"_That monster whom the Theban knight
* * * * *
Made kill herself for very heart's despite
That he had read her riddle, which no wight
Could ever loose, but suffered deadly doole._"
SPENSER'S "Faerie Queen," Bk. v. cxi.
According to some heraldic writers, the sphynx should possess the head and
bust of a woman, the paws of a lion, the body of a dog, and the tail of a
dragon. In Lord Chancellor Bacon's book on "The Wisdom of the Ancients,"
there is an exposition of the meaning of the sphynx, which, says Dr.
Woodward, is as curious as the creature itself.
It frequently figures in heraldry as a convenient hieroglyph to
commemorate some service in Egypt. It is the crest of British families of
_Asgill_, Baronets _Lambert_, _Goatley_, &c., and appears in the arms of
_Sir John Moore_, the hero of Corunna.
[Illustration: Theban, or Greek Sphynx.]
The strange combination of human and animal features in the figure known
as the sphynx is of frequent occurrence in both Greek and Egyptian
mythology and art. The Egyptian sphynx is supposed to represent the
combination of physical power, or the kings, as incarnations of such
attributes. They are also associated with the special forms and attributes
of the great Egyptian deities Osiris and Ammon, Neph or Jupiter, and Phreh
or Helios. That is, we have the _man-sphynx_, the _ram-sphynx_, and the
_hawk-sphynx_, or the lion's body with the head of the man, the ram, or
the hawk, according to the deity worshipped. The sphynx itself was
probably a religious symbol of the Egyptians, which was transferred to
Greece, and subsequently underwent a change of meaning. Among the
Egyptians the sphynx seems to have been a symbol of Royal dignity
betokening a combination of wisdom and strength. By the Greeks, however,
it appears to have been regarded as the symbol of the burning
pestilence-breeding heat of the summer sun. The form of the Theban sphynx
was that of a lion, generally in a recumbent position, with the breast and
upper part of a beautiful woman, and was in imitation of the original male
sphynxes of Egypt. Greek Art was only acquainted with the sphynx in its
female form, and also departed from the Egyptian type by adding wings to
the lion's body.
"There is a great difference," says Sir Gardiner Wilkinson in his account
of the sphynx,[18] "between the Greek and Egyptian sphynxes. The latter is
human-headed, ram-headed, or hawk-headed, and is always male; while the
Greek is female, with the head of a woman, and always has wings, which the
Egyptian never has."
In the Greek story the monster was sent by Hera (Juno) to devastate the
land of Thebes. Seated on a rock close to the town, she put to every one
that passed by the riddle, "What walks on four legs in the morning, on two
legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?" Whoever was unable to
solve the riddle was cast by the sphynx from the rock into a deep abyss.
Œdipus succeeded in answering it, and thus delivered the country from
the monster, who cast herself into the abyss.
The sphynx occurs upon a coin of Chios (B.C. 478-412). It is represented
seated before an amphore, above which is a bunch of grapes. Chios was
famed for its wine, and the sphynx was a symbol of Dionysius.[19]
The Emperor Augustus, on his seal, used the device of the sphynx--"maid's
face, bird's wings, and lion's paws"--"implying," says Mrs. Bury Palliser
("Historical Devices," &c.), "that the secret intentions of a prince
should not be divulged. When Augustus was in Asia, he authorised Agrippa
and Mecænas, who administered affairs during his absence, to open and read
the letters he addressed to the Senate before any one else; and for this
purpose he gave them a seal upon which was engraved a sphynx, the emblem
of secrecy. The device gave occasion to ridicule, and to the saying that
it was not surprising if the sphynx proposed riddles; upon which Augustus
discontinued it, and adopted one with Alexander the Great, to show that
his ideas of dominion were not inferior to Alexander's. Subsequently
Augustus used his own effigy, which practice was continued by his
successors."
Maurice ("Oriental Trinities," p. 315) says the sphynx was the Egyptian
symbol of profound theological mystery, and was therefore placed on either
side of the _dromoi_, or paths leading to the temples of the gods. "They
are black," he says, "in allusion to the obscure nature of the deity and
his attributes. The white head-dress may allude to the linen tiaras
wrapped round the heads of the priests." The origin of the myth was not
definitely known even to the ancients. Some early writers say it was
symbolical of the overflowing of the Nile, which happened when the sun was
in the signs of Leo and Virgo; and that it had its name from this
circumstance. "For," they say, "the word sphynx in the Chaldæan language
signifies overflowing." The fact of the Egyptian sphynx being always male
does not, however, accord with this derivation.
