Talk:Hippalectryon

A fact from Hippalectryon appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 14 December 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that hippalectryons (pictured) are mythological half-horse, half-rooster creatures which were probably thought to confer magical protection?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/December.

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Motive vs. Motif

Unless there is a compelling reason for sticking with the spelling "motive", I would urge changing it to "motif". The reason being that "motif" unambiguously means "a recurring element", whereas "motive" has the additional (and more commonly encountered, for most people (see Motive (law))) meaning of "an incentive to act". -- 128.104.112.87 (talk) 15:43, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed . . . missed one . . . done now. Awien (talk) 21:08, 15 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Cassowary

Hippalectryo Gloger, 1842 genus synonym for Casurius — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.160.235.192 (talk) 12:35, 21 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Gentleman chicken

C'mon, you squeamish neo-precious out there. A lady chicken is a hen, a gentleman chicken is a cock, cf. "Ride a cock-horse" in this very article. A cockerel is a young cock, but not a bad euphemism if you can't stand cock; rooster is OK too, more US than UK but it is in the OED; chantecler really isn't OK, because for 99% of the few people who have heard of it, it's the proper name of a character in a fable. (And in this context, made the person I tested it on laugh out loud). Bottom line, if we have to avoid cock, I suggest we settle on rooster, and will make that change unless I hear cogent arguments to the contrary. Your resident unprecious pedant, Awien (talk) 21:03, 15 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree. The article was written in British English and can be kept that way. There are alternatives to "rooster" that can be pronounced without sounding like John Waynes. These terms are even linked to the relevant article.

"Magical protection" had already replaced "apotropaic and prophylactic virtues" in the Did You Know? notice; I think that we should be careful not to take our readers for imbeciles too much. That are reading an encyclopaedia, there are chances that they are actually willing to learn things. Rama (talk) 17:54, 16 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, Rama, you're mistaken, chantecler is not British English for the male of domestic poultry, cock is: cock of the walk, cock fighting, cock-crow, cockscomb, Ride a Cock-horse, etc., etc. We're talking the barnyard animal here; no farmer is going to tell you "I keep one chantecler for every thirty hens", it's ludicrous; s/he would say ""I keep one cock for every thirty hens".

So I say use cock throughout (as in the translations from the Greek, moreover), never mind the sensibilities of the neo-precious.

Je remarque aussi qu'on a coq dans la version française. Or, la traduction de coq est "cock, rooster" dans le Collins Robert, "cock, U.S.: rooster" dans le Harrap's, pas la moindre mention de chantecler. C'est cock qui est le mot juste. Awien (talk) 18:34, 16 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Rama, do you have a modern, English language reference which uses the term "chanticleer" in reference to the Hippalectryon? A quick look through the references on this article show that Theoi uses "rooster", Harper's, Shapiro and Summagallicana use "cock", Swets et Zitlinger, Wendling, Numis-ext and Meslin aren't in English (and as such cannot demonstrate English language word choice), and I don't have access to Arnott and Cirlot (at least not page 149). None that I can see use "chanticleer". I wouldn't be opposed to using the most appropriate word, but, from the outside at least, it doesn't look like there is a good basis for using "chanticleer". If you still insist that "chanticleer" is the most appropriate English language term, providing references which agree on the word choice would hopefully reduce edit warring. While I agree we shouldn't "dumb down" articles, I don't think that's a reason to use a rare/specialist term when a more common one will do - this article is supposed to provide information on the Hippalectryon, not be a vocabulary lesson. -- 128.104.112.87 (talk) 21:26, 16 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In the absence of justification for chantecler, I have standardised to rooster throughout. I hope this is acceptable to British friends, since it is probably much less likely to attract vandalism than cock - even though IMO the best translation as far as translation is concerned is cock and anyone is welcome to go that route as far as I'm concerned. Rama, if you disagree, please discuss here rather than simply reverting. Best, Awien (talk) 17:50, 18 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I've written the french article about Hippalectryon and made the "good article" proposition (sorry for my very bad english). I've never seen the the "Chanteclerc" word when I searched for the article, but "cock" appeared several times. There's a french study about this creature, but none in english language. Thanks. --Tsaag Valren (talk) 00:47, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Tsaag Valren! Nice to have another confirmation. And if you want to change to cock throughout, you'll get no argument fron me, but because of the ambiguity in English, there is a danger of attracting the attention of the vandals. Anyway, it's a fun article, and puts an amusing dent in the stereotype of the ancient Greeks as pure high-mindedness personified :-) Awien (talk) 17:49, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thanks :) I've made a study about this creature because I've chosen "symbolism of the horse" for "these" (don't know the word in english) in faculty. So it was fun for me too, and i'm very surprised to see spanish and english traduction, never I've think that my study it will be translated :o --Tsaag Valren (talk) 01:49, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Happy new year! Good luck with your thesis (which one? Master's? Doctorate?)! And there you go - unexpected wikifame. Awien (talk) 02:02, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks and happy new year to you too ! You're the first (english or american ?) who wish me happy new year ! The thesis was began by me in DEUG because there was a "documentation module", and I've never "presented" it because I stopped before, I found a job. I really love symbolism of the horse, about this, you can see too the french articles about : fr:Pégase (mythologie) (Pegasus), fr:Hippogriffe, fr:Licorne (unicorn), fr:Sleipnir, and lots of french foklore horses that I think are unknowns for you : fr:Drapé (ghost horse, like the ghost dogs in England), fr:Chevaux légendaires du Pas-de-Calais (legendary horses in french department of "Pas-de-Calais"), fr:Cheval Mallet (another ghost horse), and the last I'm working : fr:Helhest (another ghost horse, but dansk for this one). --Tsaag Valren (talk) 12:02, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Canadian, actually ^_- Thanks for the links, lots of interesting stuff to read. Awien (talk) 00:16, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ok ;) I understand why you can read and translate these articles ;) Thanks and don't hesitate to ask documents or other things--Tsaag Valren (talk) 15:55, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sex of Hippalectryons in mythology

The hippalectryon is consistently described in the article as being male. Are there any instances of female hippalectryons in mythology or artwork, and if so would they have a different name? Do hippalectryons lay eggs? - Raxi^(tok-ribs) 03:13, 16 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]