CONNECTED WITH HERALDRY, ETC, 131 



presentation of the sea, in numbers of heraldic devices, 

 arises out of the following mythological story. To obtain 

 the favour of Amphitrite, who had made a vow of eternal 

 celibacy, the god Neptune assumed the form of a dolphin, 

 and the nymph, as emblematical of her passion for the 

 sea, is always represented in a car drawn by dolphins. 



The ocean was a deity, whose protection was invoked 

 by the Romans on the occasion of any voyage ; he is re- 

 presented seated on the waves with grapes in his hair, and 

 dolphins in his head. By the goddess Tethys, whose 

 name is familiar as a poetical expression for the sea, he 

 was the father of the Oceanides, who ruled the tempest. 

 To his son Proteus, Oceanus confided the care of the fish, 

 or, as Yirgil says, according to Dryden, "to keep his 

 scaly flocks." 



"High o'er the main in watery pomp he rides, 

 His azure car and finny coursers guides." 



The dolphin of the ancients is more particularly famed 

 in the story of Arion, the celebrated musician of Lesbos, 

 the melodious sweetness of whose lyre attracted a number 

 of dolphins round his ship ; and when he afterwards 

 threw himself into the sea, in fear of his life, one of them 

 carried him safely on its back to the shore. This fable has 

 sometimes given rise to extravagant representations of 

 heraldry ; take one for an example : a musician standing 

 on the back of a dolphin, with the lines 



" A fiddler on a fish through waves advanced j 

 He twing'd his catgut, and the dolphin danced." 



