200 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



they adopted the same epithet as the modern Chi- 

 nese, the celestial Egyptians. It is, indeed, difficult 

 to account for its selection by the Greeks as the 

 companion of Venus. For, however little we may 

 object to its presence with her statue, under the 

 guise of white marble, and the classical name of 

 dolphin, it recalls too strongly our ideas of the 

 porpoise, to appear to us a suitable attendant on 

 the Goddess of Beauty. 



Pliny*, Seneca t, and Strabot speak of the con- 

 tests of the dolphin and the crocodile ; in which 

 the former, wounding the crocodile with the ,9/jme 

 of its dorsal fin in the abdomen, gained an easy 

 victory over it, even in its own river. But its credit 

 seems principally indebted to fable : its weapons, 

 like its beauty, being imaginary; and, whatever 

 may have been the prestige in its favour among 

 the classic writers of Greece and Rome, the Egyp- 

 tians do not appear to have noticed it so far as to 

 give it a place in their paintings or their alphabet. 



Sphinx. 



The most distinguished post amongst fabulous 

 animals must be conceded to the Sphinx. It was 

 of three kinds, — the Andro- Sphin.%\ with the head 

 of a man and the body of a lion, denoting the union 

 of intellectual and physical ])ovver; the Crio-Spliin.r, 

 with the head of a ram and the body of a lion ; and 

 the Hieraco- Sphin.%\ with the same body and the 

 head of a hawk. They were all types or repre- 



* Plin. viii. 26. f Seneca, Nat. Qu. iv. p. 88G. 



\ Stra'jo, xvii. p. .567. Vide snprn, \o\.\M, p. 74. note. 



