Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art Part 13

SIMOORGH, a sort of griffin or hippogryph, which took some of its breast feathers for Tahmura's helmet. This creature forms a very striking figure in the epic poems of Saadi and Ferdusi, the Persian poets.

Milton also makes allusion to this mythical creature:

"So saying he caught him up, and without wing Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime Over the wilderness and o'er the plain."

_Paradise Regained_, iv.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Opinicus statant.]

The Opinicus, or Epimacus

This creature appears to be a variety of the griffin family. Authorities blazon it as having its body and four legs like those of a lion; the head and neck and wings like an eagle, and the short tail of a camel, sometimes borne sans wings.

Such a monster with wings endorsed or, was the crest of the _Barber Surgeons of London_.

_Two opinici vert, purfled or, beaked sable, wings gules_, support the insignia of the _Plasterers' Company_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Egyptian Sphynx.]

The Sphynx

"_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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 a.s.sociated 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 rec.u.mbent 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 pa.s.sed 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.

dipus 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 amph.o.r.e, 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 Mecaenas, 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 G.o.ds. "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 circ.u.mstance. "For," they say, "the word sphynx in the Chaldaean 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 Cun.o.beline (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 Cytheraea from the flashing bosom of the aegean, 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 pa.s.sant, wings endorsed argent crined or_, is the crest of Asgill (Bart. 1701).

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Sphynx pa.s.sant guardant, wings endorsed.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Phnix.]

The Phnix Bird of the Sun

"_Rara avis in terris._"

An imaginary bird, described by ancient writers as in form like an eagle, but more beautiful in its plumage. Among the ancient cla.s.sical writers it was an emblem of those existing in paradise, enjoying eternal youth and never-ending pleasure. Tacitus describes the phnix as a singular bird, consecrated to the sun, and distinguished by its rich appearance and variegated colours. Herodotus navely says: "I never saw one, indeed, but in a picture, but if he is like his picture his plumage is partly golden and partly red." Philippe de Thaun says: "The phnix lives five hundred years and a little more, when it will become young again and leave its old age." It was said to be sometimes seen in Egypt, and only one was believed to exist at a time. When it is advanced in age and its time of change is at hand, it hides itself away somewhere in Arabia, and makes itself a nest of the rarest spices, which, by the heat of the sun or other secret agency, and the fanning of the sacred bird's own wings, soon rises into flames and consumes it. Out of its ashes rises another with new life and vigour to pursue the same never-ending life and re-birth.

_Fum_ or _Fung_ (the phnix) is one of the four symbolical animals supposed to preside over the destinies of the Chinese Empire; the sacred _Ho-ho_ or phnix also figures with the dragon largely in j.a.panese mythology, and bears a striking a.n.a.logy to the bird of cla.s.sic fame. It is fabled to have a miraculous existence, and is sent on earth for the performance of extraordinary works in the manifestation of the Divinity and in the development of humanity and nature. It appears at different stages of the world's progress and in successive ages; after the accomplishment of which it reascends to heaven to come down again at the commencement of a new era.

From the pagans the Early Christians adopted the symbol, and with them its significance had reference to the resurrection and immortality. Like the pelican "in her piety," it was peculiarly an emblem of our Saviour in His resurrection. As the phnix when old and wearied seeks the rays of the sun to consume its body, again to be revived in life and vigour, so the Christian, worn and exhausted by worldly labour and suffering, turns to the Son of Righteousness for regeneration and newness of life. Tertullian makes the phnix an image of the resurrection.

In corroboration of this it must be borne in mind that Jesus Christ, who died A.D. 34, is termed _the phnix_ by monastic writers.

The Phnix period or cycle is said to consist of 300 years. "The bird of wonder" is said to have appeared in Egypt five times:

1. In the reign of Sesostris, B.C. 866.

2. In the reign of Amasis, B.C. 566.

3. In the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 266.

4. In the reign of Tiberius, 34 A.D.

5. In the reign of Constantine, 334 A.D.

Tacitus in the "_Annales_," vi. 28, mentions the first three of these appearances.

The _Phnix-tree_ is the palm. In Greek f????? (_phoinix_) means both phnix and palm-tree. It is thus alluded to in Shakespeare:

"Now will I believe ... that in Arabia There is one tree, the phnix throne--one phnix At this hour reigneth there."

_The Tempest_, Act iii. sc. 3.

Pliny[20] gives minute particulars concerning the natural history of this _rara avis in terris_. But the ancient fable is most fully given by Ovid and translated by Dryden. Ariosto, also, and many early writers refer to the wonderful creature with fullest faith in its reality. It is no wonder then, that it became a favourite emblem in an age when it was the fashion among persons of distinction to have an impress or device with its accompanying legend or motto. Many persons of historical importance employed the phnix to express in metaphor the idea they wished to convey regarding themselves. Thus we find the phnix in flames painted for the device of Jeanne d'Arc, in the Gallery of the Palais Royal, with the motto: "Invito funere vivat" ("Her death itself will make her live").