A case of mistaken identity ; the myth of the hippokampoi

Another strange sea beastie from my mermaid tail sculpture ‘Fossil Fables’ -and the best of bestiary bamboozlement that led me to draw it!

Here’s some weird and wonderful mythology of the high seas…….

Do you believe in unicorns? Medieval Europeans did. In tales of faraway lands and magical beasts, unicorns were a favourite topic and many thought that unicorn horns had special healing powers.

horn detail

Until the 1700s, wealthy rulers across Europe would buy unicorn horns—that is, what they believed to be unicorn horns—considering them to be magic potions….feeling sick?. shave a bit of horn off and pop it in your morning cuppa, also great protection against poisonings, which were always happening back then apparently.

The myth of the hippokampoi (the fish-tailed horses of the sea depicted as composite creatures with the head and fore-parts of a horse and the serpentine-tail of a fish)……had the ancients believing they were the adult-form of the small fish we call the “sea-horse”. Hippokampoi were the mounts of Nereid nymphs and sea-gods, and Poseidon drove a chariot drawn by two or four of the creatures, obviously…..

And these magical horns were proof of their existence! Imagine being a sailor and spying one of these huge horns coming up from beneath the waves!.

Some detail from ‘Fossil Fables’ Mermaid sculpture

This was a case of mistaken identity, unfortunately.

In fact the horns were not horns at all, but narwhal tusks, the sole tooth of one of these extraordinary and very real creatures. The tusk can grow up to 9 feet long, is very flexible, and not used to fight with. It is a tool for sensing changes in the environment, like differences in water temperature, salt level, and the presence of nearby prey. Which is pretty bloomin’ magical.

Fun fact; my sister thought sea horses were mythical; I had to show her evidence (see below photos I had taken of a stunning bright yellow handsome chap I had the pleasure of discovering whilst diving in the Phillipines), and even then, she wasn’t wholly convinced. And this was in her mid-thirties. A part of me was envious of this fantastical notion she’d managed to uphold for soooo long. . A blizzard belief reversal trick. But you can see why, whatever the lore, or however detailed and inaccurate the ‘scientific’ beast maps of the day may have been, a horse’s head and a fish’s tail is a fascinating combo. It’s right up there with centaurs for me. And, actually, a horses head with a single horn sounds way more plausible, right?.

Tangent; One of my all time favourite films as a kid was Legend, and still to this day if I see a large white horse with luscious locks, staring into my soul, I half expect a young and toothy Tom Cruise to leap onto the stallion’s back with much vigour, reattaching the severed horn to to its majestical forehead, thus saving the Last Unicorn and solving all the world’s problems whilst donning a very short tunic.

To see more photos of this finished sculpture and for details of the trail, click here.