Hi! I'm a member in two collegiate greek letter fraternities and I'm quite interested in our Coats of Arms.
These franternaties are Lambda Chi Alpha and Alpha Phi Omega.
A decent image of the LCA Coat of Arms can be found here:
http://www.iswza.org/lambdachi/emblems.htmlalong with it's blazon. I was wondering about the authenticity of the blazon and translations. I think i've seen a more completely heraldic blazon before, that is, without breaking to "Encircling the escutcheon" or other such english phrases. Also, I know the translations to be fairly loose, and I was wondering how an impartial translator might interperate the latin and greek. ("Vir Quisque Vir" is derived from our merger with Theta Kappa Nu's "Vir Quisque Vir Est." A version of the TKN coat of arms is found here:
http://www.lambdachi.org/fraternity/tour/armspanel.asp on the third pannel left-to-right. A poor image, i know.)
Additionally, i know the LCA coat of arms breaks from hearaldry in two ways: the inescuteon is not the same shape as the outescuteon, and i believe the other issue is that the crown on the helm would be reserved for royalty.
The APO coat of arms can be found here:
http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~library/special/Alpha/alphaaid.htm...(that's the clearest image i could find)
and here:
www.apo.org (for the colors: which are blue and gold mainly. 12 red drops of blood are in groups of three around the white cross. The sword is also on a white background. The Helm is silver.
I have never run accross a blazon of these arms, and i have no idea if they follow the rules of heraldry. I was wondering about both.
Finally, I've always wondered about combining the two, as i'm a member of both; however, they seem rather incompatible, and I would be hesitant to leaving out any of the symbolism of either. Anyhow, suggestions would be appriciated :)
Thanks a lot! Hope this is at least a bit interesting.
PS if anyone could make large, high quality images of either or both arms, it would be appriciated, and i would be sure to link to any site(s) you'd like me to.