Hippocampus

The Hippocampus is a mythical creature associated with Poseidon, the Greek god of the ocean. Its top half is a horse (head, neck and forelegs) and lower part is a fish, usually a dolphin, though sometimes a serpent. Featured in ancient Greek art, the Hippocampus is literally a sea-horse – ‘hippos’ meaning horse and ‘kampos’ meaning sea monster in Greek.

Apart from being the god of the sea, Poseidon (Neptune in Roman mythology) was also the god of horses and Homer describes Poseidon as driving a horse-drawn chariot across the sea.

The Hippocampus appears as a motif not only in the paintings, bronzeware and silverware of the ancient Greeks and Etruscans, but also in the artworks of Mesopotamia and India.