#superb owl

LITTLE OWL

(Detail of Athena with owl and spear on terracotta lekythos (oil flask), attributed to Brygos Painter (c. 490-480 BCE), currently on view at the MET)

In the genus Athene, the Little Owl is also known as the Owl of Athena or Owl of Minerva for its close association with the Greek and Roman goddesses. If you've ever associated owls with wisdom and knowledge, you probably have depictions of these birds to thank.

EAGLE OWL

(Image sourced from Wikipedia and attributed to Johann Ulrich Kraus (1690))

Another from Greek Mythology! In Ovid's Metamorphoses (c. 8 CE) the myth of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades includes the character Ascalaphus, who - to put it crudely and stripped of nuance as with all the other tidbits in this post - tattled on Persephone for eating the pomegranate seeds and in retaliation was transformed into an Eagle Owl. So...snitches get turned into "the vilest bird; a messenger of grief; the lazy owl; sad omen to mankind" (Metamorphoses Book V) I guess.

Vote for the Eagle Owl if you too are a sad omen to mankind!

TAWNY OWL

(Stamp of Bloudeuwedd of the Mabinogion illustrated by Adam Simpson for the British Royal Mail, 2025)

It would seem that owl-transformations are a popular punishment! In the Welsh Mabinogion, Blodeuwedd is transformed into an owl by the magician Gwydion after she attempts to kill her husband Lleu Llaw Gyffes to whom she has been unfaithful. Though a specific type of owl is not given, Tawny Owls are frequently represented in illustrations of this story, including on certain covers of the YA adaptation The Owl Service by Alan Garner (1967).

BARRED OWL

As submitted by @0ryza13 : "met one in my neighborhood a while back and it was pretty chill even when I meowed at it from across the street because I assumed the brown fluffy lump on the ground was a cat until I got a better look 😅"

SCREECH OWL, TAWNY OWL and SCOPS OWL

(Detail from 13thC CE Bestiary, MS Bodley 764, Folio 73v.) 

For every wise owl, mythology is rife with owls who serve as bad omens. Take Isaiah 34:14 for example. While the 2023 JPS translates this verse as:

"Wildcats shall meet hyenas, Goat-demons shall greet each other; There too the lilith shall repose And find herself a resting place."

The Koren Jerusalem Bible translates this same verse as:

"The wild creatures of the desert also meet with the jackals, the scops owl shall cry to his fellow; the tawny owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest."

And the 1611 King James Version reads:

"The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest."

Beyond their association with the complicated and oft demonic figure of Lilith, owls in general are largely maligned in biblical writings. Perhaps most poignantly in the KJV translation of Job 30:29 "I am brother to dragons, and a companion to owls" - that is, the unclean, night drifters who travel the skies in tormenting loneliness (an association strongly bound up with antisemitism).

So, vote for one of these birds if you, too, are a companion to owls.

PYGMY OWL

(Still from The Sword in the Stone (1963)

T.H. White's 1938 novel, The Sword in the Stone (the first of the 5 book Once and Future King series), if not introduced then certainly popularized the idea that the wizard Merlin of the Arthurian legends had a pet owl, in this case named Archimedes and possessing the ability to speak. When Disney adapted the novel into an animated film by the same name, Archimedes took on an image that, while not necessarily canonical, many agree closely resembles a pygmy owl.

SAW-WHET OWL

In the Menominee oral tradition, the story of The Origin of Night and Day features a saw-whet owl as the principle character, Totoba, battling the rabbit Wapus on behalf of the nighttime against the day. In this myth, Totoba repeats the word unitipaqkot (darkness) while Wapus repeats the word wabon (daylight) until Totoba eventually errs and daylight wins.

GREAT HORNED OWL

Does Blathers constitute his own lore? A modern mythology if you will? A special character in Animal Crossing, Blathers is a twenty-something entomophobic paleontologist and director of the game's museum. More importantly, Blathers appears to be a Great Horned Owl. I include Blathers here as a testament that in the post-modern imagination, the wise owl seems to have persisted with greater strength than the owls' associations with death and the punished. When we see owl characters in newer media, we more frequent receive characters who are scholars, or at least comport themselves as scholars - like our friend, Blathers.

BARN OWL

(Goddess Lakshmi (1878-1883), lithograph - West Bengal, Calcutta, currently part of the MET collection)

For the past two years, the Barn Owl has proven the fan favourite, winning the title of Superbest Owl in both 2024 and 2025! The hindu goddess Lakshmi certainly seems to agree! Though the goddess is associated with owls in general - for their knowledge, patience, and as a warning against isolationism and greed for knowledge - her vahana (mount), Uluka, is frequently depicted resembling a Barn Owl.