as in a store house, and from thence being hungry, they take it forth to eat, making it ordinary with them every day, which is but annuall in the Formicæ lions; being of very unquiet motions above other Apes. They are hardly taken, except sicke, great with yong, old or asleepe; for Sylla had a Satyre brought him, which was taken asleepe neare Apollonia, in the holy place Nymphæum, of whom he (by divers interpreters) demanded many questions, but received no answer, save only a voice very much like the neighing of a horse, wherof he being afraid, sent him away alive.
“Philostratus telleth another history, how that Apollonius and his colleagues, supping in a village of Ethiopia, beyond the fall of Nilus, they heard a sudden outcry of women calling to one another; some saying, Take him, others, Follow him; likewise provoking their husbands to helpe them: the men presently tooke clubs, stones, or what came first to hand, complaining of an injury done unto their wives. Now some ten moneths before, there had appeared a fearfull shew of a Satyre, raging upon their women, and had slain two of them, with whom he was in love: the companions of Apollonius quaked at the hearing hereof, and Nilus, one of them, swore (by Jove) that they being naked and unarmed, could not be able to resist him in his outragious lust, but that he would accomplish his wantonnes as before: yet, said Apollonius, there is a remedy to quaile these wanton-leaping beasts, which men say Midas used (for Midas was of kindred to Satyres, as appeared by his eares). This Midas heard his mother say, that Satyres loved to be drunke with wine, and then sleep soundly, and after that, be so moderate, mild and gentle, that a man might thinke they had lost their first nature.
“Whereupon he put wine into a fountain neere the highway, whereof, when the Satyre had tasted, he waxed meeke suddenly, and was overcome. Now that we thinke not this a fable (saith Apollonius) let us go to the Governor of the Towne, and inquire of him whether there be any wine to be had that we may offer it to the Satyre, wherunto all consented, and they filled foure great Egyptian earthen vessels with wine, and put it in the fountain where their cattel were watred: this done, Apollonius called the Satyre, secretly thretning him, and the Satire, inraged with the savour of the wine came; after he had drunke thereof, Now, said Apollonius, let us sacrifice to the Satyre, for he sleepeth, and so led the inhabitants to the dens of the Nymphs, distant a furlong from the towne, and shewed them the Satyre saying; Neither beat, cursse, or provoke him henceforth, and he shall never harme you.
“It is certaine, that the devills do many waies delude men in the likeness of Satyres; for, when the drunken feasts of Bacchus were yearely celebrated in Parnassus, there were many sightes of Satyres, and voyces, and sounding of cymbals heard: yet it is likely that there are men also like Satyres, inhabiting in some desart places; for S. Ierom, in the life of Paul the Eremite, reporteth that there appeared to S. Anthony, an Hippocentaure such as the Poets describe, and presently he saw, in a rocky valley adjoining, a little man having croked nostrils, hornes growing out of his forhed, and the neather part of his body had Goat’s feet; the holy man, not dismayed, taking the shield of faith, and the breastplate of righteousnesse, like a good souldior of Christ, pressed toward him, which brought him some fruites of palmes as pledges of his peace, upon which he fed in the journey; which Saint Anthony perceiving, he asked him who he was, and received this answere; I am a mortall creature, one of the inhabitants of this Desart, whom the Gentiles (deceived with error) doe worship, and call Fauni, Satyres, and Incubi: I am come in ambassage from our flocke, intreating that thou would’st pray for us unto the common GOD, who came to save the world; the which words were no sooner ended, but he ran away as fast as any foule could fly. And least this should seeme false, under Constantine at Alexandria there was such a man to be seene alive, and was a publick spectacle to all the World; the carcasse thereof, after his death, was kept from corruption by heat, through salt, and was carried to Antiocha that the Emperor himself might see it.
“Satyres are very sildom seene, and taken with great difficulty, as is before saide: for there were two of these founde in the woods of Saxony towards Dacia, in a desart, the female was killed by the darts of the hunters, and the biting of Dogs, but the male was taken alive, being in the upper parts like a man, and in the neather partes like a Goat, but all hairy throughout: he was brought to be tame, and learned to go upright, and also to speake some wordes, but with a voice like a Goat, and without all reason.
“The famous learned man George Fabricius, shewed me this shape of a monstrous beast that is fit to be joyned to the story of Satyres. There was, (saide he,) in the territory of the Bishop of Salceburgh, in a forrest called Fannesbergh, a certaine foure-footed beast, of a yellowish carnation colour, but so wilde that he would never be drawne to looke upon any man, hiding himselfe in the darkest places, and beeing watched diligently, would not be provoked to come forth so much as to eate his meate – so that in a very short time it was famished. The hinder legs were much unlike the former, and also much longer. It was taken about the year of the Lord, one thousand five hundred, thirty, whose image being here so lively described, may save us further labour in discoursing of his maine and different parts and proportion.”
The Sphynx
“The Sphynga or Sphinx, is of the kind of Apes, but his breast up to his necke, pilde and smooth without hayre: the face is very round, yet sharp and piked, having the breasts of women, and their favor, or visage, much like them: In that part of the body which is bare with out haire, there is a certaine red thing rising in a round circle, like millet seed, which giveth great grace & comeliness to their coulour, which in the middle part is humaine: Their voice is very like a man’s, but not articulate, sounding as if one did speake hastily, with indignation or sorrow. Their haire browne, or swarthy coulour. They are bred in India, and Ethiopia. In the promontory of the farthest Arabia neere Dira, are Sphinges, and certaine Lyons, called Formicæ, so, likewise, they are to be found amongest the Trogloditæ.
“As the Babouns and Cynocephali are more wilde than other Apes, so the Satyres and Sphynges are more meeke and gentle, for they are not so wilde that they will not bee tamed, nor yet so tame, but they will revenge their own harmes; as appeared by that which was slayne in a publike spectacle among the Thebanes. They carrye their meat in the store houses of their own chaps or cheeks, taking it forth when they are hungry, and so eat it.
“The name of this Sphynx is taken from ‘binding,’ as appeareth by the Greek notation, or else of delicacie and dainty nice loosnesse, (wherefore there were certain common strumpets called Sphinctæ, and the Megarian Sphingas was a very popular phrase for notorious harlots), hath given occasion to the poets to faigne a certaine monster called Sphynx, which they say was thus derived. Hydra brought foorth the Chimæra, Chimæra by Orthus, the Sphynx, and the Nemæan Lyon: now, this Orthus was one of Geryon’s dogges. This Sphynx they make a treble formed monster, a Mayden’s face, a Lyon’s legs, and the wings of a fowle; or, as Ansonius and Varinus say, the face and head of a mayde, the body of a dogge, the winges of a byrd, the voice of a man, the clawes of a Lyon, and the tayle of a dragon: and that she kept continually in the Sphincian mountaine; propounding to all travailers that came that way an Ænigma, or Riddle, which was this: What was the creature that first of all goeth on foure legges; afterwards on two, and, lastly, on three: and all of them that could not dissolve that Riddle, she presently slew, by taking them, and throwing them downe headlong, from the top of a Rocke. At last Œdipus came that way, and declared the secret, that it was a man, who in his infancy creepeth on all foure, afterward, in youth, goeth upon two legs, and last of all, in olde age taketh unto him a staffe which maketh him to goe, as it were, on three legs; which the monster hearing, she presently threwe down herselfe from the former rocke, and so she ended. Whereupon Œdipus is taken for a subtill and wise opener of mysteries.
“But the truth is, that when Cadmus
