The Corvus Logo

The crow/raven logo was initially developed for one of my companies, Corvus, LLC. Our company's mission was to identify difficulties that college students were having and connect them to services and support staff at their college.

Not too surprisingly, the crow logo started off as a play on my last name of Kroh. The company name, Corvus, is the genus name for crows and ravens.

Corvus is also a constellation and you'll see its five primary stars in the logo. Two are in the wings and the other three are below the wings. Here's an image of the constellation modified from the Wikipedia article:

Mythology:

There are several mythological stories that tie in with the Corvus logo. The Norse & Greek myths identify the crow or raven as a messenger, which is the role we saw our software playing.

Norse (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia):

Huginn and Muninn, sometimes Anglicized Hugin and Munin, are a pair of ravens associated with the Norse god Odin.

Hugin and Munin travel the world bearing news and information they have collected to Odin. Hugin is "thought" and Munin is "memory". They are sent out at dawn to gather information and return in the evening. They perch on the god's shoulders and whisper the news into his ears. It is from these ravens that the kenning 'raven-god' for Odin is derived.

From Grímnismál:

Old Norse:

Huginn ok Muninn fliúga hverian dag

iörmungrund yfir;
óomk ek of Huginn, at hann aptr ne komit,
þó siámk meirr um Muninn.

English:

The whole world wide, every day,
fly Hugin and Munin;
I worry lest Hugin should fall in flight,
yet more I fear for Munin.

Another translation reads,

Every morning the two ravens Huginn and Muninn, are loosed and fly over Midgard; I always fear that Thought may not wing his way home, but my fear for Memory is greater.

Greek (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia):

In Greek mythology, a raven serves Apollo, and is sent to fetch water from a cow, but it rests lazily on the journey because it sees a fig tree by the pond. The crow waits while the figs ripen and then slowly eats them. He sees a water snake and decides that he can use it as an excuse, and after finally obtaining the water in a cup, takes back the water snake as well. According to the myth, Apollo saw through the fraud, and angrily cast the crow, cup, and snake, into the sky. The origin of this story is likely to be the juxtaposition of this constellation with those of Crater (constellation), and Hydra (constellation), in the area of the sky known as the Sea.

Pacific Northwest Coast (from library.thinkquest.org):

This myth describes how Raven stole the sun and brought light to the world. It sounds a little corny, but our software was attempting to bring light to students who were in emotional darkness.

HOW RAVEN STOLE THE SUN

Once upon a time, a mean old chief hoarded the only light in the world. He did not want to share it. Raven decided that he could no longer tolerate this after growing tired of flying in the dark. He turned himself into a cedar leaf and fell into the chief's dwelling.

Raven, as the cedar leaf, fluttered into a drink that the chief's daughter was drinking. She unwittingly swallowed raven down with a gulp of her drink. She immediately became pregnant and gave birth. Her baby had hair as black as a raven's, dark glowing eyes, and an awfully short temper. If the baby was bored, it would shriek. The chief ordered that the baby was to receive anything it wanted. One gift the baby got was a bag of shining stars. It liked the stars very much, until it accidentally threw them up through the smoke hole in the ceiling. The stars then scattered across the sky.

The baby grew bored yet again. It gave out more violent shrieks. It finally received a bag containing the Moon, and played with it happily. It remained pacified with the Moon until the Moon bounced out of the dwelling through the smoke hole.

The baby was angrier than it had ever been. Everyone searched desperately for anything to occupy the screaming child. All the gifts it received were rejected, as it pointed to the bag with the sun in it. The household finally gave the baby what it wanted, but did it reluctantly. But instead of opening the bag, the baby turned back into Raven, who flew through the smoke hole with the bag of light in his beak.. This was how Raven stole the Sun. Raven spread the light of the Sun throughout the world.