Dolphin

DOLPHIN. - The ancients regarded this cetacean as a friend of man, and believed that, following ships and taking refuge in harbors at the approach of a storm, it gave warning to sailors.

It was very often represented both in public monuments and in sepulchral ones (sarcophagi, inscriptions), and also on furnishings (lamps, etc.); it is found both alone and in pairs, often together with the trident or coiled around it; sometimes in groups darting over the sea waves, or as a decorative element, or sometimes as a symbol of the transmigration of souls to the islands of the blessed, or even as a simple emblem of the upper waters (F. Cannon, Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des Romains, Paris 1942, p. 130). The early Christians depicted it very frequently on sepulchral inscriptions, using it in some cases with the same symbolism as the fish (v.). It is likewise often encountered on lamps or lamp-holders, on rings and on seals, for example with the inscription spes in Deo (G. B. De Rossi, Bull. d'arch. crist., 3rd series, 4 [1879], pl. 9, 2).