Owl symbolism
The bird of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, stamped on the coins of Athens, and in Hindu art the vahana, or animal vehicle, of the goddess Lakshmi. In Roman and English belief, and in Cherokee and North Carolina folk belief as it was recorded, its cry at night was a warning of death or evil.
Meaning
The owl has two reputations. The US Fish and Wildlife Service sums them up: in Greek mythology the owl was the symbol of Athena, goddess of wisdom, while the ancient Romans believed an owl could announce a coming death. Athens put Athena’s owl on its coins. Almost all the folk belief recorded since, in England, among the Cherokee and in North Carolina, follows the Roman side and treats an owl’s cry as an omen. The owl as a Halloween bird, with most of the English omen lore gathered by John Brand, such as Chaucer’s “The oule eke, that of deth the bode bringeth”, is on its own page; this page covers the rest of its history.
Origin and history
Athens put its goddess’s owl on its coins. On the Athenian tetradrachm in the Acropolis Museum, part of a hoard found on the Acropolis in 1886, Athena’s helmeted head is on one side, and on the other an owl stands turned to the right with its head facing forward, beside the letters ΑΘΕ, short for “of the Athenians”.
Lakshmi’s owl in Hindu art
In Hindu iconography the owl is the vahana, or vehicle, of the goddess Lakshmi. The Philadelphia Museum of Art holds a twentieth-century painting titled The Goddess Lakshmi on her Owl Vehicle (Vahana), and the Victoria and Albert Museum a painting of Lakshmi with her owl made in Kalighat, Kolkata, around 1885.
Owls in Cherokee belief
James Mooney, collecting among the Cherokee between 1887 and 1890, recorded three owls by name: tskili’, the dusky horned owl, whose name “signifies a witch”, and the barred and screech owls, named for their calls. “Owls and other night-crying birds are believed to be embodied ghosts or disguised witches, and their cry is dreaded as a sound of evil omen.” He also records a use for an owl feather found by chance: water in which it has been soaked, bathed on a child’s eyes, lets the child stay awake all night.
Owl omens in North Carolina
The editors of the Frank C. Brown collection of North Carolina folklore name the owl, with the squirrel, the snake and the spider, among the wild animals best represented in the state’s folk belief. Its death omens are blunt: “Someone dies every time an owl hoots”; “Screech owls can see death”; and, as a warning against harming one, “Death to him that shoots an owl.”
What does it mean to see an owl at night?
In every older record on this page, an owl heard or seen at night is a warning, of death in North Carolina and Rome, of ghosts or witches among the Cherokee. The gentler meanings now given online for seeing an owl could not be traced to any tradition or earlier writer.
Related birds
The Raven symbolism and the Crow symbolism share the owl’s place in English and American omen lore. The owl’s Halloween meaning is on the Halloween owl page.
See also
Cat symbolism, Owl, Raven symbolism, Crow symbolism, Cardinal symbolism, Hummingbird symbolism.
Sources
- Wings, Whiskers, and Webs (US Fish and Wildlife Service, 2025), US Fish and Wildlife Service, story, September 2025, US Fish and Wildlife Service, section on owls
- Athenian tetradrachm (Acropolis Museum), Acropolis Museum, collection entry, from the Acropolis hoard of 1886, Acropolis Museum
- Lakshmi (Victoria and Albert Museum, Kalighat painting), Victoria and Albert Museum, Explore the Collections, painting from Kalighat, Kolkata, Victoria and Albert Museum
- The Goddess Lakshmi on her Owl Vehicle (Vahana) (Philadelphia Museum of Art), Philadelphia Museum of Art, collection entry, 20th century, Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Myths of the Cherokee (James Mooney, 1900), James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, part 1, Project Gutenberg, Introduction; notes on bird lore
- Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 3 (John Brand, ed. Henry Ellis, 1853), John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, arranged and revised by Sir Henry Ellis, vol. 3 (London: Bohn, 1853), Internet Archive (University of Toronto copy), The Owl, pp. 206-208
- The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, vol. 6 (Popular Beliefs and Superstitions, part 1), Newman Ivey White (general editor), The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, vol. 6: Popular Beliefs and Superstitions from North Carolina, edited by Wayland D. Hand (Durham: Duke University Press), Internet Archive (Duke University Library copy), Introduction
- The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, vol. 7 (Wayland D. Hand, ed., 1964), Popular Beliefs and Superstitions from North Carolina, part 2, ed. Wayland D. Hand (Durham: Duke University Press, 1964), Internet Archive (Duke University Library copy), Nos. 5305, 5314, 5315
Browse symbols formed from circles or curves and waves.
Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research