The Egyptians were as much impressed as other eastern peoples by the strength and beauty of these animals, which in their days must have abounded in the deserts of Syria and Ethiopia. They were chosen to be the emblems of royal courage;[273] a lion's head was placed upon the shoulders of Hobs, and that of a lioness upon the shoulders of Sekhet. Finally it was from the lion that the first idea of that fictitious animal which the Greeks called a sphinx, was taken. [273] At Tell-el-Amarna we find the lion marching by the side of the king (LEPSIUS, _Denkmæler_, vol. vi. pl. 100). "At first the sphinx can have been nothing but a lion placed to guard the entrance to a temple. The combination of a man's head, which was always that of a king, with a lion'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, _Upon Isis 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 under an enigmatic form.' Evidently, the Egyptians did not mean so much as is sometimes thought."[274] [274] MARIETTE, _Voyage dans la Haute-Égypte_, vol. ii. p. 9. [Illustration: FIG. 237.--Bronze lion, Boulak. Drawn by Bourgoin.] 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. I.), but the name is an unhappy one, because they have nothing in common with a sphinx but the position. They are rams and nothing else. The Greek word σφίγξ is feminine. The sphinx with female breasts is, however, very rare in Egypt. Wilkinson only knew of one, in which the Queen Mut-neter of the eighteenth dynasty was represented.[275] [275] Upon the significance of the sphinx and its different varieties, see WILKINSON, _Manners and Customs_, etc. vol. iii. pp. 308-312. Wilkinson brings together on a single plate (vol. ii. p. 93) all the fantastic animals invented by the Egyptians. See also MASPERO, _Mémoire sur la Mosaïque de Palestrine (Gazette Archéologique, 1879)_. [Illustration: FIG. 238.--Sphinx with human hands. Bas-relief; from Prisse.]