S P H 



bafs ; tVie three firll fegments of the abdomen are ferru- 

 ginous ; the bafe and tip are black. 



CocciNEA. Black ; antenna, jsws, tip of the abdo- 

 men, and (hanks, fcarlet ; thorax with a tooth on each fide 

 behind ; wings yellow, the hind margin brown. 



SpiNiPES. Black, hairy; wings yellow; the hind mar- 

 gin brown, with a black fpot at the bafe of the upper pair ; 

 fegments of the abdomen vary from two to four, which are 

 yellow on the hind margin of each fide. Its abode is not 

 known. 



Guttata. Black ; with white lines and dots ; wings 

 pale yellow ; legs rufous. 



Leucomellis. Black ; wings white towards the hind 

 margin ; firit fegment of the abdomen white on each fide ; 

 the third with an ovate white fpot on the back ; the four 

 hind-legs are rufous. 



Melanochlora. Black ; abdomen ferruginous at the 

 bafe. This is an European infedl. 



Testacea. Black ; legs and abdomen teftaccous, the 

 latter brown at the tip. 



Caspa. The abdomen of this is black, with four yellow 

 elevated bands ; the three upper ones mterfe£led by a trian- 

 gular black fpot. It inhabits near the Cafpian fea. 



SPHINCTER, m Anatomy, a name given to mufcles 

 which furround, and have the office of clofing, certain 

 openings. 



Sphi.vcter v/n/, the mufcle furrounding the extremity of 

 the large inteltine. See Intestine. 



Sphikcter Lahhrum, the fame as the orbicularis oris. 



See DEGLtTITlON. 



Sphincter Ir'idh. See Eye. 



Sphincter CEjb^ha^i. See Deglutition. 



Sphincter Vagimt. See the defcription of that canal 

 under Gener.^tion. 



Sphincter Vefut. See the defcription of the urinary 

 bladder under Kidney. 



SPHINX, a-iiyl, in Sculpture, &c. a figure or reprefent- 

 ation of amonfter of that name, famed among the ancients, 

 now moftly ufed as an ornament in gardens, terraces, &c. 



It is reprefented with the head and breafts of a woman, 

 the wings of a bird, the claws of a lion, and the reft of the 

 body like a dog or lion. 



It is fuppofed to have been engendered by Typhon, and 

 fent by Juno to be revenged on the Thebans. Its office, 

 they fay, was to propofe dark enigmatical queltions to all 

 pafTers by ; and, if they did not give the exphcation of them, 

 to devour them. 



It made horrible ravages, as the ttory goes, on a mountain 

 near Thebes, and could not by any means be deitroyed, till 

 after CEdipus had folved the following riddle : What animal 

 is it that in the morning walks on four legs, at noon on two, 

 and at night on three ? The anfwer was, Man. 



Among the Egyptians, the fphinx was the fymbol of reli- 

 gion, by reafon of the otjfcnrity of its mylteries. And, on 

 the fame account, the Romans placed a fphinx in the pronaos 

 or porch of their temples. 



Sphinxes were ufed by the Egyptians to fhew the begin, 

 ning of the water's rifing in the Nile : with this view, as it 

 had the he4d of a woman and body of a lion, it fignified that 

 the Nile began to fwell in the months of July and Augult, 

 when the fun pafTes through the figns of Leo and Virgo. 

 Accordingly it was a hieroglyphic, which taught the people 

 the period of the mod important event in the year, as the 

 fwelling and overflowing of the Nile gave fertility to Egypt. 

 Accordingly they were multiphed without end, fo that they 

 were to be feen before all their temples, and before all their 

 remarkable monuments. 



S P H 



There are feveral of thefe ftill to be feen ; one in particular, 

 near the pyramids, facing the fecond pyramid on the eaftem 

 fide, much fpoken of by the ancients, being of a prodigious 

 fize, and cut out of the rock ; the head and neck only ap- 

 pear at prefent, the reft of the body being hid in the fand. 

 The top of its back only is vifible, which is more than too 

 feet long. It is of one fingle ftone, making part of the 

 rock on which the pyramids are placed. Its head rifes about 

 twenty-nine feet above the fand. This, according to Theve- 

 not, is twenty -fix feet high, and fifteen feet from the ear to 

 the chin ; but Pliny affures us, the head was no lefs than 

 one hundred and two feet in circumference, and fixty-two 

 feet high from the belly, and that the body was one hundred 

 and forty-three feet long, and was thought to be the fepul- 

 chre of king Amafis. 



Some have fuggefted, that the well of the great pyramid 

 led to this monller, and that the priefta reforted thither at 

 certain times to pronounce their oracles; alleging, that a 

 hole placed at the top of the fphinx's head anfwered their 

 purpofe ; but this hole is only five feet deep, and commu- 

 nicates neither with the mouth nor with the infide of the 

 monfter. The Arabs, infpired by Mahomet with a horror 

 for all reprefentations of men and animals, have disfigured 

 its face with arrows and lances. Some have urged, without 

 fufficient reafon, that the fphinx countenances the opinion 

 that the Egyptians were black, the face of that ftatue having 

 been faid to refemble the negro. The itatues of the Nile, 

 it is faid, were made of black marble, in allufion to his 

 coming from Ethiopia. If the fphinx was a fymbol that had 

 any relation to this fubjeft, might not the negro face be 

 given to it for a fimilar reafon ? It would hardly have been 

 thought neceflary to explain why the figure of the Nile wa» 

 black, if the complexion of the natives had been generally 

 acknowledged of the fame tinge. 



The fmall ftatues of Ifis, &c. frequently found among the 

 ruins of Egypt, are far from refeinbling thofe of the negro : 

 the fame obfervation is applicable ti the figures in alto 

 relievo and bafib relievo, on the walls of Thebes, in the caverns 

 of Gebelel-Silfili, &c. Of the coloflal ftatues at Thebes, 

 the features are too much damaged to be adduced in proof 

 of the pretended faift. 



The learned Mr. Bryant (Anc. Mythol. vol. iii. p. 532.) 

 obferves, that the fphinx feems to iiave been originally a 

 vaft rock of different ftrata ; which, from a fhapelefs mafs,, 

 the Egyptians falhioned into an objeft of beauty and 

 veneration. 



The Egyptians ufed this figure in their building ; from 

 them the Greeks derived it, and afterwards improved it into 

 an elegant ornament. 



Sphinx, the Hawk-moth, in Entomology, a genus of infefts 

 of the order Lepidoptera, of which the generic charafter is as 

 follows : Antennx fomewhat prifmatic, tapering at each 

 end ; the tongue is exferted ; feelers two, reflefted ; the 

 wings are deflefted. 



The infefts of this genus, of which there are nearly two 

 hundred fpecics, fly abroad only in the morning and evening;, 

 they are very flow on the wing, and often make a humming 

 kind of noife : they extract the neflar of flowers with the 

 tongue. The generic name, fphinx, is applied on account of 

 the potture afTuraed by the larvae of feveral of the larger 

 fpecies, which are often feen in an attitude much refembling 

 that of the Egyptian fphinx, viz. with the fore-parts ele. 

 vated, and the reil of the body applied flat to the furface. 



The larva has fixteen feet, and is pretty aftive ; that of 

 the Zygnna, a divifion of this genus, is thick and flat, and 

 covered with (hort hairs ; that of the Sefa Is generally naked,, 

 unarmed, and thinner towards the head ; the others have a 



fharfj 



