Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art Part 20

The Sea-horse of the North, or walrus--the _Rossmareus_ or _Morse_ of the Scandinavians, the _Trichecus rosmarus_ of science, is fifteen or twenty feet long, or even longer, and armed with huge canine teeth, sometimes measuring thirty inches in length--tusks which furnish no small amount of our commercial ivory. Many are the thrilling stories of the chase of these great sea-horses, for the walrus fights for his life as determinedly as any animal hunted by man. The walrus has had the honour a.s.signed to it also of being the original of the mermaid, and Scoresby says the front part of the head of a young one without tusks might easily be taken at a little distance for a human face, especially as it has a habit of raising its head straight out of the water to look at pa.s.sing ships.

The manatee, or sea-cow, found on the tropical coasts and streams of Africa and America, is called by the Portuguese and Spaniards the "woman-fish," from its supposed close resemblance. Its English name comes from the flipper resembling a human hand--_ma.n.u.s_--with which it holds its young to its breast. One of this species, which died at the Royal Aquarium in 1878, was as unlike the typical mermaid as one could possibly imagine, giving one a very startling idea of the difference between romance and reality; but if it was observed in its native haunts, and seen at some little distance, and then only by glimpses, it might possibly, as some have a.s.serted, present a very striking resemblance to the human form.

Sir James Emerson Tennent, speaking of the _Dugong_, an herbivorous cetacean, says its head has a rude approach to the human outline, and the mother while suckling her young holds it to her breast with one flipper, as a woman holds an infant in her arm; if disturbed she suddenly dives under water and throws up her fish-like tail. It is this creature, he says, which has probably given rise to the tales about mermaids.

Seals differ from all other animals in having the toes of the feet included almost to the end in a common integument, converting them into broad fins armed with strong non-retractile claws. Of the many varieties of the seal family, from Kamchatka comes the noisy "SEA-LION" (_Otaria jubata_), so called from his curious mane. In the same neighbourhood we get the "SEA-LEOPARD" (_Leptonyx weddellii_), and the "SEA-BEAR" (the _Etocephalus ursinus_), whose larger and better-developed limbs enable him to stand and walk on sh.o.r.e. But the most important of the seals, in a commercial sense, are the "HARP SEAL" (_Phoca Graenlandica_) and the COMMON SEAL, or "SEA-DOG" (_Phoca vitulina_), which yield the skins so valuable to the furrier. There are several other species, of which the most known are the CRESTED SEAL, or _Neistsersoak_ (_Stemmatopus cristatus_), and the BEARDED SEAL (_Phoca barbata_).

Apart from the seal having possibly given rise to legends of the mermaid, it has a distinguished position in superst.i.tion and mythology on its own account. In Shetland it is the "haff-fish," or selkie, a fallen spirit.

Evil is sure to follow the unfortunate destroyer of one of these creatures. In the Faroe Islands there is a superst.i.tion that the seals cast off their skins every ninth night and appear as mortals, dancing until daybreak on the sands. Sometimes they are induced to marry, but if ever they recover their skins they betake themselves again to the water.

Stephen of Byzantium relates that the ships of certain Greek colonists were on their expeditions followed by an immense number of seals, and it was probably on this account that the city they founded in Asia received the name of Phocea, from f??? (_Phoke_), the Greek name of a seal, and they also adopted that animal as the type or badge of the city upon their coinage. The gold pieces of the Phoceans were well known among the Greek States, and are frequently referred to by ancient writers. "Thus from a single coin," says Noel Humphreys,[29] "we obtain the corroboration of the legend of the swarm of seals, of the remote epoch of the emigration in question, the coin being evidently of the earliest period, most probably of the middle of the seventh century before the Christian era."

Luigi (+ 1598), brother to the Duke of Mantua, had for device a seal asleep upon a rock in a troubled sea, with the motto: "Sic quiesco" ("So rest I"). The seal, say the ancient writers, is never struck by lightning.

