The Draco standard

[Alanus]

I agree, but on the other hand we should also be careful with excluding the equally obvious... Right now, seeing such windsocks/dracones being shaped also as wolves, dogs, even fish, I'm inclined to go for the functional purpose of windsock first, and only then for the artistic shape that resulted from windsocks being used as battle standards....

It's a bit like modern kites. When I was young we flew rhomboid pieces of fabric, while today they fly with all kinds of modern shapes and sizes, some of them birds. But in the future, they will probably debate on some forum whether kites resembled birds, or later birdkites started out as a toy that flew.

That reminds me of not only excluding the obvious, but even changing it. The following is from the Rawlinson translation of Herodotus. Herodotus said this about the Massagetae (Book I, 215):

"They fight both on horseback and foot, neither method is strange to them: they use bows and lances, but their favorite weapon is the battle-axe.[sup]2[/sup]"

We then go down to Rawlinson's second footnote:

"2 ...in all probability the kahnjar of modern Persia, a short, curved, double-edged dagger, almost universally worn."

Hold it! :woot:
Wait a minute. :woot:

Suddenly-- and without warning, except in Rawlinson's imagination-- the battle-axe (sagaris) becomes a dagger! Talk about negative evidence? :whistle:

Sometimes it's wise NOT to overlook the obvious, no matter which way the wind blows.