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In heraldry, a lion with a tail between its legs is called a coward.

In the United States, there are 5 times more fast food restaurants than supermarkets.

The British XXX Corps fought in the Battle of Arnhem; its first two commanders were Lieutenant-Generals Vyvyan Vavasour Pope and Charles Willoughby Moke Norrie.

According to Muslim legend, there are only 10 animals in Heaven including Noah’s dove, Mohammed’s horse and the whale that swallowed Jonah.

A honeybee queen is created at the decision of the worker bees; she has sex with several male partners a day and stores their sperm in a spermatheca (from the Ancient Greek σπέρμα, “seed, semen”; and θήκη, “case, box, receptacle”). Once mated, queens may lay up to 2,000 eggs per day.

See other: Quite Interesting Facts

Inescutcheon

In heraldry, an inescutcheon (pronounced ‘inisketshun’) is a small escutcheon (coat of arms) within another.

Escutcheon

In heraldry, an escutcheon (pronounced ‘isketshun’) is an individual or corporate coat of arms (a defined area on which armorial bearings are displayed and usually consists of a shield.)

Pillars of Hercules

The Columnae Herculis was the phrase that was applied in Antiquity to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The northern Pillar is the Rock of Gibraltar in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. A corresponding North African peak not being predominant, the identity of the southern Pillar has been disputed through history, with the two most likely candidates being Monte Hacho in Ceuta and Jebel Musa in Morocco.

Location of the Pillars of Hercules in the Gibraltar Strait

According to Greek mythology adopted by the Etruscans and Romans, when Hercules had to perform twelve labours, one of them was to fetch the Cattle of Geryon of the far West and bring them to Eurystheus; this marked the westward extent of his travels. A lost passage of Pindar quoted by Strabo was the earliest traceable reference in this context: ‘The pillars which Pindar calls the gates of Gades when he asserts that they are the farthermost limits reached by Heracles.’

According to Plato’s account, the lost realm of Atlantis was situated beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in effect placing it in the realm of the Unknown. Renaissance tradition says the pillars bore the warning Nec plus ultra – or Non plus ultra: ‘nothing further beyond’ – serving as a warning to sailors and navigators to go no further.

According to some Roman sources, while on his way to the island of Erytheia Hercules had to cross the mountain that was once Atlas. Instead of climbing the great mountain, Hercules used his superhuman strength to smash through it. By doing so, he connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and formed the Strait of Gibraltar. One part of the split mountain is Gibraltar and the other is either Monte Hacho or Jebel Musa. These two mountains taken together have since then been known as the Pillars of Hercules, though other natural features have been associated with the name. Diodorus Siculus, however, held that instead of smashing through an isthmus to create the Straits of Gibraltar, Hercules instead narrowed an already existing strait to prevent monsters from the Atlantic Ocean from entering the Mediterranean Sea.

Escudo de España; the Spanish of Coat of Arms

The Pillars appear as supporters of the coat of arms of Spain, originating from the famous impresa – royal emblem, or badge – of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who was King of Spain in the years following the discovery of the Americas. It bears the motto Plus Ultra, encouraging him to ignore the ancient warning, to take risks and go further beyond. It indicates the desire to see the Pillars as an entrance to the rest of the world rather than as a gate to the Mediterranean Sea. It also indicates the overseas possessions that Spain had.

Also, in Inferno XXVI Dante Alighieri mentions Ulysses in the pit of the Fraudulent Counsellors and his voyage past the Pillars of Hercules. Ulysses justifies endangering his sailors by the fact that his goal is to gain knowledge of the unknown. After five months of navigation in the ocean, Ulysses sights the mountain of Purgatory but encounters a whirlwind from it that sinks his ship and all on it for their daring to approach Purgatory while alive, by their strength and wits alone.

Alfa Romeo

There are many stories about the origins of the coat of arms adopted to be the badge of Milan’s famous car maker, a badge which has so often been the emblem of Italian honour on the battlefields of motoring sport.

Coats of arms of the House of Visconti

The Milan coat of arms and that of the Visconti family, the dukes of the city used a coat of arms depicting on the left side the Biscione – the mythological serpent devouring a human being, said to represent a marauding dragon which roamed the vicinity of Milan and was slain by Umberto of Angera, the generally accepted founder of the Visconti family, in the early part of the fifth century AD. The serpent is also featured on the Sforza family’s coat of arms.

The right half of the arms depicts a red cross on a white field, symbolising the Visconti and Lombardy involvement in the Christian crusades against the might of Islam between the tenth and thirteenth centuries AD. During these crusades, an army from Lombardy was formed and led by Giovanni of Rho. A small village to the north-west of Milan.

After the crusades, the Visconti family adopted a red cross as its banner, with a serpent’s head at each end of the four members of the cross.

When Giuseppe Merosi was asked to design a badge for the new Milan carmaker Alfa Romeo he took his inspiration from Sforza castle, and so on of the most famous car badges was created. Although Merosi reversed the Biscione and the cross of Milan, they were later switched. Also, the badge was designed in the shape of a proper coat of arms instead of the circle that is used today.

With an incredible amount of background history, since 1910, this is the emblem of one of the finest name in motorsport.

Cadency

English Royal Coat of Arms with the Cadency of Prince Henry of Wales

In historical heraldry, cadency is any systematic way of distinguishing similar coats of arms belonging to members of the same family. Cadency is necessary in heraldic systems in which a given design may be owned by only one person at once. Because heraldic designs may be inherited, the arms of members of a family will usually be similar to the arms used by its oldest surviving member called the plain coat. They are formed by adding marks called brisures, similar to charges but smaller. Brisures are generally exempt from the rule of tincture, meaning that metal should not be put on metal, nor colour on colour This means that Or and argent may not be placed on each other; nor may any of the colours be placed on another colour. Heraldic furs are exceptions to the rule of tincture.

Fasces

A plural tantum, from the Latin word fascis, meaning bundle are a bundle of wooden sticks with an axe blade emerging from the centre, which is an image that traditionally symbolizes summary power and jurisdiction, and/or ‘strength through unity’. Fasces frequently occur as a charge in heraldry, and should not be confused with the related term, fess, which in French heraldry is called a fasce.

The traditional Roman fasces consisted of a bundle of white birch rods, tied together with a red leather ribbon into a cylinder, and often including a bronze axe or sometimes two, amongst the rods, with the blade on the side, projecting from the bundle. It was used as a symbol of the Roman Republic in many circumstances, including being carried in processions, much the way a flag might be carried today.

Triskelion

A triskelion or triskele is a symbol consisting of three interlocked spirals, or three bent human legs, or any similar symbol with three protrusions and a threefold rotational symmetry.

Coat of arms of Isle of Man

A triskelion is the symbol of Brittany, as well as the Isle of Man and Sicily (where it is called trinacria). The Manx and Sicilian triskelia feature three running legs, bent at the knee and conjoined at the crotch area.

The triskelion symbol appears in many early cultures, including on Mycenaean vessels, and coinage in Lycia. It appears as a heraldic emblem on warriors’ shields depicted on Greek pottery. A symbol of four conjoined legs, a tetraskelion, is also known in Anatolia. Celtic influences in Anatolia, epitomized by the Gauls who invaded and settled Galatia, are especially noted by historians who theorize a Celtic origin for the triskelion.