CHAPTER III.
THE OWL AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS.
AS Jove assumed the shape of an Eagle, so Juno selected that of an Owl, for, as Aldrovandus tells us, it was not decorous that the queen of heaven should take on herself the likeness of any small or vulgar bird, but rather that she should be embodied in one whose reign by night was equal with that of the eagle by day. The owl has usually been regarded as a bird of ill omen, and superstitiously considered a messenger of woe. The Athenians alone among the ancients seem to have been free from this popular prejudice, and to have regarded the owl with veneration rather than abhorrence, considering it as the favourite of Minerva, and the image of wisdom. The Romans viewed the owl with detestation and dread. By them it was held sacred to Proserpine: its appearance foreboded unfortunate events, and, according to Pliny, the city of Rome underwent a solemn lustration in consequence of an owl having accidentally strayed into the Capitol.
ITS USE IN MEDICINE.
In the ancient pharmacopœia, which savoured not a little of magic, the owl appears to have been “great medicine.” Ovid tells us that this bird was used wholesale in the composition of Medea’s gruel:—
“Et strigis infames ipsis cum carnibus alas.”
While, according to Horace, the old witch Canidia made use of the feathers in her incantations:—