This was being discussed at work today and the conclusions many of us came to are rather unsatisfying...
An example of this sort of this is discussed here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-were-medieval-knights-always-fighting-snails-1728888/
I will suggest possible reasons for this; examine all of them. 1. Snails were common in many parts of southern and 'middle' Europe- any place warm enough for them; 2. There were probably metaphorical/euphemistic associations: one might be with the cochlea of the human inner ear; thus, a snail might have meant "Listen!", or "Beware, people are listening!" Another, because a snail starts out as a small lump in its shell, but then protrudes and 'becomes erect', might be a symbolic penis, along with an association of snail mucus and sexual secretions; 3. There may be some arcane association through heraldry.
Even the experts are puzzled!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-were-medieval-knights-always-fighting-snails-1728888/
@Thomas E. Lehman, I personally lean towards a metaphorical/euphemistic association, as I deal with Japanese subjects, this sort of application and symbolism is common in pretty much every martial culture I've come across...
@James Kelley, that was the first article that I came across on this matter, and indeed, my current conclusion is that until there is classical literature that explicitly explains this, we are likely not to know.
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