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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Owls to Athens
From: George Bourozikas
Date: 2001 Jul 10, 8:32 AM
From: George Bourozikas
Date: 2001 Jul 10, 8:32 AM
At 05:45 PM 7/9/01 -0700, you wrote: >Herbert Prinz wrote: [...] >>> explanation would amount to carrying owls to Athens. > >A classical allusion that eludes me... owls to Athens? > >Can you refresh my mind? > >Dan Having grown up in Athens, I think I could clarify: The owl, bird of wisdom, is one of the symbols of the goddess Athena, for whom Athens was named after she won the contest with Poseidon. As a result, the bird itself was revered (conveniently owls are also great mouse-catchers and they love to nest in barns :-) and representations of owls abounded. Bringing owls to Athens is like, say, bringing coal to Newcastle. Both expressions apply to classical Athens and pre-depression Newcastle. Nowdays the best place to see an owl in Athens is the Archaeological Museum... --george
