CHAP. XIV. SPHINX, TYPE OF THE KING. 201 



sentatives of the king. The two last were pro- 

 bably so figured in token of respect to the two 

 Deities wliose heads they bore, Neph and Re; tlie 

 other great Deities, Amun, Khem, Pthah, and 

 Osiris, having human heads, and tlierefore all con- 

 nected with the form of the Andro-Sphinx. The 

 king was not only represented under the mys- 

 terious figure of a Sphinx, but also of a ram, and of 

 a hawk ; and this last had, moreover, the peculiar 

 signification of " PA;y/A," or Pharaoh, ^^ tJie Sun" 

 personified by the monarch. 



The inconsistency, therefore, of making the 

 Sphinx female, is sufficiently obvious. 



Sphinxes were frequently placed before the 

 temples, on either side of the dromos^ or approach 

 to the outer gate. Sometimes lions, and even rams, 

 were substituted for them, and formed the same 

 kind of avenues ; as at the great temple of Karnak, 

 at Thebes ; a small figure of the king being oc- 

 casionally attached to them, or placed between 

 their paws. When represented in the sculptures, 

 a Deity is often seen presenting the Sphinx with 

 the sign of life, or other divine gifts usually vouch- 

 safed by the Gods to a king ; as well as to the ram 

 or hawk, when in the same capacity, as an em- 

 blem of a Pharaoh. Instances of this occur on 

 several of the obelisks and dedicatory inscriptions. * 



Pliny t mentions Sphinxes and other fabulous 

 monsters, who were supposed to live in Ethiopia; 

 and the Egyptian sculptures, as I have already 



* Vide supra. Vol. 1. (2d iSeries) p. 288. Woodcut, No. 448. 

 -f- Pliii. viii. 21.; Sti\.bo, xvii. p. 533. ^lian considers it fabulous, 

 (xii. 7.) 



