"_His sea-horses did seem to snort amain
And from their nostrils blow the fiery stream
That made the sparkling waves to smoke again
And flame with gold; but the white foam cream
Did shine with silver, and shoot forth his beam._"
SPENSER'S _Faerie Queen_.
(Procession of the Sea Divinities.)
The steeds of Neptune are favourite subjects in ancient poetry and art in
the triumphs and processions of the marine deities, drawing the chariot of
the sea-god in its progress through the waves. The imaginative Greeks
pictured to themselves the horses of Poseidon in the rolling and bounding
waves as they pursue each other in haste towards the shore, "curling their
monstrous heads." This may seem to account for the constant and close
connection between the god and the horse. The origin of the horse is
ascribed to the contest between Poseidon and Athenæ as to who should make
to mankind the most useful present; Neptune created the horse, Minerva the
olive-tree.
[Illustration: Sea-horse erect.]
The city of Lampsacus, in Mysia, founded by the Phoceans, adopted the
winged sea-horse as their monetary type, in allusion to the fleetness of
their vessels. Others of the maritime States of Greece also adopted the
sea-horse upon their coins.
A coin of the celebrated Pyrrhus, King of Epirus (slain B.C. 272), the
knight-errant of ancient heroes, represents the head of Achilles, the
reputed ancestor of Pyrrhus, on one side, and the Nereid, Thetis, the
mother of Achilles, on the sea-horse on the reverse. Thetis carries the
arms forged by Vulcan for Achilles, in allusion to the succour brought by
Pyrrhus to the Italian Greeks against the barbarians, as the rising Romans
were termed by them.
In Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," we find a reference to
a veritable sea-horse, if we may believe our authority. John Sobieski,
the victorious King of Poland, in his letters to his wife, when he raised
the memorable siege of Vienna and delivered Europe for ever from the
incursions of the Turks, describes to her how, in the tent of Mustapha, he
found the great standard of the Turks, "_made of the hair of the sea-horse
(?) wrought with a needle and embroidered with Arabic figures_." It was
afterwards hung up by the order of the Emperor in the Cathedral of St.
Stephens, "where," adds the historian, "_I have seen it_."
The coast of Naples is celebrated for the production of a small fish in
great repute with mothers who nurse their offspring; among its other
virtues it is said to cure the bite of a mad dog. It is about four to six
inches in length, and has a head resembling that of a horse, terminating
in a dragon's tail. This is the tiny hippocampus of our public aquariums.
The Neapolitans call them "cavalli-marini," which was once ingeniously
translated by a learned English traveller as "horse marines."
This fabulous marine creature in heraldry is compounded of the fore
quarters of a horse with webbed paws, and the hinder part of a fish or
dolphin. A scalloped fin is continued down the neck and back in place of a
mane. It is frequently, though erroneously, to be seen depicted with the
flowing mane of a horse; wings are also sometimes added to it, both of
which, it is needless to say, are wrong, unless specially mentioned in the
blazon.
The Westenras (Baron Rossmore), descended from the family of Van
Wassenhaer of Wassenburg, were of great antiquity in Holland, and they
bore the augmentation of the sea-horse in reference to the valour and
intrepidity of an ancestor, who, during the Duke of Alva's campaign, was
actively employed against the enemies of his country and undertook at
great risk to swim across an arm of the sea with important despatches to
his besieged countrymen.
[Illustration: Arms of the city of Belfast. The sinister supporter and
crest are Sea-horses.]
The Sea-horse is of very frequent use in armory, and usually has reference
to meritorious actions performed at sea. It is also borne by many seaport
towns in allusion to the trade and commerce of the port, as in the arms
of the city of Belfast.
Cromwell, Protector, bore as supporters a lion of England and a sea-horse,
probably to denote his protectorship of the sea, as of the land.
Bossewell ("Works of Armorie," 1589), in his peculiar mixture of English
and Latin, gives a quaint description of the animal: "This water-horse of
the sea is called a hippotame, for that he is like an horse in back,
mayne, and neying: rostro resupinato a primis dentibus: cauda tortuosa,
ungulis binis. He abideth in the waters on the day, and eateth corn by
night et hunc Nilus gignit." The latter may be classed with those
fantastic ornamental forms frequently employed in fountains and
waterworks, such as the _Ichthyocentaur_, _i.e._, a combination of man and
horse, or the centaur with a fish's extremity.