OWL IN A LECTURE ROOM 61 



they filed into and out of the room, or as they 

 came up to say their Greek repetition, or to write 

 on the blackboard immediately below her. And, 

 just as Athena herself in the Odyssey, when she had 

 assumed some disguise, in order that she might the 

 better prompt or protect her favourite in his hour 

 of need, suddenly flew away when her work was 

 accomplished, and, by the act, revealed her true 

 character to the astonished Ulysses,* so now, when 

 the lectures were over, the bird of Athena, as 

 though her mission was completed, vanished, 

 like her prototype, through the window or up the 

 chimney, leaving those who had watched her with 

 the impression that they had witnessed, if not 

 exactly a miracle, something that was next door to 

 it ; at all events, a sight such as they had never 

 seen before, and they would, certainly, never see 

 again. Before she disappeared, one of Dr 

 Cooper's brother- Professors had time to take a 

 photograph, which is in my possession, of the Bird 

 of Pallas on her self-chosen throne ; while another, 

 a little later on, wrote an ode in her honour, which 



* opvt,s 8* <5s 



The word ai/orrcua, found only here, has been explained 

 by the commentators to mean either a kind of "eagle," or 

 "unnoticed" like a bird, or " up through the smokehole" in 

 the middle of the roof, dv oT 



