<P> As for ancient Roman folklore, owls were considered harbingers of death if they hooted while perched on a roof, and placing one of its feathers near someone sleeping could prompt him or her to speak and reveal their secrets . </P> <P> The 19th - century idealist philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel famously noted that "the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk"--meaning that philosophy comes to understand a historical condition just as it passes away . Philosophy appears only in the "maturity of reality," because it understands in hindsight . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready . History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom . When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known . The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3">--G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1820), "Preface" </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready . History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom . When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known . The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr>

What is the significance of the owl in clash of the titans