to bring owls to Athens

9.9

Give something unnecessary to people who already have enough

idiom

Archaic

: llevar lechuzas a Atenas

Giving grammar tips to a linguistics professor is like bringing owls to Athens.

Examples

She realized she was bringing owls to Athens by explaining basic computer skills to the IT team.
You're bringing owls to Athens if you bring more dessert; we already have plenty.
Don't bring owls to Athens by suggesting we buy more supplies!
It's pointless to bring owls to Athens when we already have everything we need.
Giving grammar tips to a linguistics professor is like bringing owls to Athens.
You're bringing owls to Athens if you bring more dessert; we already have plenty.
It's pointless to bring owls to Athens when we already have everything we need.

Synonyms

to carry coals to Newcastle

vsto bring owls to Athens

9.5

To do something not needed because there is already plenty of it

is the same idea but uses a classical city reference

Surface Forms

bring owls to Athens infinitive

bringing owls to Athens present participle

brings owls to Athens third person singular

brought owls to Athens past

brought owls to Athens past participle

Morphology

bring + owls + to + Athens

The literal words 'bring', 'owls', and 'Athens' do not transparently combine to mean 'do something superfluous' — the idiomatic sense depends on cultural/historical knowledge that Athens already 'has' owls (a classical association). This is a culture-specific proverb (like 'carry coals to Newcastle') and therefore a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the idiomatic meaning without prior exposure.

Etymology

The saying bring owls to Athens comes from old Greece, where the bird owl was the sign of the city Athens and was already everywhere, so giving more owls was pointless. So to 'bring owls to Athens' means to do something 'unnecessary' or offer something people already have.