#Easy hippocampus mythology drawing full

Yet another Roman writer, Aelian, claimed that seahorses could cure a bite from a rabid dog by counteracting the hydrophobia induced by rabies eat a seahorse, Aelian said, and you’ll spend the rest of your life drawn inexorably to the soothing sound of babbling rivers and streams. Pliny the Elder also advocated the therapeutic use of seahorses, listing them as cures for leprosy, urinary incontinence and fever.

#Easy hippocampus mythology drawing full

Among the many ingredients he listed is the seahorse which, he claimed, can be mixed with goose fat and smeared on a balding scalp to restore a full head of hair. In the first century, Roman writer Dioscorides compiled a book of herbal medicines that were widely used at the time. Scandinavian legends tell of the “havhest”, a huge sea serpent, half horse and half fish like hippocampus, that could breathe fire and sink ships.Īncient Greek and then Roman myths about hippocampus spilled over into matters more medical. Similar malevolent beasts were called “tangies” in the Orkney Isles and “shoopiltrees” in the Shetlands. They come onto dry land and graze with other, normal horses but if you mount and ride one you’ll be dragged underwater as your steed tries to drown and eat you.

Scottish lochs are said to be haunted by “kelpies”. Many other legends tell stories of watery spirits that take the form of horses. There’s even a single hippocampus from ancient Egypt painted on a mummy’s coffin. Phoenicians and Etruscans often painted these watery horses on the walls of burial chambers, accompanying the dead on their voyage across the seas and into the afterlife.

It’s thought ancient Greek fishermen believed the real seahorses they sometimes found tangled in their nets were the offspring of Poseidon’s mighty steeds.Īll sorts of ancient Mediterranean art and objects depict the hippocampus. Some of the oldest seahorse stories tell of the Greek sea god Poseidon galloping through the oceans on a golden chariot pulled by hippocampus, the beast that was half horse and half fish (today, the seahorses’ scientific name also happens to be Hippocampus). A statue of the Roman god Neptune with a seahorse © mmorell