Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

The pantheon is a mythical or imaginary creature used in

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...

, particularly in Britain. They are often depicted as deer with the tail of a fox and spangeled with stars along their back. It appears to have been first adopted in English coats of arms in the early

Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in History of England, England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in Englan ...

, subsequently becoming part of the design repertoire of the heralds in their official grants of arms. Early sightings of the creature include the pantheon crests of the

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

knight Sir Christopher Baynham (knighted 1513) and his Cornish contemporary John Skewys. Two pantheons appear from the 1530s as the

supporter In heraldry, supporters, sometimes referred to as ''attendants'', are figures or objects usually placed on either side of the shield and depicted holding it up. Early forms of supporters are found in medieval seals. However, unlike the coro ...

s of the arms of the Paulet or Powlett Marquesses of Winchester, though at a later date they were reinterpreted as the hinds or female

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

they can closely resemble. In 1556 a coat of arms with three pantheons on the shield was granted to Henry Northey of Bocking in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. The pantheon is usually represented as a cervid similar to a hind (a female

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

), usually black or dark blue in colour, although sometimes red, its hide patterned with regularly spaced stars or estoiles. However, the historian of heraldry Hugh Stanford London suggested that the creature originated as a misreading or misunderstanding of the

panther Panther may refer to: Large cats *Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. ***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...

(itself represented in exotic fashion in heraldry and medieval art, often shown with stars on its body and sometimes even with cloven hooves). Pantheons became popular again in the twentieth century, particularly as a symbol of air or space travel or other advanced forms of technology. Examples are the arms of the

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ...

, granted in 1955; two pantheons also appear as the supporters of the arms of the

Engineering Council The Engineering Council (formerly Engineering Council UK; colloquially known as EngC) is the UK's regulatory authority for registration of Chartered and Incorporated engineers and engineering technician, holding a register of these and providing ...

(the United Kingdom regulatory body for the engineering profession), granted in 1984. The arms of the

Canadian Space Agency The Canadian Space Agency (CSA; french: Agence spatiale canadienne, ASC) is the national space agency of Canada, established in 1990 by the ''Canadian Space Agency Act''. The president is Lisa Campbell, who took the position on September 3, 2020 ...

has a pantheon in the crest.

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References

* * * * *—This website includes an image of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority's arms. Heraldic beasts Mythological deer {{legendary-creature-stub