the Gorgons, were also
three in number; their names were Pephredo, Enyo, and Dino.

In their original conception they were merely personifications of kindly
and venerable old age, possessing all its benevolent attributes without its
natural infirmities. They were old and gray from their birth, and so they
ever remained. In later times, however, they came to be regarded as
misshapen females, decrepid, and hideously ugly, having only one eye, one
tooth, and one gray wig between them, which they lent to each other, when
one of them wished to appear before the world.

When Perseus entered upon his expedition to slay the Medusa, he repaired to
the abode of the Graeae, in the far {146} west, to inquire the way to the
Gorgons, and on their refusing to give any information, he deprived them of
their one eye, tooth, and wig, and did not restore them until he received
the necessary directions.

SPHINX.

The Sphinx was an ancient Egyptian divinity, who personified wisdom, and
the fertility of nature. She is represented as a lion-couchant, with the
head and bust of a woman, and wears a peculiar sort of hood, which
completely envelops her head, and falls down on either side of the face.

Transplanted into Greece, this sublime and mysterious Egyptian deity
degenerates into an insignificant, and yet malignant power, and though she
also deals in mysteries, they are, as we shall see, of a totally different
character, and altogether inimical to human life.

[Illustration]

The Sphinx is represented, according to Greek genealogy, as the offspring
of Typhon and Echidna.[48] Hera, being upon one occasion displeased with
the Thebans, sent them this awful monster, as a punishment for their
offences. Taking her seat on a rocky eminence near the city of Thebes,
commanding a pass which the Thebans were compelled to traverse in their
usual way of business, she propounded to all comers a riddle, and if they
failed to solve it, she tore them in pieces.

During the reign of King Creon, so many people had fallen a sacrifice to
this monster, that he determined to use every effort to rid the country of
so terrible a scourge. On consulting the oracle of Delphi, he was informed
that the only way to destroy the Sphinx was to solve one of her riddles,
when she would immediately precipitate herself from the rock on which she
was seated.

Creon, accordingly, made a public declaration to the effect, that whoever
could give the true interpretation o