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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes — Cambridge, 1940

DOI Seite / Zitierlink: 
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0880

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The owl of Athena 785

3io and 304 B.C., which has for its reverse type (fig. 580) Athena
winged and weaponed advancing into the fray with an owl at her
s'de. As a presage of victory1 the bird passed into a proverb.
'There goes an owl!' men said when there were obvious symptoms
°f a coming triumph2.

If the owl was indeed regarded as Athena herself in bird-form,
We can understand why the town-arms of Athens were an owl
between two sprigs of olive. A good example, which came to light
111 1839 at Palaiopolis (Korkyra), is now in the British Museum
(fig- 58l)3. An inscription in silver-filled letters of s. iv B.C. records
a grant ofproxenia made by the Corcyraeans to a certain Athenian
named Dionysios, son of Phrynichos. It is incised on a bronze

Fig. 580.

The bird which portended victory to friends naturally portended defeat to foes.
I ea,uently the owl had also a sinister significance, on which see P. Perdrizet 'Sur
,4^° e ^e 'a chouette dans l'antiquite' in the Bulletin tie la Societi nationaie des
Hi '^Uaires France 1903 pp. 164—170. I add a couple of contrasted examples.
Spe_^ron 11 °f Syracuse was entering on his first campaign, when an owl perched on his
jj^. r atu' ar> eagle on his shield: this meant that he would be both a prudent counsellor
nj ^ Powerful king (lust. 23. 4. 10). Pyrrlios i of Epeiros was riding towards Argos by
(\il ' W^e" an ow' perched on the top of his spear: this foretold his miserable death
Eodd'^ "at I0' ^e must remelnDer that the Argives were protected by their
an 6SS ^tnena '0£t>5epK?;s (Paus. I. 24. 2 : supra ii. 502 n. 2), who mav well have
PP^ared to Pyrrhos as an owl.

mini n l'le ^Ik-lore of the owl see further S. Bochart Hierozoicon rec. E. F. C. Rosen-
Jlfytjt , Psiae 1790 iii. 24—30 (l/ul'o), 31—39 (noclua), A. de Gubematis Zoological
an,l p°'^'V ncl°n 1S72 ii. 243—251 (largely lunar myths), C. Swainson The Folk Lore
C. (| rovi"cial Names of British Birds London 1886 pp. 97, 125—131 (valuable),

Folk ^ B*rd G°dS NeW V°rk 1898 PP' 149—178 \cao*aut Adores), P. Sebillot
° ' °'e France Paris 1905 ii. 77, 1906 iii. 167, 179, 193, 195, 196, 201, 202, 204,

sr. • Wellmann in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vL 1064—1071 (distinguishing
J-H C'eS 1 ^"^a!> "VKTM&pat or euros, oXaCJ, alyui\i&s, cXeAs, OK&if), N. W. Thomas in
£>ie ^t<nP E'lcyclopadia of Religion and Ethics Edinburgh 1908 i. 523b—524", O. Keller
ffaiuilx Tierwelt Leipzig 1913 pp. 36—45 figs. 17, 18 pi. 1,6, 8, 10, Taylor in the
^e«ck °'terl"":l1 des dfiitsche.u Aberglaubens Berlin—Leipzig 1929/1930 ii. 1073—1079,

Leid, |l« "rTaTa< (Zenob. 2. 89, Diogeneian. 3. 72, Aposlol. 5. 54, Gregor. Kypr. cod.
n. s)_ p. \> Souid. s.v.). V\at>Z (vtclto (Bekker anted, i. 232, 30 ff. cited supra p. 784

3 C TVy\blilrTaT0 (Diogeneian. 3. 93).
Oxford « ewton ^e Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum
"Rapia 3 3°f. no. 166 pi. 3 (part of which =my fig. 581). See further P. Perdrizet
%s. i—^" de Vllles Sl,r <les steles de prox^nie 'in the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1896 xx. 549—562

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