Dana Seibert, age 10, of Pittsburgh, Pa.,for her question:

WHY DO WE SAY THAT AN OWL IS WISE?

Certainly an owl looks like a wise old bird. And like most sensible folk, he does not do a lot of silly chattering. Maybe this is the one and only reason why we call him a wise bird. He just happens to look like a wide eyed scholar. However, this may not be the whole story.

It is possible that the owl got his wise reputation in the days of ancient Greece and Rome. At that time, people worshiped an assortment of gods and goddesses. The goddess of wisdom was supposed to be a gray eyed lady named Pallas Athena. And her favorite bird was the owl.  When people thought of owl, they also remembered the wisdom of Pallas Athena. Perhaps they also felt that she taught some of her wisdom to this wide eyed bird with the pussycat face.