sea goat

English

Noun

sea goat (plural sea goats)

  1. A mythical beast with the upper half of a goat and the lower half of a fish; commonly used to figure the constellation Capricornus.
    Synonyms: fish-goat, goat-fish
    • 1875, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, Lapidarium Septentrionale, or, A Description of the Monuments of Roman Rule in the North of England, London: Bernard Quaritch, page 34:
      On the left of the label, containing the inscription, was a military standard and a sea goat, on the right a military standard and Pegasus.
    • 1881, J[ohn] H[enry] Broome, The Astral Origin of the Emblems, the Zodiacal Signs, and the Astral Hebrew Alphabet, as Shown in 'The Astronomical Register', London: Edward Stanford, page 7:
      Hence the two other names from very early antiquity for the sign, "the sea-goat" and "the fish-goat." The union of the goat and fish too is observed in the Dendera planisphere.
    • 1895, Robert Bridges, Eros & Psyche, London: George Bell and Sons, page 21:
      Some said that she to Talos was devote,
      The metal giant, who with mile-long stride
      Cover'd the isle, walking around by rote
      Thrice every day at his appointed tide;
      Who shepherded the sea-goats on the coast,
      And, as he past, caught up and live would roast,
      Pressing them to his burning ribs and side.
    • 1899, Richard Hinckley Allen, Star-Names and their Meaning, New York: G.E. Stechert, page 138:
      From this figuring Camões, in Os Lusiadas of 1572, called it the Semi-Capran Fish, as it is now with us the Goat-Fish and the Sea Goat.
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