THE SPHINX.
Providence has ordered, that as the plains of Egypt are not visited by showers, they should be fertilized by the overflowing of the Nile, which takes place annually, a little after the summer solstice. This phenomenon, the source of unfailing fertility in the vales of the Delta up to Memphis, and around the bases of the majestic and venerable pyramids, was of the greatest importance to the people of Misraim, from the far-famed Pharos to the frontiers of Ethiopia. It was therefore their interest to calculate correctly the season, the month, and nearly the hour, when the flood should begin; the more so, as the sudden invasion of the waters was dangerous to the inhabitants of the low lands, the meadows, and the fens, and often destroyed the cottages, and drowned the flocks and the improvident villagers. The star Sirius was remarked to emerge from the blazing halo of the sun about the time of the rising of the Nile; it was a warning, and was accordingly called the Dog-star, as if barking from the heavens to apprise the inhabitants of the valleys of the impending rise of the waters. The Egyptian astronomers, to mark the period, combined the signs of the zodiac answering to the two months during which the overflowing took place. These signs happening to be Leo and Virgo, the mystical fancy of the ancient Egyptians united them in one, and thus formed the figure of the Sphinx, which has the head and breast of a woman, and the body of a lion. This was a great enigma to the Greeks and Phœnicians who travelled to Egypt; they saw the monster, but could not comprehend its meaning. On returning to their respective countries, they invented the fable of the Sphinx offering riddles at the gates of Thebes, and destroying those who could not unravel them; having probably been told by the supercilious sages of that nation, that they who could not guess the meaning of the Sphinx were to forfeit their life in atonement for their ignorance. Long afterwards, the real sense of the symbol was forgotten, and Egypt in her superstition began to worship the emblem, of which innumerable figures still exist in that once flourishing country.
The Sphinx has been introduced in heraldry to adorn the gorgets of those general officers who distinguished themselves against the French on the banks of the Nile; it has also been adopted as an ornament in various decorations; and two specimens, exquisitely wrought, are seen on the front wall of Syon House, at Brentford, the seat of his Grace the Duke of Northumberland.
This chimerical figure is generally represented as sitting and at rest; a graceful attitude adopted by Egyptian sculptors, and imitated by the Greeks and Romans.
