FABULOUS MONSTERS.
_Ques._ Were there any fabulous monsters besides those of Hell?
_Ans._ Yes, many; the Centaurs, who were half man and half horse; also
Geryon, who was king of the three Balearic Islands, now known as
Ivica, Minorca and Majorca. For this reason, he was said to have three
heads and three bodies, and passed into fable as a monster. He was
probably a wicked and cruel prince. There were also the Harpies, which
had the faces of women and the bodies of birds.
_Ques._ What was the Chimæra?
_Ans._ A fabulous monster, which vomited fire. It had the head and
breast of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon.
_Ques._ What was intended by this fable?
_Ans._ Poets thus described a volcano in Lycia, on the summit of which
were lions; in the middle was pasture-land frequented by goats; and
the lowest part was infested by serpents. Bellerophon made this
mountain inhabitable, and was therefore said to have killed the
Chimæra. At present anything which is quite imaginary is called a
Chimæra.
_Ques._ What was the Sphinx?
_Ans._ It was a monster with the head and shoulders of a woman, the
wings of a bird, and the paws of a lion. She infested the country
about Thebes, so that the people, in their distress, went to consult
the oracle of Apollo. An answer was given that no remedy could be
found until some one should solve the riddle that the Sphinx had
proposed, and which she had learned from the Muses. The question was
this: "What animal is that which goes on four feet in the morning, on
two at noon, and on three in the evening?" The Thebans often met to
try their skill, and when they had failed, the Sphinx carried off and
devoured one of their number. At length Hæmon, son of Creon, was
destroyed by the monster, and the king made a public proclamation,
that he would give the throne, with the hand of his sister Jocasta, to
that man who should solve the riddle. Oedipus, who was then at Thebes,
came forward and answered the Sphinx, that the animal was Man, because
when an infant he creeps on all fours; in manhood, he walks on two
feet, and when old uses a staff as a third foot. Upon hearing this
answer, the Sphinx dashed her head against a rock, and expired.
_Ques._ Why is the story of the Sphinx interesting?
_Ans._ Because there still remains in Egypt an enormous statue of the
monster, carved in solid rock. Formerly, little was visible save the
head and neck, but the sand which has been gathering around it for so
many centuries, is now cleared away. The body is one hundred and
twenty-five feet long; and the fore-paws extend about fifty feet more.
The face has been much disfigured by the arrows and lances of the
Arabs, who are taught by their religion to hold all images of men or
animals in detestation.
_Ques._ What was the Phoenix?
_Ans._ A fabulous bird of which there never existed more than one at
the same time. It excelled all other birds in beauty of plumage, and
fed only on frankincense and sweet gums. When the Phoenix had attained
the age of five hundred years, it built a funeral pile of odorous
wood, on which it was consumed. A new Phoenix also immediately arose
from the flames. The first care of the young bird was to collect the
ashes of its parent, which it carried, enclosed in myrrh, to the
temple of the Sun in Egypt.