Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/312

 282 A History of Art in Anxient Egypt. head, which was always that of a king, with a Hon's body, must have been a result of the national love for symbolism. The king himself, as represented by this association of physical with intellectual strength, acted as guardian of the building which he had founded. There was a radical distinction between the Greek sphinx and that of the Egyptians. The latter propounded no enigma to the passer-by, and the author of the treatise, U/>on /s?s and Osiris was in sympathy with his times when he wrote : ' There was nothing behind the mysteries of the Egyptians but their philosophy, which was seen as if through a veil. Thus they placed sphinxes before the gates of their temples, meaning by that to say that their theology contained all the secrets of wisdom Fig. 237. — Bronze lion, Boulak. Drawn by Bourgoin. under an enigmatic form.' Evidently, the Egyptians did not mean so much as is sometimes thought." ^ We have already reproduced many examples of what may be called the classic form of sphinx, his head covered with the klaft and his paws extended before him (Figs. 41 and 157, Vol. I.). But the type included several secondary varieties. Sometimes the forepaws are replaced by human hands holding symbolic objects (Figs. 227 and 238) ; sometimes the head of a hawk is substituted for that of a man. The animals which form many of the dromoi at Karnak are called crio-sphinxes (Fig. 205, Vol. L), but the ^ Mariettk, Voyage datis la Haute-Egypte, vol. ii. p. 9.