Owls

Last night, while I was paging through one of those time-wasting websites with adorable pictures, I stumbled across a photo of a baby owl.  I recently discovered (through an almost embarrassing reaction to a bronze figurine) that owls are my favorite animals.  I think they are graceful, beautiful birds, and their association with wisdom appeals to me.

As I am learning, though, there are other legends about owls that don’t always match our first impression.  My guess is that the wisdom symbolism comes from Roman tradition, where the goddess Athena kept an owl with her at all times.  But Athena was also a war goddess, and so it makes sense that she would choose an owl as her companion.  They are hunters, just as fierce as hawks and falcons are in the daylight hours. 

Here are some other myths about owls I discovered:

From Algeria: if you put the right eye of an Eagle Owl into a sleeping woman’s hand, she will speak all her secrets.

From South Africa: the owl is the sorcerer’s bird, according to the Zulus.  Someone must have told J.K. Rowling, at least.

The Arctic Circle and Burma have stories trying to explain the owl’s flat face.  These stories usually involve an impact of some kind.

From Arabia: two good ones here.  They say that the death-owl (al Sada) would hoot ceaselessly over the grave of a man whose death had not been avenged.  Additionally, every female owl has two eggs: one which can cause hair loss, and the other which can restore it.  I envision men testing this out and have a good chuckle.

Celtic tradition says that the owl is a sign of the underworld.

From Indonesia: Owls here are called Burung Manguni and are considered very wise.  Certain peoples listen for the call of the Manguni to tell whether it’s safe to go somewhere, and they follow the advice they are given.

From Jamaica: the owl brings bad luck, but may be warded off by saying, “Salt and pepper for your mammy.”

From Mexico: the cold North wind is made by the owl, while the warmer south wind is made by the butterfly.

From Poland: girls who die unmarried turn into doves, while girls who die after marriage turn into owls.  I think this is an appropriate metaphor.

From Spain: until it saw Jesus crucified, the owl was a beautiful singer.  Ever since then, though, it shuns daylight and says only “cruz, cruz” (cross, cross).

From the U.S., apparently, though I’ve never heard of this: if you hear an owl’s cry, you must either return it, or take off an item of clothing and put it back on inside out.

From Wales: a woman made of flowers, named Bloduedd, betrayed her creator, and so he turned her into an owl.  This story is better than I describe it here.

These were taken from The Owl Pages, under the owl mythology section.  There are many others.  (http://www.owlpages.com/)

Why am I raving about owls?  Well, I find it interesting that one creature can inspire so much superstition.  I like the idea of wisdom having such a fierce bite.  And this morning, that baby owl was staring at me from my desktop, kicking off my thought process.