Elsewhere he takes up the later interpretation of the myth, which connects it with Perseus:
“The strong-ribbed bark through liquid mountains cut
Like Perseus’ horse.”
Troilus and Cressida, Act i. sc. 3.
Cardinal Bembo, poet and historian, secretary to Pope Leo X., used as his impress a pegasus and a hand issuing from a cloud holding a wreath of laurel and palm, with the motto, “Si te fata vocant” (“If the fates call thee”).
Azure, a pegasus salient, the wings expanded argent, is borne as the arms of the Society of the Inner Temple, London.
A very early seal of the Knights Templars exhibits two knights riding upon one horse.
A recent writer remarks upon this strange device that “it is exceedingly probable that some rude and partially defaced representation of this device was mistaken by the lawyers of the reign of Queen Elizabeth for a pegasus. The fact that the Middle Temple adopted the device which appears upon the other seal of the ancient Knights strongly confirms this view.”
One of the supporters of the arms of Oliver Cromwell is a horse having the wings and tail of a dragon.
Sagittary, Centaur, Sagittarius, Centaurus, Hippocentaur
| “... the dreadful sagittary Appals our numbers.” “Troilus and Cressida,” Act v. sc. 5. “Feasts that Thessalian centaurs never knew.” Thomson, “Autumn.” |
Under these names is blazoned a fabled monster of classic origin, half man, half horse, holding an arrow upon a bended bow. It is one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, commonly called Sagittarius, otherwise Arcitenens, and marked by the hieroglyph ♐. In its signification in arms it may properly be applied to those who are eminent in the field.