The dexter side is considered the side of greater
honour, for example when
impaling two arms. Thus, by tradition, a husband's arms occupy the dexter half of his shield, his wife's paternal arms the sinister half. The shield of a bishop shows the arms of his
see in the dexter half, his personal arms in the sinister half. King
Richard II adopted arms showing the attributed arms of
Edward the Confessor in the dexter half and the
royal arms of England in the sinister. More generally, by ancient tradition, the guest of greatest honour at a banquet sits at the right hand of the host. The
Bible is replete with passages referring to being at the "right hand" of God. Sinister is used to indicate that an ordinary or other charge is turned to the heraldic left of the shield. A
bend sinister is a
bend (diagonal band) which runs from the bearer's top left to bottom right, as opposed to top right to bottom left. As the shield would have been carried with the design facing outwards from the bearer, the bend sinister would slant in the same direction as a sash worn diagonally on the left shoulder. A
bend (without qualification, implying a
bend dexter, though the full term is never used) is a bend which runs from the bearer's top right to bottom left. In the same way, the terms
per bend and
per bend sinister are used to describe a heraldic shield
divided by a line like a bend or bend sinister, respectively. This division is key to
dimidiation, a method of joining two coats of arms by placing the dexter half of one coat of arms alongside the sinister half of the other. In the case of marriage, the dexter half of the husband's arms would be placed alongside the sinister half of the wife's. The practice fell out of use as early as the 14th century and was replaced by
impalement. In some cases, it could render the arms that are cut in half unrecognizable and in some cases, it would result in a shield that looked like one coat of arms rather than a combination of two. The
Great Seal of the United States features an eagle clutching an
olive branch in its dexter talon and arrows in its sinister talon, indicating the nation's supposed intended inclination to peace. In 1945, one of the changes ordered for the similarly arranged
flag of the president of the United States by
President Harry S. Truman was having the eagle face towards its right (dexter, the direction of honour) and thus towards the olive branch. ==Origin==