Word.ws English Dictionary

bring owls to Athens

/bɹɪŋ ˈaʊlz tu ˈæ.θɪnz/

bring owls to Athens verb: to undertake a pointless venture, one that is redundant, unnecessary, superfluous, or highly uneconomical.

Verb

bring owls to Athens (third-person singular simple present brings owls to Athens, present participle bringing owls to Athens, simple past and past participle brought owls to Athens)

  1. (idiomatic) To undertake a pointless venture, one that is redundant, unnecessary, superfluous, or highly uneconomical.
    • Euelpides: Who brings owls to Athens?414 BCE, Aristophanes, Ian C. Johnston (translator into English), The Birds
    • Forgive me, then, for bringing owls to Athens as a thanks-offering.1832 March 17, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Louis H. Gray (translator into English), Letter to Wilhelm von Humboldt

bring owls to Athens meaning in Bengali

bring owls to Athens in Bengali

অত্যন্ত অলাভজনক

Synonyms of bring owls to Athens

Forms of bring owls to Athens

third-person singular presentbrings owls to Athens
present participlebringing owls to Athens
past participlebrought owls to Athens
pastbrought owls to Athens
alternative formcarry owls to Athens

Origin of bring owls to Athens

Calque from Ancient Greek proverb γλαῦκ’ εἰς Ἀθήνας (glaûk’ eis Athḗnas). The owl, which roosted in the rafters of the old Parthenon (the one burnt by Xerxes I), was the symbol of the city of Athens, and was sacred to its patron goddess, Athena. It was featured on Athens’ silver coins, and as Athens both mined its own silver and minted its own coins, bringing owls (either the real birds, or the coins) to Athens would be pointless.

Questions about bring owls to Athens

What does bring owls to Athens mean?
Bring owls to Athens means to undertake a pointless venture, one that is redundant, unnecessary, superfluous, or highly uneconomical.
What is bring owls to Athens in Bengali?
Bring owls to Athens in Bengali is অত্যন্ত অলাভজনক. See Bring owls to Athens meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is bring owls to Athens?
Bring owls to Athens is a verb.
How do you pronounce bring owls to Athens?
Bring owls to Athens is pronounced /bɹɪŋ ˈaʊlz tu ˈæ.θɪnz/.
What is the past tense of bring owls to Athens?
The past tense of bring owls to Athens is brought owls to Athens.

Words near bring owls to Athens in the dictionary

  1. bring out
  2. bring out in a rash
  3. bring out of oneself
  4. bring out of the woodwork
  5. bring over
  6. bring owls to Athens
  7. Bring radical
  8. Bring radicals
  9. bring round
  10. bring sand to the beach
  11. bring someone to their knees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bring owls to Athens (page history and authors); bring owls to Athens (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bring owls to Athens.ogg, en-au-bring owls to Athens.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bring owls to Athens.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bring_owls_to_athens. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.