Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art Part 22

Travellers' tales are notoriously hard of belief, and must be taken _c.u.m grano salis_. We learn from Sir Thomas Herbert, an early voyager, that when he was on the coast of Sanquehar, a large kingdom on the east side of the Cape of Good Hope, he "saw there great numbers of dolphins," of which he says: "They much affect the company of men, and are nourished like men; they are always constant to their mates, tenderly affected to their parents, feeding and defending them against hungry fishes when they are old," and much more information equally astonis.h.i.+ng.

A story is related of a man who once went to a mufti and asked him whether the flesh of the sea-pig (the dolphin) was lawful food. Without any hesitation the mufti declared that pig's flesh was unlawful at all times and under all circ.u.mstances. Some time after another person submitted the question to the same authority, whether the _fish_ of the sea, called the sea-pig, was lawful food. The mufti replied: "Fish is lawful food by whatever name it may be called."

CLa.s.sIC FABLE AND MEDIaeVAL LEGEND have shed a halo of romantic interest around the dolphin which cleaves to it even to the present hour; the rare event of a dolphin being caught in British waters revives with a thrill all the old-world stories and historic a.s.sociations of this famous fish as if it were a veritable relic of the golden age. The dolphin of fact we have found to be quite a different creature from what he is pictured by the ancients. The mariner may be engulfed by "the yawning, das.h.i.+ng, furious sea," but no generous dolphin now watches with tender eye, solicitous for his safety, nor offers his ready back to speed him to the sh.o.r.e.

The dolphin of our modern poets and sailors--the swift swimmer that leaps after the flying-fish and frolics in front of the vessel's prow until he is caught by the glittering tin--is the _Coryphaena hippurus_, the species famed for its changing tints when taken from the water. During a calm, these fishes, when swimming about a s.h.i.+p, appear of a brilliant blue or purple, s.h.i.+ning with a metallic l.u.s.tre in every change of reflected light.

On being captured and brought on deck, the variety of these tints is very beautiful. The bright purple and golden yellow hues change to brilliant silver, varying back again into the original colours, purple and gold.

This alteration of tints continues for some time, diminis.h.i.+ng in intensity, and at last settles down into a dull leaden hue. The iridescent lines which play along its elegant curves as he lies on deck has awakened the enthusiasm of many a writer. Byron tells us in a beautiful simile:

"Parting day Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues With a new l.u.s.tre, as it gasps away, The last still loveliest, till 'tis gone--and all is grey."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dolphin of cla.s.sic art.]

It is needless to say that the legendary dolphin is not to be confounded with the gay and graceful _coryphaena_ to whom alone belong those rainbow flashes of colour in dying. The common dolphin (_Delphinus delphis_) is dark on the back and satiny white beneath but not even in the agonies of death does he change colour, though like all dead things the body becomes slightly phosph.o.r.escent during decomposition. There are two curious fresh water dolphins, the Sooloo of the Ganges and the Inia of the Amazon, which form the connecting-link between the herbaceous and carnivorous cetacea.

The dolphin (de?f??) may be considered an accessory symbol of Apollo, who, as we read in the Homeric hymns, once took the form of a dolphin when he guided the Cretan s.h.i.+p to Crissa, whence, after commanding the crew to burn the s.h.i.+p and erect an altar to him as Apollo Delphinios, he led them to Delphi, and appointed them to be the first priests of his temple.

The dolphin is the most cla.s.sic of fishes, the favourite of Apollo, and sacred to that bright divinity, deriving his name from the oracular Delphi, that mysterious spot, "the earth's umbilicus," the very centre of the world, Delphi or Delphos, a town in Phocis, famous for its oracle in the Temple of Apollo, upon the walls of which were sculptured the _Helios ichthus_, Apollo's fish.

In the legend of Tarento, Phalantus, heading the Patheniae, was driven from Sparta and s.h.i.+pwrecked off the coast of Italy, and escaped on a friendly dolphin's back to Tarentum. We learn from Aristotle that the youthful figure seated on the dolphin, which is the most common type on the coins of this city, was intended for Taras, a son of Poseidon, from whom the city is said to have derived its name.

The dolphins, "the arrows of the sea," were the great carriers of ancient times. Not only did they bear the Nereides safely on their backs, but Arion, the sweet singer, when forced to leap into the sea to escape the mariners who would have murdered him, had previously so charmed the dolphins by his playing that they gathered round the s.h.i.+p and one of them bore Arion safely to Taenarus, whilst the musician

"with harmonious strains Requites his bearer for his friendly pains."

