After eating, but before it got dark, I explored our surroundings a bit, wandering off to a nearby creek which couldn't be seen from our picnic site. On the other side, I saw barbed wire and a guard tower; We were next to the border of East Berlin! Knowing that there was one or more "VoPo's"(Volkspolitzei---Peoples police, an East German paramilitary group) with rifle(s) in the guard tower, I hurried back to the bucolic area where our party was picnicking. (My recollection of this ostensibly peaceful place seems surreal, but befitting the story of the nightingale.)
Later, when the sky started to darken, the nightingale regaled us with her melodious tunes and I was enchanted. That was even before I knew of her connection
to weaving and embroidery and before I knew Helen M. Stevens refers to her as the "embroiderer's bird" in her The Myth & Magic of Embroidery book.
Roman mythology has many variations of the story of Philomela. My version is, by tradition, a brutal story, however I have omitted some of the gruesome details...
Philomela was raped by Tereus, her brother-in-law and the King of Thrace. To prevent her from telling his wife (Pilomela's sister) what he had done,
he cut out Philomela's tongue. She then wove and embroidered a beautiful silk robe with Tereus' evil deeds hidden in the details of the embroidery.
Her sister, Procne, deciphered the message and attempted to escape with Philomela, but they were apprehended by Tereus. The Olympian gods intervened
before Tereus could kill them, transforming Procne into a speedy swallow, so she could evade Tereus, and Philomela into a nightingale, so she could sing
her mournful story forevermore.
You can listen to a nightingale's song. Then depress the back <-- key if you wish to return to my website.