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.

   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.

   1899, Richard Hinckley Allen, Star-Names and their Meaning, New York: G.E. Stechert, page 138

   4 more examples

   In the middle of each of theſe four little Gardens, there is a diſtinct Fountain, and in each of the Fountains there is placed a gilded Triton, ſitting on a gilded Sea-Horſe, or on a Sea-Goat, all upon Rockwork, like that in the middle Fountain[.]

   1699, Walter Harris, A Description of the King's Royal Palace and Gardens at Loo, London: R. Roberts, page 31

   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.

   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

   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.

   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

   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.

   1895, Robert Bridges, Eros & Psyche, London: George Bell and Sons, page 21

   Synonyms: fish-goat, goat-fish, goatfish