in Berlin in 1952. Picasso commented on his painting doves, that it means, that he stand for peace and not war. Nowadays, a sale of dove of peace stickers can be expected at every peace conference.
Still the meaning of the dove of peace symbol shifted since its invention. As the depiction originally symbolized peace of the mind, it later came to symbolize worldly peace. Therefore, these days it is common also for not Cristian people to put dove of peace car stickers on their cars, as the meaning now is not this spiritual anymore. While even though also people of every religious group can put dove stickers to their cars, they can only do so because of people like Étienne Lenoir, as he invented one of the early cars called the Hippomobile in 1863.
From the beginning of the connection of the dove with the idea of peace, the metaphor became deeply rooted in the collective memory. And therefore nowadays, this connection goes so far that it enables people to call a pacifist person a dove. Which shows us how the idea spread out to cover a big range, which even reaches into language. While in this context, a non-pacifist person can be called a hawk.
The dove is a bird from the family of Columbidae which is divided into 51 genera. While the family of Columbidae consists of 353 species.
The dove of peace is not the only emblem which signifies peace, as there is also for example the famous peace sign, which is often found on stickers. While this famous sticker motive does not depict a bird but instead was developed by Gerald Holtom in 1958. In order to invent the peace sign, Gerald Holtom combined the two letters N and D from the flag semaphore and represented them as lines in a circle. The reason for depicting those two letter was, that he invented the symbol for the Nuclear Disarmament Campaign, which made him pick N and D to signify those words. Later, the symbol’s meaning broadened, and it was used just like the dove of peace as a general symbol of peace. While, even though the dove symbol was invented much earlier, nowadays, both symbols are commonly seen on stickers on cars.
The dove of peace symbol was not known to the pre-Christian Romans, but instead they had another symbol to signify peace, which was the olive branch. The Greek used this symbol as an attribute of Goddess Eirene. As this goddess signified peace, while other attributes, she often had, were a cornucopia and a scepter. The horn of plenty which she holds signifies, that peace creates abundance. While the Romans had the same goddess, yet they did not call her Eirene but Pax, which means peace. As the Romans were not able to print stickers, yet they could mint coins. Therefore, the olive branch was not used on stickers at that time, but instead we find in on coins who also show goddess Eirene. So we see this symbol of peace being copied and distributed even though it was not on stickers, but instead on their currency.
While neither the Romans nor the Greeks had cars nor stickers to adorn them, yet we can assume that the horse carriages they had were adorned. As we can see, the image of a bronze miniature chariot, which is adorned with pictorial motives. And why wouldn’t those people have their chariots painted or otherwise decorated. Even the shields these peoples carried in combat were painted. But due to its intended purpose, we can not expect any sign of peace on a chariot which was designed for warfare. Therefore, even if the Greeks had had the dove of peace and the possibility to print it on stickers, they would have probably not used it on a war chariot. And also we can safely assume that neither the olive branch was applied to those vehicles.
But the ancient citizens did use the olive branch on other artworks, and so it is a common symbol found on mosaics. And the olive branch was not only used in pictures but also was used in literature. And so we find it in a book by Virgil, where the Roman author describes the mythological figure and founder of Rome Aeneas as holding an olive branch in his hand. In another story Rome was not founded by the Greek Aeneas But by Romulus and Remus who had been raised by a wolf.
In many Cristian churches you find doves now, as it is a symbol of peace, which was invented by Christians and has a direct connection to the Bible. Therefore, you find for example dove figures or depictions of the bird on stain-glass-windows like in Notre-Dame.
After the flood Noah did not only send out a dove which returned with a leaf of an olive tree, but also he saw a rainbow. And the rainbow he saw is said to be a sign of peace between God and humanity after God was wrathful and sent the flood. And the use of the rainbow as a sign of peace could be the explanation why beside the dove of peace also a rainbow flag is used for the same purpose. The rainbow flag often has the Italian word “pace” (spoken pu-che) written on it, which means peace, or it uses the English word. And there are not only flags with the rainbow but also stickers.
Image credit:
Images under the Creative Commons 3 Lizenz:
- Ishta on akkadian seal by Sailko
Bilder unter der Creative Commons 4 Lizenz:
- Notre Dame Dove by GO69
- Dove figure by Syrio
