Everyone is familiar with figureheads, those wooden figures or faces, animals or birds or fish jutting out at the front of a sailing ship. Carved out of wood and fantastically decorated and painted, they feature in so many films and there are even children’s books about ones which come alive.
From earliest times, it seems that boats have been decorated with symbols, magic or religious, for protection and safe sea-faring. I wonder if early dug-out boats used by our earliest ancestors had signs and symbols painted or carved on them I bet they did! It seems that sailors believed that boats and ships were somehow a living thing, and that the ship fund its own way through the waves and therefore needed eyes. Different peoples had different symbols, the ancient Egyptians often had birds, the Phoenicians had horses and the Greeks had boars. Greek boats still have eyes painted on their prows. The Romans had a fighting man carved on the prow, a centurion maybe, a warrior to strike fear into the enemy and encourage the soldiers on board.
Our own ancestors must have dreaded the sight of the long-ships charging across the water, the dragon leading the Vikings to conquer pillage and steal and new lands. Other northern European seafarers had fish or dolphins or snakes. These early figures were carved into the prow but as the design of ships changed and developed and ships became bigger and more complicated, the figurehead appeared on the bowsprite (the piece of wood sticking out at the front of the ship)
As ships changed from wood to metal there was no longer any place for a figurehead… which is rather sad but some metal ships had a badge or shield, keeping the tradition alive for a while.
The Greek warrior on the bowsprite of HMS Warrior
Lois Elsden 
Beautiful post, Lois [well, as usual!]. Figureheads are called ACROPRORA in Greek. Many years ago we designed a calendar for a wood company. Here is a link for a taste: http://www.anmarcreative.com/2010/10/akritas.html Paintings were done by my father Anakreon Kanavakis.
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Thank you Marina, and thank you for sharing your calendar – it is really beautiful, ethereal and mysterious…. what talent!
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Thank you very much, Lois! That calendar won 1st prize in it’s category that year, in the annual advertising awards. The reason I shared however [a thing I don’t do often!] is because it’s a rare subject and figureheads were such marvelous pieces of art and I was really happy to see your article about them! 🙂
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You are so right… and yet often they’re seen but not seen… just something on the front of an old ship. There is so much more to them… I think the old sailors were right!
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