Alektor (ἀλέκτωρ) is the Greek word for a rooster — a male domestic fowl. It appears only in the Gospels, exclusively in the accounts of Peter's denial of Jesus. The rooster became one of the most haunting symbols in Christian memory: the ordinary cry of dawn marking the moment the bravest disciple fulfilled his Lord's most painful prophecy.
All four Gospels include the rooster (alektor) in the Passion narrative. Jesus told Peter at the Last Supper: 'Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times' (Matthew 26:34). Peter, who had pledged to die with Jesus, denied Him — three times — and then heard the rooster crow. Luke 22:61 adds the devastating detail: 'And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.' The crowing of the alektor is the sound of grace meeting failure. Peter's bitter weeping became the beginning of repentance and restoration (John 21). The rooster in Christian iconography (especially on church steeples) commemorates both Peter's failure and his restoration — a perpetual reminder that Christ knows our weakness and redeems it.
The alektor is one of the most emotionally loaded single words in the NT. It appears only seven times, all in the Passion narratives — yet it carries the weight of the most significant failure in apostolic history and the most tender moment of Christ's prophetic knowledge. Peter's restoration in John 21 (three affirmations matching his three denials) shows that every crowing rooster can become a reminder of grace given to the broken.