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)

The owl of Athena 793

its eyes1. Such birds, swooping upon their prey by sea or land,
would appeal to the imagination of a simple folk and might well be
regarded as lightning-birds appropriate to Athena, who wielded the
thunderbolt of Zeus2. This is speculative, and of course uncertain.
But, so far as the owl is concerned, further evidence is forthcoming.
Columella3, describing the rites by which the country people sought
to avert wind and weather, says:

Hence Amythaon's son4, whom Cheiron taught,
On crosses hung the night-birds and on roof-tops
Would have them cry no more their deadly dirge.

Palladius5 follows suit, and in his farmer's calendar, among other
magic means of warding off hail-stones, gives the recipe: ' Or else
an owl is nailed up with wide-spread wings.' The same cure is still
popular in Germany6 and elsewhere. C. Swainson7, a well-known
authority on bird-lore, remarks : ' Owls are often nailed up on barn
doors or walls. The meaning of this custom is now unknown in our
°wn rural districts; but in Germany the peasants will tell you it is
done to avert lightning. The owl, it is to be observed, is a lightning
bird.' If so, we get rid of one small difficulty. It might have been
thought that the divine power resident in the head of Zeus would
have been born as an eagle, not an owl8. But the owl of Athena,
as we now perceive, was virtually equivalent to the eagle of Zeus.
The equation seems to have struck the Greeks themselves in

Eustath. in II. p. 1202, 10 ff. t6 5t yXavKibuv avrl tou tuirvpov fiKiiruv Kara tovs
"■aXcuoiis 7rapa T0 yXaiaaw, a(f ov Kal y\av£, w p.bvr)v rQv yapuj/wvuxav KaX o-apKapdyav
Mi) TiKTtiv tv(p\a 5ia to irepi tovs 6<p6a^p-ovs TrvpwSts, o TfOfnAr ov Siatpei ttjv diav.
* Kai iv rati aKOToiirivais opif. The source of this note was Demokritos of Abdera
Diels Die Fragmenle der Vorsokratiker* Berlin 1912 ii. 52, 13 ff), cp. et. mag-.p. 233,
l0ff- &t)h6vikos, but zonar- iex. p. 439 and Favorin. lex. p. 422, 16ff. ^rj/ibKpiTos.
... Modern philology supports the ancient derivation: see L. Meyer Handb. d. gr. Etym.
68, Prellwitz op. cit? p. 95, Boisacq op. fit. p. 150.

First in Aisch. Eum. 827 f., cp. Pind. frag. 146 Bergk4, 146 Schroeder vvp
°"tos d' tc ncpavvov \ ayx^™ 5tflA" k'a™ X"P° tot/)6j | {rin4va)...; then on coins,-
Serr>s, etc. See Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. i. 191, W. H. Roscher in his Lex. Myth. i.
nf; Parnell Cults of Gk. States i. 330, and infra § 9 (h) ii (\) (5).

Colum. de re rust. 10. 348 ff. 4 Melampous. 5 Pallad. 1. 35. 1.

'D1 A- Kuhn Die Herabkitnft des Fetters und des Gottertranis2 Gutersloh 1886 p. 189
le eule an das scheunenthor genagelt schutzt aber das haus vor blitz', E. H. Meyer
"manische Mythologie Berlin 1891 p. 112 'Sie wird gegen Zauber und Blitz ans
c»eunentor genagelt (Wuttke §165)', Taylor in the Handwbrterbuch des deutschen
erSlaitbens Berlin—Leipzig 1929/1930 ii. 1074 'Sehr verbreitet ist das Annageln einer
_ °der einzelner Teile von ihr an Stallen, Scheunen usw. gegen Blitzschlag, Feuer und
7eres Unheil' with n. 29 on p. 1078.
c- Swainson The Folk Lore and Provincial Names of British Birds London 1886

8 Supra p. 733 f.