A statue of the Theban sphynx found in Colchester, and now in the museum
of that town, gives the Greek conception of that creature. It is carved in
oolite, twenty-five inches high, evidently a relic of the Roman occupation
of Britain. It represents the monster seated over the mangled remains of
one of its victims. Llewellin Jewett, in the _Art Journal_ 1871, p. 113,
describes it as "combining the five-fold attributes of a virgin, a lion, a
bird, a dog, and a serpent. The head, breast and arms are those of a
beautiful virgin; the body and teats of a female dog; hinder parts, hind
legs and fore paws are those of a lioness; the tail doubled in short folds
is serpent, and the wings those of a bird."
The same writer says: "The sphynx appears on the reverses of some coins of
Cunobeline (Cymbeline, of Shakespeare), struck in the city of Camalodunum
(Colchester)."
The gigantic statue of the sphynx half buried in the sand near the Great
Pyramids, at Gizeh, is hewn and sculptured out of a spur of solid rock, to
which masonry was added in places to complete the form. The actual age of
the great sphynx is not known, but it is supposed to have been commenced
under Cheops and finished by order of King Chefren, under whose reign also
was probably built the second great pyramid. The able author of "Eothen"
thus describes the appearance of the sphynx of Egypt, and the sentiments
to which its contemplation gave rise in his mind: "And near the Pyramids,
more numerous and more awful than all else in the land of Egypt, there
rests the lonely sphynx. Comely the creature is, but the comeliness is not
of this world. The once worshipped beast is a deformity and a monster to
this generation, and yet you can see that these lips, so thick and heavy,
were fashioned according to some ancient mould of beauty--some mould of
beauty now forgotten--forgotten because that Greece drew forth Cytheræa
from the flashing bosom of the Ægean, and in her image created new forms
of beauty, and made it a law among men that the short and proudly wreathed
lips should stand for the sign and main condition of loveliness through
all generations to come! Yet there still lives on the race of those who
were beautiful in the fashion of the elder world; and Christian girls of
Coptic blood will look on you with sad, curious gaze, and kiss your
charitable hand with the big pouting lips of the very sphynx. Laugh and
mock if you will at the worship of stone idols; but mark ye this, ye
breakers of images, that in one regard the stone idol bears awful
semblance of deity--unchangefulness in the midst of change--the same
seeming will and intent for ever inexorable! Upon ancient dynasties of
Ethiopian and Egyptian kings--upon Greek and Roman, upon Arab and Ottoman
conquerors--upon Napoleon dreaming of an Eastern empire--upon battle and
pestilence--upon the ceaseless misery of the Egyptian race--upon keen-eyed
travellers--Herodotus yesterday and Warburton to-day--upon all, and more,
this unworldly sphynx has watched, and watched like a Providence, with the
same earnest eyes and the same sad, tranquil mien. And we shall die, and
Islam shall wither away; and the Englishman, straining far over to hold
his loved India, will plant a firm foot on the banks of the Nile, and sit
on the seats of the faithful; and still that sleepless rock will lie
watching and earnest the work of the new busy race with those same sad
eyes and the same tranquil mien everlasting. You dare not mock at the
sphynx." The conclusion of this rhapsody at the present time sounds almost
like a half-fulfilled prophecy.
The sphynx is the special device of several British regiments which landed
in Egypt, in the Bay of Aboukir, in the face of the French Army; and
borne as a memento of the battle of Alexandria, when General Sir Ralph
Abercrombie fell in the moment of victory. It also appears upon the war
medals of the English occupation of Egypt, resulting in the battle of
Tel-el-Kebir, 1882, and subsequent victories. In heraldry the sphynx is
usually couchant; it is, however, borne in other positions, sometimes
winged, and when so borne the wings are always endorsed, _i.e._, back to
back.
_A sphynx passant, wings endorsed argent crined or_, is the crest of
Asgill (Bart. 1701).
[Illustration: A Sphynx passant guardant, wings endorsed.]
[Illustration: The Phœnix.]