The Emperor Augustus always wore a belt of seal-skin. "There is no living creature sleepeth more soundly," says Pliny,[30] "therefore when storms arise and the sea is rough the seal goes upon the rocks where it sleeps in safety unconscious of the storm."

The poet Spenser embodies many of the conceptions of his time in the description of the crowning adventures of the Knight Guyon. He here refers to "great sea monsters of all ugly shapes and horrible aspects" "such as Dame Nature's self might fear to see."

"Spring-headed hydras, and sea-shouldering whales; Great whirlpools, which all fishes make to flee; Bright scolopendras arm'd with silver scales; Mighty monoceroses with unmeasured tails;

The dreadful fish that hath deserved the name Of death, and like him looks in dreadful hue; The grisly wa.s.serman, that makes his game The flying ships with swiftness to pursue;

The horrible sea-satyr that doth shew His fearful face in time of greatest storm; Huge Ziffius, whom mariners eschew No less than rocks, as travellers inform; And greedy rose-marines with visages deform; All these, and thousand thousand many more And more deformed monsters, thousandfold."

_Faerie Queen_, Book ii. cant. xii.

The early heralds took little account of these dreadful creatures--more easily imagined by fearful mariners or by poets than depicted by artists from their vague descriptions. The most imaginative of the tribe rarely ventured beyond such representations of marine monsters as appealed strongly and clearly to the universal sense of mankind--compounds of marine and land animals--either from a belief in the existence of such creatures, or because they used them as emblems or types of qualities, combining for this purpose the attributes of certain inhabitants of the sea with those of the land or of the air to form the appropriate symbol.

In modern heraldry such bearings are usually adopted with special allusion to actions performed at sea, or they have reference in some way to the name or designation of the bearer, and hence termed allusive or canting heraldry. Some maritime towns bear nautical devices of the fict.i.tious kind referred to. For instance, the City of Liverpool has for supporters Neptune with his trident, and a Triton with his horn. Cambridge and Newcastle-on-Tyne have sea-horses for supporters to their city's arms.

Belfast has the sea-horse for sinister supporter and also for crest.

Many of the n.o.bility also bear, either as arms or supporters, these mythical sea creatures, pointing in many instances to memorable events in their family history; indeed, as islanders and Britons, marine emblems--real and mythical--enter largely into our national heraldry.

Poseidon or Neptune

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dexter supporter of Baron Hawke.]

Poseidon or Neptune, the younger brother of Zeus (Jupiter), sometimes appears in heraldry, usually as a supporter. In the ancient mythology he was originally a mere symbol of the watery element, he afterwards became a distinct personality; the mighty ruler of the sea who with his powerful arms upholds and circ.u.mscribes the earth, violent and impetuous like the element he represents. When he strikes the sea with his trident, the symbol of his sovereignty, the waves rise with violence, as a word or look from him suffices to allay the fiercest tempest. Poseidon (Neptune) was naturally regarded as the chief patron and tutelary deity of the seafaring Greeks. To him they addressed their prayers before entering on a voyage, and to him they brought their offerings in grat.i.tude for their safe return from the perils of the deep.

In a famous episode of the "Faerie Queen" (Book iv. c. xi.) Spenser glowingly pictures the procession of all the water deities and their attendants:

"First came great Neptune with his three-forked mace, That rules the seas and makes them rise and fall; His dewy locks did drop with brine apace Under his diadem imperial:

"And by his side his Queen with coronal, Fair Amphitrite, most divinely fair, Whose ivory shoulders weren covered all, As with a robe, with her own silver hair, And decked with pearls which the Indian seas for her prepare."

Amphitrite, his wife, one of the Nereids in ancient art, is represented as a slim and beautiful young woman, her hair falling loosely about her shoulders, and distinguished from all the other deities by the royal insignia. On ancient coins and gems she appears enthroned on the back of a mighty triton, or riding on a sea-horse, or dolphin.

