Military Symbology through the ages

[Toddy1]

I find it facinating to see what symbology is used and how the social conotations of this usage are perceived today.

Starting with a very simple and common one The Nazi Party of WWII:

Hitler and The Party stole symbology from numerous different religions and places from throughout history.

The Swastika is an age old symbol used by many throughout history
The Eagle was predominantly used by Caesar's
As was the Heil Hitler salute
The Knights Cross is taken from Templar and Teutonic origins.

Can anyone think of any other more blatant usage of anothers symbology. I thought I read somewhere that Alexander of Macedonia was very found of intigrating a conquered peoples symbology into his own. Therefore making assimilation and acceptance easier to control.

I suppose the Christians also stole pagan symbology and festivals to ensure that there own was the dominant.

[nemowork]

The Eagle was predominantly used by Caesar's
As was the Heil Hitler salute

That mostly came from Mussolini and the Italians who naturally had a thing for the glories of ancient Rome and setting up a new Roman Empire, as the senior Fascist he set the fashion for Roman salutes with subsequent Fascist movements including having everybody marching round with Fasces, the Roman symbolic axe that gave the movement its name.

I never quite understood the German interest in Eagles, the Romans used them, then the Imperial French both of whom the Germans are famous for beating so why steal and glorify the badge of the loser? Too much classical education i guess and everybody believing that Rome was the only true lasting civilisation?

The obvious one with Christianity is Christmas, as near as anybody can tell Jesus was born sometime in the middle of the year, the date got shifted to take over several notable pagan festivals.

The one that always interests me is constant appropriation of Greek buildings, particularly for civic buildings to do with public functions. If its supposed to be democratic then slap a few Dorics out the front and some scantily clad babe with an owl or a cornucopia on the roof and bingo, instant symbol of public democracy. Admittedly we just pinch the buildings, the yanks go all out and call the whole town Athens or Sparta to really set the tone but how many times have you seen Greek pillars on the front of an official building?

[Toddy1]

It just appears as though everything has been reused and rehashed throughout time.

The inverted cross was originally supposed to identify with Peter's humility in that he wanted to be crucified upside down as he felt he was not worthy to die in the same manner as Christ, but now it has been taken to mean the Devil.

Dragons long reverred in the East are also associated with the Devil.

The All Seeing Eye of Masonic traditions is taken from the Eye of Horus, but then again the Masons also use Pyramids and Obelisks as well, which are both symbols of Egypt.

The peace cross was taken from Nero's cross who depicted a broken cross due to his hatred of the Christians.

The snake is considered evil by Christians but worshipped by other cultures like the Aborigines of Australia

[nemowork]

As an odd fact, the Roman salute probably doesnt and never has existed, it got invented by painters in the romantic period of the mid 18th century who needed their models to be doing dramatic poses and then got adopted by the French revolution who were equally big on romantic gestures and then by the theatre and the movie industry, each one copying the generation before without any real idea what it was based on. The Romans were too formal and militarised not to have have some sort of salute but nobody has a clue what it really looked like.

Mussolini seems to have got a lot of his ideas from watching early historical movie epics, either because he liked them or because he knew the people he wanted to appeal to liked them. Watch any Mussolini balcony speech when he's doing that wide spaced legs, hands on hips with the chin thrust out routine, to modern eyes it looks a bit silly mostly because its become associated with Mussolinis failure but he stole every gesture there from 'Maciste' movies starring Bartolomeo Pagano, Maciste is a Hercules type strongman who escapes slavery to rescue a princess and other daring deeds, it made Mussolini look instantly like a macho romantic daredevil.

So another useful stealing of symbols there for Benito

Although come to think of it, if you want to show your an Empire builder, why not steal the name of Caesar, it works if your a Roman and admittedly Octavian was genuine family before he pinched uncle Julius' name to become Augustus Caesar to get a bit of his relatives military and political glory and then the name got associated with the job but then it carried on. Calling yourself the Kaiser or the Czar or any other local accented version of Caesar worked just as well.

