Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-04-13
The Sphinx,

In times almost prehistoric, this
creature was born of Egypt's sad and
solemn mythology. Yes, that ancient
nation is the home of the Sphinx. Les.
irreverence should dare enter to the
worship of deity, there was need of a
mysterious being to keep guard at the
doors of the temple, and intimate the
mightier mysteries within. In this
tabled Sphinx were united the human
face and the body of the lion-symbol
of intellect and strength in the divine
attributes. Both religion and death
had mysteries. The Sphinx at the
porch of the temple and at the portal
of the tomb, intimated that there were
m ysteries in both; but what they were
she told to none. Her face wore an
eternal calm.
The Greeks borrowed the idea from
Egypt; but in the hands of her artists
it lost in grandeur, and in grace. The
Grecian idea was only that of mystery
And so to the Sphinx were given not
only human face and leonine body,
but the tail of serpent and the wings
Of bird, and the voice of man.
All the world knows the Grecian
fable. This monster infested the neigh
borhood of Thebes, proposing an enig.
ma, and devouring any who could not
guess it, but offering to destroy herself
if any one would give the true answer
She asked, "What animal walks on foui
legs in the morning, on two at noon
and on three at night?" Qdipus guess
ed the riddle, by declaring that man was
the animal, who, in the morning of life
creeps on all four, at middle age stands
erect on his feet, and in advanced life
uses staff on which to lean.
| But though the Greeks cut the form
of the creature on their temples, as did
| the Romans after thcm-an indication
of the mystery that attaches always to
religion-the place for the study of the
Sphinx is in Egypt. Everything about
the temple or tomb in that land is colos-
sal. Egyptian architecture stroye to inn
press not by beauty or grace, as did the
Grecian, but by vastness OF proportion,
by massive grandeur, by heaping OBJ
ject upon object, by repetition and &c
cumulation, by a gigantic exhibition OF
gigantic obiects-it strove to express
the infinite and the eternal. What the
Gothic architecture declares by the
pointed arch and the ribbed-stone,
meeting far up overheard il dim indis-
tinctness, that the Egyptian would say
by the accumulation CT masses, by
heap upon heap, by colossal labors, by
a multiplied monopoly; hence gigantic
pyramids temples, approached between
rows of gigantic Sphinxes.
At Karnac, where is found the largest
and most costly temple ever reared on
earth, the avenue connecting it Luxor
is mile in length; and this was crow
ded with these gigantic figures, placed,
as those still standing near the temple
attest, and only twenty feet apart. But
not one face of them all is uninjured.
As the Turk at Athens multitated near
ly every head of the statues, so in
Egypt, in his zeal against idols, he left
not one perfect. He acted ON the Irish
mans theory, and whenever he saw a
head, hit it. Some Of the more nearly
perfect ones were removed to the Brit
ish Museum and the French collections
One Of the wonders Of the world is
the great Sphinx that stands on the
edge Of the Lybian desert, seven miles
from Cairo. An eminence CT eolid
rock was hewn away, leavirg this
gigantic form. The assures were sup
piled by vast masses of stone; and
these jointed pieces, some of them
larger than a milestone, have fallen
away from the nose and chin. The
face is about 20 feet in height; the
whole length Of the creature was about
1870 feet, and the paws buried in the
sand are said to extend 30 feet in front.
Directly beneath the nose stood a vast
altar. and in front of the whole figure
was a broad roadway, leading up to
the great pyramid itself.
AS Sphinx never stood alone the
world is puzzled over the absence Of its