Good or evil?: How owls have been depicted in folklore and history

That owls are familiar Harry Potter icons is just the latest incarnation of a human fascination with owls that predates recorded history.

In particular, a depiction of either a Eurasian eagle owl or long-eared owl, drawn with ear tufts and its head turned 180 degrees, was discovered in a French cave. This owl motif dates back approximately 36,000 years.

One of the oldest illustrations of a bird that can be identified to species shows a pair of snowy owls, with an owlet, that was scratched on a wall in another French cave at least 20,000 years ago.

Remember, at the time, France was within the range of these Arctic owls. Because these caves were used by early humans as sanctuaries, it is believed that these birds symbolized religious or magical powers.

Middle East and European Icons

The powers of these various cave owls probably included warning humans of an impending death. The owl’s association with doom can be traced back to the Mesopotamian goddess of death, Lilith. For instance, a Sumerian tablet from 2,300-2,000 B.C. depicts Lilith with wings and talons in place of toes, surrounded by her owl entourage.

It is likely that these ancient Middle East beliefs influenced the early Greeks, because the owl became the symbol of Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare. Athenians believed their warrior goddess would sometimes help them on the battlefield. In the battle of Marathon against the Persians, the Athenians believed Athena assumed the form of an owl and led them to victory from overhead.

Shakespeare and Christianity

During the Middle Ages, the early Christian church saw the owl as the perfect symbol of evil. After all, it is a creature of darkness, makes a haunting sound, and perches upright, not unlike a standing human. To top it off, an owl stares at you with two piercing yellow eyes that are arranged, much like ours, on the front of its head. What a perfect little demon!

Want proof? In the 1608 witch-hunters manual “Compendium Maleficarium,” Italian friar Francesco Guazzo wrote that any sighting of owls — along with goats and women — was a manifestation of evil.

Shakespeare also often used the owl as a bird of ill-omen. In “Macbeth,” for example, at the moment her husband is about to kill King Duncan, Lady Macbeth speaks the following:

It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman,

Which gives the stern’st good-night …

I heard the owl shrieking and the crickets cry. — Macbeth, Act II, Scene 2

North America

On this side of the Atlantic, the owl was viewed as a harbinger of death as well. According to a tribal elder of the Oto-Missouri tribe: The owl is the one that gives the death warning. The owl that’s got the horns, they are the ones that warn you. … Hear them in the distance, it never fails, never fails, death is close.

It should not be surprising to learn that, here in Illinois, owl bones have been found as grave offerings in sites of the prehistoric Mississippian culture.

Some Sierra tribes of California believed that the great horned owl, one of those “that’s got the horns,” seized the souls of the dead and transported them to the other world. Also from the West Coast, the Newuk Indians believed that the virtuous among them became great horned owls while the wicked were cursed to become barn owls.

Much as Athena’s owl did at Marathon, a Pima Chief describes how an owl aided his tribe against the Apaches:

… (the owl) looked about and saw my plan … He cut the power of the enemy, their springs, their trees, their dreams. … He bit off their flesh and sinews, and made holes in their bones …

Elsewhere in the West, the burrowing owl was a cause for concern. Since it nests in old prairie dog burrows, this owl is, in a literal sense, of the underworld.

The association of the burrowing owl with doom was made by the Hopi Indians, who identified this bird with their god of the dead, Masau’u. However, being this god’s symbol was not necessarily a bad thing. Masau’u’s realm included all things under the ground. So, the burrowing owl’s deity was also in charge of germinating seeds and growing crops. All in all, the owl was smiled upon by the Hopi.

What is La Lechuza?

Recently, I discovered this fantastic story that would have made a perfect “The X Files” episode. Like many centuries-old legends, descriptions of La Lechuza are inconsistent, with only a few similarities from one version to another. However, the widely accepted understanding of La Lechuza describes the figure as a large owl, roughly seven feet tall, with a wingspan of 15 feet and an old woman’s face.

Stories of La Lechuza are prominent in some regions of Mexico and Texas. In one version, La Lechuza was a white owl possessed by a witch. Elsewhere, however, La Lechuza takes the form of a woman during the day and an owl at night.

One variation of the tale says La Lechuza’s child was killed by a drunk man, and that she exacts her revenge by preying on drunks who stumble out of local bars.

Anyone La Lechuza touches, even if it is just one feather from its wings, dies. Dreaming about the witch-owl means a family member will soon expire.

Heads or tails?

So, is an owl an evil or beneficial talisman? I suggest we flip a coin to decide. In particular, it should be a Greek coin from 490 B.C. with the goddess Athena on one side and a little owl (Athene noctua) on the other.

Mark Spreyer is the executive director of the Stillman Nature Center. Email him at stillmangho@gmail.com.