FABLES RESPECTING THE DOLPHIN. 385 



THE DOLPHINS. 



No whale occupied the attention of ancient naturalists more than the 

 Dolphin, no marine animal inspired the poets with brighter descriptions 

 or more marvellous fables. According to them, it was a mild, familiar 

 animal, sensible to music. Philautes, after being shipwrecked on the 

 coast of Italy, had been saved by a dolphin. Arion, threatened with 

 death by the sailors of the ship of which he was on board, having thrown 

 himself into the sea, was picked up by a dolphin attracted by the sweet 

 notes of his lyre, and conveyed safely mto harbor on the animal's back. 

 Apollo took the form of a dolphin when he conducted his colony to the 

 Delphian shores. Neptune changed himself into a dolphin when he 

 carried off Melanthus. And so this marvellous creature was, among 

 the ancients, the object of religious worship. Neptune was adored at 

 Sunium, under the form of the Cetacean dear to his friend ; and the 

 Delphian Apollo, honored at Delphi, had dolphins as his symbol. Pliny 

 tells a pretty story of a boy who gained the affection of a dolphin by 

 feeding it with bread : the grateful creature used to save the lad a 

 long walk every day, by carrj-ing him on his back to and from school, 

 across the Lucrine Lake. When the boy died, the dolphin appeared at 

 the accustomed spot, and when the lad never came, pined away and 

 died. Pliny also affirms that a 3'oung dolphin never goes abroad with- 

 out an older companion, and that dolphins have been seen carr3'ing off 

 a dead dolphin to save it from other fishes. The old German writer, 

 Gessner, calls the dolphin " the king and regent of the seas and waters," 

 adding that for this reason the heir to the throne of France is called the 

 Dauphin, an erroneous but favorite explanation of the origin of the title. 



The fables inherited from antiquity still exist near the borders of the 

 Mediterranean Sea, and from these fables are derived many of our 

 current symbols. Twisted round a trident the dolphin represents the 

 liberty of commerce ; placed round a tripod, it signified the college of 

 fifteen priests who performed service at Rome in the Temple of Apollo ; 

 caressed by Neptune, it was the sign of a calm sea and the safety of 

 sailors ; arranged round an anchor, or placed above an ox with a human 

 face, it indicated that mixture of quickness and slowness which is 

 expressed by prudence. Modern artists still represent the dolphin in 

 the manner adopted by the earliest Greek sculptors, the tail elevated, 

 the head large, the mouth enormous. 

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