Ancient Greek Sea Serpent Helmets

Ancient Greek sea Serpent Crested War Helmet

messapian sea monster helmet

I came across these objects while on a photo search. Like so many of these oddities I see, they were being sold as curiosities on the Antique Art market. These are some Ancient Greek helmets said to be decorated in a fashion meant to resemble Sea serpents. If that is the case it is one of the more remarkable depictions of specifically Longnecks to be shown in antiquity. I have a suspicion the design originated around the North Sea and was brought South on the Amber route.

These helmets have a striking "Periscope" illustrated facing either direction and each one with a striking jagged crest or fin (mane) down the mid-back. There may be small "Ears" (or horns) on the head but more importantly the heads and necks are in the same approximate proportion to each other as my statistical norm for modern reports (Which is also just about Oudemans' average of his reports and Dinsdale's average estimates for the Loch Ness Monster) and moreover the eyes are about midway along the top, insisted on in some reports and proper for a Plesiosaur. The arrangement is also interesting because it is anther design implying "The head end is like the tail end" by making the mirrored-head/neck the same as in the Northwest coast Sisiutl.

I am reading those odd trefoil terminations as flippers and not as the ends of short tails, although they do resemble the common stylization of "dragon's tails" more usually shown later on.

CFZ Repost: Sisiutl (Sisutl is Euryapsid)

I was on an internet search to go with the theme "Cadborosaurus is a Euryapsid" when I came across one of my older blogs: the photosearch turned up one of my photos labelled "Sisiutl is a Euryapsid"

Works for me: I'll reprint the CFZ posting here.

Thursday, January 20, 2011
DALE DRINNON: TRADITIONAL NORTHWEST-COAST SEAMONSTERS
(PART 2)


Sisiutl is a very important Totem of the Northwest Coastal area under a variety of names. It is a peculiar thing because of the artwork in the area is known to "Unfold" subjects and show both sides at the same time. So the Sisiutl is spoken of as "Two_headed" because the head shows in profile on either end.

[Sisiutl-Explained]
Sisiutl is also important as evidence of TransPacific diffusion because there have been several experts that have said it is the direct transposition of the very old Chinese figure of T'ao-T'ieh (Taotie) which is also basically a large central mask and incorporating two smaller "Dragon" figures in the design.
The Sisiutl would not really be a creature with a head on each end, it would be a creature where the head end and the tail end only look the same (or similar)





[Petroglyph of Sisiutl]
I believe in the New World the design of the Sisiutl is basically like some sea-turtle masks which use the shell as the area where a human face goes and the flippers are arranged around it. In this case, the basic idea is that there is a big "Turtle" body and then a longer snaky head and neck on the one side and then again a snaky tail on the other. The classic description of a plesiosaur as a "Snake threaded through the body of a turtle" springs to mind

[Tom Hunt Sisiutl, Left-hand side: Sisiutl is Euryapsid]

[Another Sisiutl with Plesiosaur Paddles]

In short and without belabouring a point too much, I think Sisiutl is a conventionalized way of depicting the same Longer-necked Sea-serpent types still reported more recently and sometimes called "Cadborosaurus". The one "Sis-Explained" diagram indicates a row of "Fins" down the back that obviously mean to show a "String-of-buoys" type of Sea-serpent report.








I have darkened over a Sisiutl depiction in the "Silhouette" illustrations to show what such a creature might look like in profile and from above (lengths of the neck and tail vary a great deal in such depictions so exact proportins are uncertain)








And I include a reference illustration of a conventional plesiosaur just to keep it handy.

[Thalassodracon, a Plesiosaur]









The Sisiutl is also closely connected to salmon and is said to govern salmon runs; they are said to be of "One nature" with the salmon.
Ivan Sanderson spoke of Longnecked creatures pursuing salmon runs and even "Herding" fishes into denser schools for easier feeding: he had said that one reason Longnecked creatures went inland was in pursuit of salmon runs and that they are occasionally seen following such runs in fresh water. I assume this meant in the Columbia river system but he might also have meant the Loch Ness Monster is supposed to favor a diet of salmon.One place he mentioned this is in Investigating the Unexplained.


Best Wishes, Dale D.


[As mentioned back in January, the Sisiutl continues on today as the Cadborosaurus, one of the Sea-serpents commonly spoken of as being of probably Plesiosaurian identity. The name "Cadborosaurus willsi" is however invalid as it is attached to a poorly-preserved carcass of dubious nature. Below are two photos of "Cadborosaurus, the first one a still from the recent Alaskan video, and at the bottom is a beachside reconstruction of Caddy.]




Not a bad Plesiosaur for the Caddy model either, except that I would place the flippers back a bit and under the humps. Just a reminder: "Caddy" properly refers to the maned "Merhorse" males and the unmaned Longneck females are called "Amy".