The cla.s.sic myth of Arion and the dolphin, like many other pagan fictions, was invested by the early Christians with an entirely different signification, and in the sculptures and frescoes of the catacombs and other symbolic representations of the Christian converts, the frequent introduction of the dolphin "points not to the deliverer of Arion, but to Him who through the waters of baptism opens to mankind the paths of deliverance, causing them to so pa.s.s the waves of this troublesome world that finally they may come to the land of everlasting life."

The poet Licophron says Ulysses bore a dolphin on his s.h.i.+eld, on the pommel of his sword, as well as on his ring, in commemoration of the extraordinary escape of his son Telemachus, who when young fell into the sea and was taken up by a dolphin and safely brought on sh.o.r.e. Pliny and others relate a story of one of these fishes which frequented the Lake Lucrin: "A boy who went every day to school from Baia to Puzzoli used to feed this dolphin with bread, and it became at last so familiar with the boy that it carried him often on its back over the bay."

The dolphins were early symbols on the coins of aegina, and though abandoned for a time were afterwards resumed; and they appear upon later and well-known coins of that State accompanied by the wolf and other national devices. Argos had anciently two dolphins; Syracuse, a winged sea-dog, a dolphin, &c.; Teneos (Cyclades) two dolphins and a trident. The dolphin and trident figures also upon coins of the ancient city of Byzantium, signifying probably the sovereignty of the seas. It is even figured by the ancients as a constellation in the heraldry of the heavens.

In botany it lives in larkspurs called delphiniums, from their curious petals and the slender segments of their leaves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Coin of aegina.]

The dolphin and anchor is a famous historic symbol. t.i.tus, Emperor of Rome, took the device of a dolphin twisted round an anchor, to imply, like the emblem of Augustus, the medium between haste and slowness, the anchor being the symbol of delay, as it is also of firmness and security, while the dolphin is the swiftest of fish. This device appears also upon the coins of Vespasian, the father of t.i.tus. The anchor was also used as a signet ring by Seleneus, King of Syria. The dolphin and anchor was also used, with the motto "Festina lente" ("Hasten slowly"), by the Emperor Adolphus of Na.s.sau, and by Admiral Chabot. The family of Onslow bear the same for crest and motto.

Aldus Manutius, the celebrated Venetian printer, adopted this well-known device from a silver medal presented to him by Cardinal Bembo, with the motto in Greek "hasten slowly." Camerarius describes this sign in his book of symbols "to represent that maturity in business which is the medium between too great haste and slowness." "When violent winds disturb the sea the anchor is cast by seamen, the dolphin winds herself round it out of a particular love for mankind, and directs it as with a human intellect so that it may more safely take hold of the ground; for dolphins have this peculiar property that they can, as it were, foretell storms. The anchor then signifies a stay and security whilst the dolphin is a hieroglyphic for philanthropy and safety."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

This sign was afterwards adopted by William Pickering, a worthy "Discipulus Aldi" as he styles himself. Sir Egerton Bridges has some verses upon it, amongst which occur the following:

"Would thou still be safely landed, On the Aldine anchor ride; Never yet was vessel stranded, With the dolphin by its side.

"Nor time nor envy shall ever canker, The sign which is my lasting pride; Joy then to the Aldus anchor And the dolphin at its side.

"To the dolphin as we're drinking, Life and health and joy we send; A poet once he saved from sinking, And still he lives the poet's friend."

The dolphin was the insignia of the Eastern Empire--the Empire of Constantinople. The Courteneys, a n.o.ble Devons.h.i.+re family, still bear the dolphin as crest and badge, and the melancholy motto, "Ubi lapsus? Quid feci?" ("Whither have I fallen? What have I done?"), "a touching allusion," says Miss Millington ("Heraldry in History and Romance"), "to the misfortunes of their race, three of whom filled the imperial throne of Constantinople during the time that city was in possession of the Latins after the siege of 1204. Expelled at length by the Greeks, Baldwin, the last of the three, wandered from Court to Court throughout Europe vainly seeking aid to replace him upon the throne."

