Owl pendant of Goddess Athena
This silver pendant is derived from the motif of the arguably best-known ancient coin – the Athenian Tetradrachm. On the back side of the pendant, engraved in Greek characters, is an inscription of AΘΕ.

Owls are traditionally associated with wisdom and with the goddess Athena, although crows, rooks and many other common birds are more intelligent. The Ancient Egyptians made a representation of an owl into their hieroglyph for "m", although they would often draw this hieroglyph with its legs broken to keep the bird of prey from coming to life and attacking.

In Japanese culture, the bird is a symbol of death and seeing one is considered a bad omen. The same is true in Romanian culture, where the howling of an owl predicts the death of somebody living in the neighbourhood, as the howling of the owl is likened to a mourning. The Romans considered them funerary birds, for their nocturnal activity and having their nests in inaccessible places, therefore, seeing an owl at daytime was considered a bad omen. Their vampiric strix was in part based on the owl. The taboo surrounding owls in Hopi culture regards them as a dirty and ominous creature.

(Source: WIKIPEDIA)