The Owl in ancient Greece

Hey dear community, I hope you are all well and you have a weekend that has brought many interesting experiences into your lives! In this article, I would like to talk a little about ancient Greece and hope you are able to expand your knowledge.

Here you can see pictures of artifacts from ancient Greece that I recently took and are supposed to represent an owl that had an important symbolic meaning in ancient Greece. The owl was considered a very wise and intelligent animal and the best-known link is probably to the goddess of wisdom Athena who was usually depicted with an owl on her shoulder and was considered the protective goddess of the city of Athens and owls also has an important meaning there and there was even the view that the residents were so wealthy because owls would give birth to their children in the purses. This phrase is probably also related to the fact that the owl was one of the best-known symbols on coins in ancient Greece and to this day you often see owls on coins and are considered a well-known reference to ancient times and so you can also often see an owl on the European Euro coin together with other symbolism from ancient Greece. In general, this clever animal has achieved a kind of cult status in Athens and almost everywhere in the city various sculptures or other works of art of owls could be seen and was also considered a sign of science and was also a bird that stood for happiness or victory and as a nocturnal animal it was also considered a symbol of darkness or the night. The Roman equivalent Minerva was also depicted with an owl and over the centuries the symbolism changed, but is still considered an animal that is full of different symbolism and is often considered a mysterious animal that has different meanings in different cultures and can often be seen in coats of arms or other artworks.

Thanks a lot for the visit and I hope you could learn something new about ancient Greece! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.