Old SymbolsWhere every symbol began

Plate 1 A goddess in a helmet holding a spear, her shield bearing an owl

Athena

Athena’s symbol is the owl, her sacred bird, which Athens stamped on its coins. In art she is the armed goddess, with helmet, spear and shield and the aegis bearing the Gorgon’s head; the olive tree, her gift to Athens, was sacred to her too.

Greek gods and their symbols. Also called athena owl, athena symbol, athena symbols, owl of athena, symbol of athena.

Meaning

Athena was the wise, armed goddess of the Greeks and the patron goddess of Athens. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes her as typically appearing in full armour with her aegis, “a goatskin with a snaky fringe”, her helmet and her spear, and as the patroness of weaving and carpentry, to whom the owl and the olive tree were sacred. Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849) lists the owl, the serpent, the cock and the olive among the things sacred to her, and the attributes that identify her in statues, reliefs, coins and vase paintings: the helmet, the aegis, a round shield with the head of Medusa at its centre, and an olive branch, a serpent, an owl, a cock or a lance. Smith follows her worship into Italy, where she was Minerva. Athena is honoured today in the Hellenic religion of the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes, which the Greek state recognised as a known religion in 2017.

Origin and history

Athena was born armed. The Homeric Hymn to Athena tells how Zeus bore her “from his awful head, arrayed in warlike arms of flashing gold”, and how she sprang out before him “shaking a sharp spear”, so that Olympus reeled and the sea was tossed with dark waves until she took the armour off. In the Iliad she arms for battle: she throws the tasselled aegis about her shoulders, with Rout, Strife, Valour and Onset on it and in the middle “the head of the dread monster, the Gorgon”, sets a golden helmet on her head and takes up her heavy spear.

The olive came from a contest. Apollodorus tells how Poseidon struck the Acropolis with his trident and produced a sea, and Athena planted an olive tree; the gods gave Attica to Athena because she had planted first, and she named the city Athens after herself. Herodotus saw the olive and the pool of salt water in the shrine of Erechtheus on the Acropolis. The invaders under Xerxes burned the tree with the rest of the precinct, he writes, but the next day the Athenians found a shoot about a cubit long growing from the stump.

Why is the owl Athena’s bird?

The Acropolis Museum’s answer is that the owl was “a symbol of wisdom and prudence” because of its remarkable sight at night, and that it was also believed to protect the army in war and to foretell victory when it flew over the soldiers before a battle. The Athenians put it on their silver coins, minted from silver quarried at Laurion, and the coins were known as glaukes, “owls”. A tetradrachm from the hoard found on the Acropolis in 1886 shows the pattern: Athena’s helmeted head on one side and on the other an owl turned to the right with its head facing out, beside the letters ΑΘΕ, “of the Athenians”. Vase painters kept the owl at her side too. A lekythos in the Met painted by the Brygos Painter about 490–480 BC shows Athena holding her spear and helmet, with an owl at the left. The owl has its own page, with its very different reputation in Roman and later folk belief.

The Athena Parthenos

The most famous image of Athena was the gold and ivory statue Pheidias made for the Parthenon, about 12 metres tall, the National Archaeological Museum in Athens says; it is lost, and the museum has a small Roman version in marble. Pausanias saw the original. A sphinx sat in the middle of her helmet with griffins on either side. She stood upright in a tunic reaching to her feet, with the head of Medusa worked in ivory on her breast, a Victory about four cubits high in one hand and a spear in the other. A shield lay at her feet, and near the spear was a serpent, which Pausanias took to be Erichthonius.

Ares or Athena?

Both are armed gods with helmet, spear and shield, so armour alone does not settle it. In Smith’s account Athena stands for thoughtfulness and wisdom in war and Ares for its tumult. Her marks are the aegis with the Gorgon’s head, the owl and the olive, which Ares never has.

The owl on the euro

The owl is still Athena’s coin. The European Central Bank notes that the owl on Greece’s one-euro coin was copied from an ancient Athenian four-drachma coin of the fifth century BC.

See also

Poseidon, Medusa, Goddesses of war, Ares, Zeus, Hera.

Sources

  1. Greek Gods and Religious Practices (Colette and Seán Hemingway, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Colette Hemingway and Seán Hemingway, “Greek Gods and Religious Practices”, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2003), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, essay text
  2. Athena (William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology), William Smith (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. “Athena”, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, entry text
  3. Ares (William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology), William Smith (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. “Ares”, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, entry text
  4. Homeric Hymn 28, To Athena 1–16 (tr. Evelyn-White), The Homeric Hymns, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), Homeric Hymn 28, To Athena, lines 1–16, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, lines 1–16
  5. Iliad 5.733–747 (Homer, tr. A. T. Murray), Homer, The Iliad, translated by A. T. Murray (1924), 5.733–747, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 5, lines 733–747
  6. Library 3.14.1 (Apollodorus, tr. J. G. Frazer), Apollodorus, The Library, translated by Sir James George Frazer (1921), 3.14.1, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 3, chapter 14, section 1
  7. Histories 8.55 (Herodotus, tr. A. D. Godley), Herodotus, The Histories, translated by A. D. Godley (1920), 8.55, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 8, chapter 55
  8. Owl figurine (Acropolis Museum), Acropolis Museum, collection entry “Owl figurine”, Acropolis Museum, description
  9. Athenian tetradrachm (Acropolis Museum), Acropolis Museum, collection entry, from the Acropolis hoard of 1886, Acropolis Museum, description
  10. Terracotta lekythos (oil flask), attributed to the Brygos Painter (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection entry “Terracotta lekythos (oil flask), attributed to the Brygos Painter”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object description
  11. Description of Greece 1.24.5 (Pausanias, tr. Jones and Ormerod), Pausanias, Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod (1918), 1.24.5, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 1, chapter 24, section 5
  12. Description of Greece 1.24.7 (Pausanias, tr. Jones and Ormerod), Pausanias, Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod (1918), 1.24.7, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 1, chapter 24, section 7
  13. Classical Period (National Archaeological Museum, Athens), National Archaeological Museum, Athens, collection guide “Classical Period”, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, collection guide text
  14. Greece: national sides of euro coins (European Central Bank), European Central Bank, “Greece”, euro coins, national sides, European Central Bank, €2 and €1 entries
  15. What is the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE)? (YSEE, frequently asked questions), Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE), “Frequently asked questions”, Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE), first and second answers

The same shape elsewhere

Browse symbols formed from circles or lines.

Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 8, 2026. How we research

Added .

Report a problem

Please don’t include personal details.