DELFINO. - The ancients regarded this cetacean as a friend of man; and, since it followed ships and took refuge in ports at the approach of a storm, it was considered a warning to sailors.
It was very often represented both on public and funerary monuments (sarcophagi, inscriptions) and on household objects (lamps, etc.); it is found both singly and in pairs, often together with the trident or twisted around it; sometimes in groups darting over the waves of the sea, or as a decorative element or, at times, 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, Parigi 1942, p. 130). The ancient Christians depicted it very frequently in funerary inscriptions, in some cases employing it with fish (v.). It is likewise often found on lamps or lamp-holders, rings, and seals, for example with the inscription spes in Deo (G. B. De Rossi, Bull. d'arch. crist., 3ª serie, 4 [1879], tav. 9, 2).