That givest the stern’st good night.
Chaucer speaks of the screech owl as
The prophet of woe and of mischance,
while Spencer alludes to—
The whistler shrill, that whoso hears doth die.
Roman soothsayers were accustomed to use owls’ feathers in their incantations. In many places its note is still considered a sure sign of impending death. In Borneo, it is said, that if a person on entering a forest hears the voice of an owl, he will at once return. The Mexicans, Indians and Basque shepherds regard the monkey-faced owl as an omen of ill-luck.
There is a story that Agrippa was so superstitious that when he beheld an owl perched over him on the occasion when the people shouted, “It is not the voice of a man, but of a God!” that he felt assured of the speedy death which followed.
But, on the other hand, instead of a prophet of evil, legend has it that the owl is the “bird of wisdom.” It was certainly consecrated to the service of Pallas Athene by the wise Greeks, whether on account of a certain air of intelligence, or because the goddess was herself the moon and therefore a nocturnal bird would be especially appropriate, we may never know.
There is a story to the effect that on one occasion, when an emblem of wisdom was to be chosen, all the contestants for the honor were finally eliminated except the Philosopher and the Owl. When the arguments in favor of the Philosopher had been duly considered, the Owl lifted up his voice and hooted: “I do not profess to embody all knowledge, but I have that which is better. I possess the art of concealing my ignorance.” Whereupon the judges, delighted with the idea, unanimously elected him as the better emblem of wisdom!
Many ancient customs had their origin in Egypt. The Egyptian wise men told the most learned of the Greeks that in knowledge they were but children compared with themselves. The superstitions regarding the owl may have arisen on the banks of the Nile, from a custom of the king of the country, who, whenever the death of a person was decided upon, sent to such individual the image of an owl, whereupon the unfortunate one was expected to kill himself at once. Small wonder the owl became in time a bird of ill-omen.