Description

Owl of Wisdom Bronze sculpture Owl of Athena Ancient Greek Green-Gold Oxidization Copy

Height: 3.14 inches (8 cm)
Width: 2.2 inches (5.6 cm)
Depth: 0.8 inches (2 cm)
Weight: 0.47 lbs (215 gr)

The owl was the symbol of Athena goddess of wisdom and intelligence and was frequently depicted in the art and coinage of ancient Athens. It was made in Greece, stands 3.14 inches high, 1.18 inches width. All our bronze items, are cast in Greece, using the traditional ‘lost wax’ method. Each piece is unique.

The History of Athena’s Owl

The reasons behind the association of Athena and the owl are lost in time.[dubious – discuss] Some mythographers, such as David Kinsley and Martin P. Nilsson suggest that she may descend from a Minoan palace goddess associated with birds and Marija Gimbutas claim to trace Athena’s origins as an Old European bird and snake goddess.

On the other hand, Cynthia Berger theorizes about the appeal of some characteristics of owls —such as their ability to see in the dark— to be used as a symbol of wisdom while others, such as William Geoffrey Arnott, propose a simple association between founding myths of Athens and the significant number of little owls in the region (a fact noted since antiquity by Aristophanes in The Birds and Lysistrata).

In any case, the city of Athens seems to have adopted the owl as proof of allegiance to its patron virgin goddess, which according to a popular etiological myth reproduced on the West pediment of the Parthenon, secured the favor of its citizens by providing them with a more enticing gift than Poseidon.

Owls were commonly reproduced by Athenians in vases, weights and prize amphoras for the Panathenaic Games. The owl of Athena even became the common obverse of the Athenian tetradrachms after 510 BC and according to Philochorus, the Athenian tetradrachm was known as glaux (γλαύξ, little owl) throughout the ancient world and “owl” in present day numismatics. They were not, however, used exclusively by them to represent Athena and were even used for motivation during battles by other Greek cities, such as in the victory of Agathocles of Syracuse over the Carthaginians in 310 BC —in which owls flying through the ranks were interpreted as Athena’s blessing— or in the Battle of Salamis, chronicled in Plutarch’s biography of Themistocles.