Angels and Eagles

Have you ever noticed that angel wings are used in a lot of commercials, movies, and games? Well if you have do you know what they represent, if you don’t this blog is for you. Angel wings have been used as a symbolic representation since antiquity and usually were used on any figure that was considered divine and pure. The story of Icarus in which a prisoner makes a set of wings out of feathers and wax too escape jail but flies to close to the sun and they melt is represented through images using what appear to be angel wings. Maybe this was a purposeful action by the artist in which the wings melting represent that only the pure may have them. A more modern use of Angel wings was in Final Fantasy VIII in which Rinoa Heartly gains the ability to sprout angel wings after she gains her sorceress powers. Although Rinoa is not the only sorceress she is the only one who has true angel wings. Sorceress Edea and Adel have no wings and Ultemicia has black wings which by technicality are not angel wings. This was done too show that Rinoa is the only pure of heart sorceress. The use of Angel wings as a symbol of purity does NOT come from religion but instead come from antiquity in which ancient people revered certain large birds such as eagles as good omens. The term “Angel” wings only appears after the birth of monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.