Book vii
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Phillip II. of Spain, after his marriage with Queen Mary of England, assumed as a device, Bellerophon fighting with the chimera, and the motto, "Hinc vigilo," the monster being intended by him for a type of England's heresies which he waited his time to destroy.
The family of _Fada_ of Verona have for arms: Gules a winged chimera argent, the head and breasts carnation (or proper), and the wings and feet of an eagle. The illustration, however, has the head and breasts of a woman, and eagle's wings and feet, and makes it a different creature entirely, and should more properly be blazoned _harpy_.
The Lion-Dragon
is compounded of the forepart of a lion conjoined to the hinder part of a dragon.
_Or, a lion-dragon gules armed, langued and crowned of the first_, is the _Bretigni_ family.
_Party per chevron gules and or, three lion-dragons ducally crowned and countercharged._--_Easton._
The Gorgon
Reference has already been made to the gorgon in a quotation from Milton. The name now denotes anything unusually hideous. In classic story there were three gorgons, with serpents on their heads instead of hair. Medusa was the chief of the three, and the only one that was mortal. So hideous was her face that whoever set eyes on it was instantly turned to stone. She was slain by Perseus, and her head placed upon _the shield of Minerva_ (termed the Ægis of Minerva). Homer, in the "Odyssey,"