A branch of the imperial Courteneys settled in England during the reign of Henry II., and their descendants were among the princ.i.p.al Barons of the realm. Three Earls of Courteney perished on the scaffold during the Wars of the Roses; the family was restored to favour by Henry VII. Another Courteney, the Marquis of Exeter, became first the favourite, and subsequently the victim of the brutal tyrant Henry VIII. His son Edward, after being long a prisoner in the tower, ended his days in exile, and the family estates pa.s.sed into other hands.

Sir William Courteney, of Powderham Castle, Devon (_temp._ Edw. IV.), bore emblazoned on his standard three dolphins in reference to the purple of three Emperors.

The Arms of Peter Courteney, Bishop of Exeter, 1478, is still to be seen in the episcopal palace environed with the dolphins of Constantinople.

The Dauphin of France

[Ill.u.s.tration: Banner of the Dauphin.]

In France the bearing of the dolphin was exclusively restricted to the Dauphin or heir to the throne of the kingdom. Brydson mentions that one of the first of the troubadours was called the Dauphin, or Knight of the Dolphin, from bearing that figure on his s.h.i.+eld, adding that "the name in his successors became a t.i.tle of sovereign dignity."

The t.i.tle "Dauphin," borne by the eldest son and heir-apparent of the kings of France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, originated in the Dauphins of Viennois, sovereigns of the province of Dauphine. Guy VIII., Count of Vienne, was the first so styled. The t.i.tle descended in the family till 1349, when Humbert II., _de la Tour de Pisa_, sold his seigneurie, called the Dauphine, to Philippe VI. (de Valois), on condition that the heir of France a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of "Le Dauphin." The first French prince so called was Jean, who succeeded Philippe; and the last was the Duc d'Angouleme, son of Charles X., who renounced the t.i.tle in 1830.

In 1601, when Louis XIII. was born, there had not been a Dauphin since Francis II. (the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots)--eighty-four years. The province of Dauphine sent a deputation to Fontainebleau, headed by the Archbishop of Vienne, to recognise the infant as their sovereign, and make him a present of an entire service of richly chased plate with various figures of dolphins, estimated at 12,000 crowns.

GRAND DAUPHIN.--Louis, duc de Bourgogne, eldest son of Louis XIV., for whom was published the edition of the Latin cla.s.sics ent.i.tled "Ad usum Delphini" (1661-1711).

SECOND, OR LITTLE DAUPHIN.--Louis, son of the Grand Dauphin (1682-1712).

Shakespeare, by an anachronism of a hundred years, introduced into King John

"Lewis, the Dauphin and the heir of France."

Mary Queen of Scots bore the t.i.tle on her marriage in 1558 to the Dauphin, afterwards Francis II., and styled by her adherents:

"Mary, Queen, and Dolphiness of Fraunce, The n.o.billest lady in earth."

The Heraldic Dolphin

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example--Dolphin embowed.]

The heraldic dolphin, as usually represented by modern heralds, is an ornamental monstrosity bearing but slight resemblance to the natural form of this celebrated historic marine symbol; a nearer resemblance to the natural shape is decidedly preferable. Some of the early heraldic representations, though a little crude, are very characteristic and thoroughly heraldic in treatment, though at the same time very unlike the real dolphin.

In its series of leaps out of the water the dolphin appears with high arched back, just as we see it represented in antique works; its natural shape, however, is straight, the back being but slightly curved. The broad tail paddle being placed in a horizontal position necessitates an up and down stroke, which makes their swimming to appear a series of leaps and divings. Like its near relative the porpoise, it is an air-breathing animal; its apparent gambollings on the water may, therefore, be more truly attributed to its breathing and blowing whilst in pursuit of its prey.

The Dolphin is generally, if not always, depicted in heraldry _embowed_, that is, having its back greatly incurvated. In blazon the word _Dolphin_, alone, implies that its natural position, _naiant_ (swimming) and embowed, is understood, but for the sake of accuracy it is better always to give the description in full, as a doubt may arise as to the omission of a word indicating its position.

_Torqued_, _torquend_, _torgant_, or _targant_, from the Latin _torquere_, to twist, are old terms for embowed, or bowed embowed, bent in the form of the letter S, turning contrary ways at each bending; applicable also to serpents.

_Hauriant_, from the Latin _ab hauriendo_, is a term applied to fishes generally when placed in an upright position or _in pale_, as if putting the head above water to get air.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hauriant]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Urinant]