5.0755 Rs: Owls, Bats, and Other Beasties (6/78)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 10 Mar 1992 20:10:43 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0755. Tuesday, 10 Mar 1992.


(1) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 09:59:12 CST (22 lines)
From: (James Marchand) <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Minerva's owls

(2) Date: Mon, 09 Mar 92 20:28:58 CST (15 lines)
From: Oliver Phillips <PHILLIPS@UKANVM>
Subject: Re: Minerva's owl

(3) Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1992 18:22 MST (14 lines)
From: OCRAMER@CCNODE.Colorado.EDU
Subject: Re: 5.0753 Misc. Queries (8/133)

(4) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 02:18 GMT +0100 (8 lines)
From: J%org Knappen <KNAPPEN@VKPMZD.KPH.Uni-Mainz.de>
Subject: Re: 5.0753 Misc. Queries (8/133)

(5) Date: Mon, 9 Mar 92 20:30:37 CST (7 lines)
From: (James Marchand) <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Batman in Greek

(6) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 15:39:20 EST (12 lines)
From: dthel@conncoll.bitnet
Subject: Bat-man

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 09:59:12 CST
From: (James Marchand) <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Minerva's owls

Larry Stepelevich is looking for the origin of Hegel's expression: The Owl
of Minerva. Minerva was early equated with Athena; cf. F. Altheim, "Athe-
na und Minerva", in his Roemische Religionsgeschichte, I (Berlin-Leipzig,
1931), 190-220. Athena (cf. name) was the matron goddess of Athens, and
Athens was the city of the owl. In German (we get it from Aristophanes),
one says for "carrying coals to Newcastle," or "gloves to Grenoble", "Eulen
nach Athen tragen" (to carry owls to Athens), since the Acropolis was full
of them. Since Minerva then became the goddess of wisdom, we associate
wisdom with owls, etc. On all this, see A. B. Cook, "The Owl of Athens"
in his Zeus. A Study in Ancient Religion, vol. 3 (Cambridge, 1940), 776-
836. In my youth I read a lot of Hegel, but I am not familiar with this
particular passage. Since the owl in Germany is often equated with sneering
at other birds, Minervas Eule for some romantics had a negative connotation
of dry book-learning, Philistinism and the like, in spite of its usual
good connotation. Everything can be taken either in bonam or in malam
partem, e.g. the lion can be Christ (Lion of Juda) or Satan (goes roaring
about seeking whom he may devour).
Jim Marchand
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 92 20:28:58 CST
From: Oliver Phillips <PHILLIPS@UKANVM>
Subject: Re: Minerva's owl

Lawrence Stepelevich asks about Hegel's use of the term "Minerva's
Owl." Following an older practice, Hegel uses the Roman name. Now
we'd say "Athena's owl." The owl was the emblem of the goddess at
Athens, probably from the little rock owls nesting in chinks on the
Acropolis. The little animal appears charmingly on the fine coinage
of the ancient city and the modern bird gets its reputation for wisdom
entirely from its association with Athena.

Oliver Phillips
Classics, U. of Kansas
PHILLIPS@UKANVM.BITNET
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------24----
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1992 18:22 MST
From: OCRAMER@CCNODE.Colorado.EDU
Subject: Re: 5.0753 Misc. Queries (8/133)

Nykteridandrist or nycteridandrist would be a Bat-man; Minerva's owl is
at least as old as the Homeric epithet _glaukopis_ for Athena, meaning both
owl-faced and grey-eyed, since the adj. _glaukos_ could be "gray" but the
_glaux_ is an owl. Athenian coins commonly carried Athena's face on one
side and an owl on the other, along with an olive branch and the letters
Alpha Theta E, presumably various signs of her presence. The owl, along
with the night heron which appears in Iliad book 10 as a sign of Athena, do
fly and hunt at night, a sign of perspicacity perhaps but also in Hegel's
aphorism of the kind of wisdom that comes from full experience of the day's
creativity etc.
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 02:18 GMT +0100
From: J%org Knappen <KNAPPEN@VKPMZD.KPH.Uni-Mainz.de>
Subject: Re: 5.0753 Misc. Queries (8/133)

Re: ,,Der liebe Gott steckt im Detail''

This aphorism goes back to Aby Warburg, at least this was stated in the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) one week ago. -- JK
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 92 20:30:37 CST
From: (James Marchand) <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Batman in Greek

In keeping with mysandrist, which cannot mean mouse-man, and in answer to
5.0753, the Greek for batman is ropaloandrist.
Jim Marchand
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 15:39:20 EST
From: dthel@conncoll.bitnet
Subject: Bat-man

It's a sure sign of the need for spring break when (a) the question is asked
and (b) I answer it. To wit, a suitable term for "Bat-man" would be the
beastly sounding "nykteridandrist", at least by my best guess. Or like
Chaerephon in Aristophanes'
Clouds, one could be straight-away called simply "the bat" (nykteris).Perhaps
he is the one to whom Thomas Nagel should have addressed his well known
essay "What is it like to be a bat?" (Philosophical Rev.1974).Dirk Held,
Connecticut College.