The Eagle is one of the most important symbols of the sun and sky gods. It is associated with greatness, power, victory, and bravery. In ancient Greece, the eagle was the messenger of Zeus. As believed by ancient people, the eagle flies higher than any other bird and unblinkingly looks at the sun. What bird could possibly better associate with the god that hurled lightning bolts toward the earth? Sometimes the eagle held in its talons Zeus's thunderbolts. In one myth, Zeus's anger materializes into an eagle and pecks at Prometheus's liver. With this are associated the mythical/poetical precepts of transforming people into animals. This laid the foundation for the metamorphoses of Publius Ovidius Nasso. Zeus himself, as it is known, changed into the forms of a bull (kidnapping of Europa) and a swan (history of poor Leda).