The Sea Goat. Capricornus has been recognized as a goat since Babylonian and Chaldean times. Usually, it is depicted as a goat with a fish tail, which might relate to a story about the god, Pan. Pan, fleeing a monster called Typhon, jumped into the river Nile. The part of him that was below water turned into a fish, while the rest of him above water, stayed as a goat. Another legend suggests that Capricornus is the gate which men's souls passed through after death on their passage to the heavens.