[Toddy1]

Talking about adopting things or changing them - A portrait of Richard the III (the evil hunchbacked uncle who slew his nephews in the Tower of London) had paint added to it over the course of the following 50-100 years at the behest of the new Tudor dynasty to accentuate the hunchback. As it turns out under x-ray imagery, poor old Richard the III didn't have a hunchback at all/.

[Chiptox]

The Swastika is an age old symbol used by many throughout history

The US 45th infantry Division had a patch redesign prior to their involvement in WW2 because of that.


Even "original" designs play on established themes and traditions. Even in jest.

Take, for instance, the Oozlefinch's coat of arms.

The body of the shield "parti per fess, divetailed" indicates the general woodenness, not of the Artillery Board and the other members of the "Gridiron Club" but of the passing throng who paid not their toll cheerfully in passing through the Sanctum to the bar. "Gules and Sable:" The color of the shield is red and black-red for the Artillery, and black in mourning for those who lost at dice by throwing the lowest spots. "In honor, a deuce spot of dice, lozenged. proper:" The honor point of the shield was given to the lowest marked dice, as it was the one which most frequently appeared to some members, the law of probabilities to the contrary notwithstanding. "In nombril a gridiron sable:" the lower half of the shield given over to the memory of those who did not belong to the "Gridiron Club" but who were constantly roasted by it. The supporters, "two Oozlefinches, regardant, proper, " were a natural selection, "regardant" meaning looking, or better, all-seeing, with the great eyes that this bird has to protect while in flight in the manner described.
The crest "a terrapin, passant dexter proper, " was selected owing to the great number of these animals, cooked to perfection by Keeney Chapman and served with great pomp to the members of the Artillery Board on occasions of state. This was always accompanied by libations of "red top, " red top being a now obsolete drink made in the Champagne Country of France and once imported to the United States, in times gone by that now seem almost prehistoric.
The wavy bar, over which the terrapin is passing, represents the adjacent waters of the Chesapeake, the natural habitat of this animal.

[HardThunder]

Switzerland flag

One of the few thing that is true, and a fact is
The Red Cross symbol used by the International Committee of the Red Cross, a red cross on white background, was the original protection symbol declared at the first Geneva Convention, the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field of 1864. According to the ICRC the design was based on the Swiss flag by reversing of the colours of that flag, in order to honor Switzerland, where the first Geneva Convention was held. However, no historic record has been found of an association of the Red Cross emblem with the flag of Switzerland earlier than 1906.

[khalifah]

the Crescent, apart from a symbol of Islam,countries, entities, etc. is also printed on US DOD foodstuff boxes.

The crescent printed on military ration boxes is the Department of Defense symbol for subsistence items.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent

[HardThunder]

It is in fact part of a Bomb.

[Toddy1]

Switzerland flag

One of the few thing that is true, and a fact is
The Red Cross symbol used by the International Committee of the Red Cross, a red cross on white background, was the original protection symbol declared at the first Geneva Convention, the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field of 1864. According to the ICRC the design was based on the Swiss flag by reversing of the colours of that flag, in order to honor Switzerland, where the first Geneva Convention was held. However, no historic record has been found of an association of the Red Cross emblem with the flag of Switzerland earlier than 1906.

There are theories that after the Inquisition against the Templars they fled to an area geographically located around modern day Switzerland, the theory also suggests that this is why Switzerland is the central location of banking etc. So there may be some facts in the mists of time that provide a better explanation for the flag and Red Cross symbology

[Toddy1]

Also the three lions of England are symbols taken from the House of Plantagenet and Aquitaine
And the "St George's Cross" is actually the old symbol of Aragon

[Toddy1]

Further to this and this is not so much symbology but ethnicity.

The Britons were driven by the Anglo Saxons into Wales and also to Brittany in France....fast forward a hundred years and these same Britons from Brittany and Normandy (basically meant North Men) came back and smashed the Anglo Saxons

Karma aye its a right bitch.

[Mu-Meson]

ten characters

[Toddy1]

ten characters

haha nice one

[Ordie]

Double Headed Eagle dates back from the Eastern Roman Empire.