Meaning & Analysis
To literally transport owls to the city of Athens, an act of utter redundancy, as the city was famously abundant with these birds in ancient times.
Insights
Redundant Effort
The proverb is a metaphor for any redundant, pointless, or superfluous action. It describes an effort that contributes nothing of value because the offering is already in abundant supply.
Ignorance and Folly
The saying criticizes a lack of awareness or foolishness. The person 'bringing owls to Athens' is ignorant of the context, wasting their resources and revealing their naivety by offering something to a place that is its very source.
Wasted Resources
It serves as a critique of misdirected generosity or effort. The proverb suggests that resources, whether material goods, knowledge, or advice, are wasted when given to those who have no need of them.
Classical Allusion and Symbolism
The proverb's meaning is rooted in the classical world, where the Little Owl was the sacred animal of Athena, the patron goddess of Athens. The city's silver coins, known as 'owls', were stamped with the bird's image, symbolizing wisdom and wealth. To bring owls to Athens was therefore not just a redundant act but an almost absurd one, akin to offering wisdom to the goddess of wisdom herself.
Cultural Universality
This proverb is the archetype for a whole category of sayings about superfluous actions, such as 'carrying coals to Newcastle' or 'casting water into the sea'. Its survival from ancient Greece into modern languages illustrates a timeless and universal understanding of wasted effort and the folly of contributing to a surplus.
Psychological Blindness
The act of bringing owls to Athens highlights a specific type of folly: a failure to understand one's audience or environment. It points to a psychological blind spot where an individual, perhaps eager to contribute, fails to assess whether their contribution is actually needed or valued, making the gesture pointless or even arrogant.
Economic Miscalculation
As several historical quotations note, the proverb serves as a potent economic metaphor. It perfectly illustrates the fundamental business error of bringing a product to a saturated market, highlighting a lack of market research and a misunderstanding of supply and demand.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The entire phrase functions as a metaphor, where 'owls' represent any unneeded commodity or idea and 'Athens' represents a place of its abundance.
Historical Allusion
The proverb's power comes from its direct allusion to Classical Greek culture, specifically the relationship between Athens, its patron goddess Athena, and her sacred bird, the owl. This would have been a sign of erudition for centuries.
Irony
A deep situational irony is embedded in the proverb. The owl symbolizes wisdom, yet the act of bringing one to Athens—the ancient world's center of wisdom—is profoundly unwise.
Transcription
Quotations
Noctuas Athenas mittere: In Grammaticall sense: to sende ouer Owles to Athens. In Tropicall sense, ment of such as bestow largely vpon them that haue no neede: and much after that that we say, to cast water into the Tems.
Vlulas Athenas. *A Prouerbe applied to foolish Occupiers, which carrie their wares to sell at such places, as where the same doe abound. As if a man should carrie Mockadoes and woolsteds to be sold at Norwich.
Thy exhortation to those, that knowe twenty for thy one, is as if thou shouldest bring Owles to Athens.
Therefore in vaine for mee to bring owles to Athens, or add water to the large Sea of your rare lerning.
To throw water into the Sea; The English say, to grease a fat sow in the arse, also, to carry coles to New Castle, Owls to Athens, and Pots to Samos.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.