EXAMPLES.--Baron Hawke bears for supporters to his shield an aggroupment of cla.s.sic personations of a remarkable symbolic character, granted for the achievements of the renowned Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, Vice-Admiral of Great Britain, &c. &c., created Baron Hawke of Tarton, Yorks, 1776. _The dexter supporter is a figure of Neptune, his mantle vert, edged argent, crowned with an eastern crown, or, his dexter arm erect and holding a trident pointing downwards in the act of striking, sable, headed silver, and resting his left foot on a dolphin proper._

Sir Isaac Heard, Somersetshire; Lancaster Herald, afterwards Garter. His arms, granted 1762, are thus blazoned in Burke's "General Armory": _Argent a Neptune crowned with an eastern crown of gold, his trident sable headed or, issuing from a stormy ocean, the sinister hand grasping the head of a ship's mast appearing above the waves, as part of a wreck, all proper; on a chief azure, the Arctic pole-star of the first between two water-bougets of the second_.

Merman or Triton

"_Triton, who boasts his high Neptunian race Sprung from the G.o.d by Salace's embrace._"

CAMOeNS, "Lusiad."

"_Triton his trumpet shrill before them blew For goodly triumph and great jolliment That made the rocks to roar as they were rent._"

SPENSER, "Faerie Queen."

(Procession of the Sea Deities.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Merman or Triton.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Triton, with two tails. German.]

Triton was the only son of Neptune and Amphitrite. The poet Apollonius Rhodius describes him as having the upper parts of the body of a man, while the lower parts were those of a dolphin. Later poets and artists revelled in the conception of a whole race of similar tritons, who were regarded as a wanton, mischievous tribe, like the satyrs on land. Glaucus, another of the inferior deities, is represented as a triton, rough and s.h.a.ggy in appearance, his body covered with mussels and seaweed; his hair and beard show that luxuriance which characterises sea-G.o.ds. Proteus, as shepherd of the seas, is usually distinguished with a crook. Triton, as herald of Neptune, is represented always holding, or blowing, his wreathed horn or conch sh.e.l.l. His mythical duties as attendant on the supreme sea-divinity would, as an emblem in heraldry, imply a similar duty or office in the bearer to a great naval hero.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mermaid and Triton supporters.]

EXAMPLES.--The City of Liverpool has for sinister supporter a _Triton blowing a conch sh.e.l.l and holding a flag in his right hand_.

Lord Lyttelton bears for supporters _two Mermen proper, in their exterior hands a trident or_.

Ottway, Bart.--Supporters on either side, _a Triton blowing his sh.e.l.l proper, navally crowned or, across the shoulder a wreath of red coral, and holding in the exterior hand a trident, point downward_.

_Note._--In cla.s.sic story, Triton and the Siren are distinct poetic creations, their vocation and attributes being altogether at variance--no relationship whatever existing between them. According to modern popular notions, however, the siren or mermaid, and triton, or merman as they sometimes term him, appear to be viewed as male and female of the same creature (in heraldic parlance baron and femme). They thus appear in companionship as supporters to the arms of Viscount Hood, and similarly in other achievements.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The Mermaid or Siren

"_Mermaid shapes that still the waves with ecstasies of song._"

T. SWAN, "The World within the Ocean."

"_And fair Ligea's golden comb, Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks, Sleeking her soft alluring hair._"

MILTON, "Comus."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

This fabulous creature of the sea, well known in ancient and modern times as the frequent theme of poets and the subject of numberless legends, has from a very early date been a favourite device. She is usually represented in heraldry as having the upper part the head and body of a beautiful young woman, holding a comb and gla.s.s in her hands, the lower part ending in a fish.

Ellis (Glasfryn, Merioneth).--_Argent, a mermaid gules, crined or, holding a mirror in her right hand and a comb in her left, gold. Crest, a mermaid as in the arms._ _Motto_, "Worth ein ffrwythau yn hadna byddir." Another family of the same name, settled in Lancashire, bears the colours reversed, viz., _gules, a mermaid argent_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Crest of Ellis.]

SIR JOSIAH MASON.--CREST, _a mermaid, per fess wavy argent and azure, the upper part guttee de larmes, in the dexter hand a comb, and in the sinister a mirror, frame and hair sable_.