ITALY TRIP - Why have a peacock on your coffin?

"Why do these people have peacocks on their coffins?" asked Nigel.

In Ravenna and Pisa, there was a mass of marble sarcophagi from very early Christian times (fifth century onwards). 

Many of the symbols were familiar.
There were Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet - because Christ is the beginning and the end. 

There is the cross combined with the Greek letters chi and rho (looking like x & p).  Chi and Rho are the first two letters of Christ's name.

  

Frequent also are lambs - referring to Jesus as the sacrificial lamb who died for our sins.

Carved vines often twine round the coffins - Jesus is the true vine.  And doves - the birds of the holy spirit.

But why on earth were there so many peacocks?
They are vain birds who strut about, shrieking and rattling their tail feathers.

Surely they work better as a symbol for a certain American president than for Jesus?

"Dunno." I replied to  Nigel.  "Maybe all the eyes in their tail imply they are all-seeing; like God." But I knew I was clutching at straws.

Then Nigel did something very unfair. 

He googled it.

Apparently the flesh of the peacock was supposed never to rot. This made it a great symbol for the resurrection of the body after death.

Could also explain why it went out of fashion. 

Sooner or later a few incidents involving rotting peacock carcasses would have thrown the myth into doubt.