KEY: W - Z

 

Category Sub-category Detail   Identity; Possible Symbolism; Definition
WARRIOR       see CENTURION
WEAPONS Arrow(s) Diana/Artemis; Apollo; Cupid/Eros
Bow Apollo; Diana/ArtemisDiana/Artemis; Cupid; Actaeon; Orion; unknown hunter; Odysseus/Ulysses
Club Hercules/Heracles; Muse Melpomene
Dagger Muse Melpomene
  Harpe  knife, curved tip   See Wikipedia.  Associated with Cronus.
Quiver Diana/Artemis; Apollo
Spear Athena/Minerva; Mars/Ares
Sword any mortal hero; Archangel St. Michael; sometimes St. Paul; Biblical heroine Judith
  Thunderbolt     Zeus/Jove
WHEAT grain, barley Ceres wears grain stalks, usually highly stylized, in her hair & may also have grain springing from her bosom.
WINGS Butterfly on back Psyche, sometimes Aurora/Eos; Aurora will usually have other clues to her identity such as an armload of flowers; nymphs; 5th6th Hours of the Night
on head, shoulders, bosom Psyche may have squared off wing(s) with eye spots on her brow or head, on her back, springing from her breast or any combination; wings on her shoulder usually turn out to be whole butterflies when examined
Feathered on back Cupid/Eros; Nike; Aurora/Eos; angels
on cap and/or heels Mercury/Hermes; Perseus
on head female: Nike or Medusa
    on helmet   Perseus; Athena/Minerva
WREATH Grain on head   Ceres/Demeter or daughter Proserpina/Persephone
  Grapevine on head   Dionysus/Bacchus, his female followers the maenads/bacchantes, or male companions, such as Silenus
  Ivy on head   Dionysus/Bacchus, his female followers the maenads/bacchantes, or wife Ariadne; Antinous
  Laurel on head   Apollo, or figures in the arts possessing the gifts of Apollo; victors in battle, many Roman emperors (the corona triumphalis)
    held outstretched   Nike/Victoria
  Mixed: grain, fruit, flowers on head   Ceres/Demeter
  Oak on head   Zeus/Jupiter