Painting on pottery, signed by the Amasis painter, dating to about 540 B.C., from Athens, now in the Louvre Museum. The scene represents Heracles’ admission to the Olympus: in the foreground are the gods Poseidon, Hermes and Athena, while at the far right the figure of Heracles can be foreseen. The goddess Athena brings a shield on which is represented an owl, bird sacred to her. Athena is often called with the epithet Glaukópis (e.g. in Iliad, I, 206), with the meaning of “with blue or bright eyes”, but which could also signify “with owl-eyes”, because the bird is called in Greek glaux (“bright”, the “bird with glaring eyes”). The owl could assume various meanings: if on the one hand it was an emblem of knowledge and wisdom, on the other hand it represented the darkness and death. It is possible that the image of Athena could originate from an ancient female deity of death and regeneration, which was represented as a bird-woman since Neolithic times. In the imaginary of the Christian era, this figure was demonized and transformed into the fearful image of the witch (that in the Medieval Latin was called stria or striga, a name derived from the Latin strix, a nocturnal and dangerous bird which was regarded as a bad omen).

[Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herakles_Olympos_Louvre_F30.jpg]