"Dolphin Sanctuary" - Dolphin Fresco, Palace of Knossos, Crete - Late Minoan Period (ca. 1500 BC), Greek Bronze Age.
Pieces of this fresco were found in the East Wing's Residential Quarters of Knossos Palace in a room next to the Hall of the Double Axes which Arthur Evans named the Queen's Megaron. Other names associated with this section of the palace are the Queen's Apartment, the Queen's Hall, and the Dolphin Sanctuary.
Evans thought of it as the Queen’s private reception room. Combining dolphins, fish and sea urchins it's one of Knossos’ most distinctive frescoes. It was restored by the artist Piet de Jong between 1922 and 1930. A replica of the fresco is displayed over the door on the north side of the room. The original reconstructed fresco is on display at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Crete.
"The popular belief in antiquity in the human intelligence of dolphins and their kindly feeling toward man
was explained by the ancient writers in the light of the transformation of the Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins. (See Lucian, Marine Dia- logues, 8; Oppian, Halieutica, I, 649-654, 1098, V, 422, 5i9f; Porphyry,
De Abstinentia, III, 16.) As Oppian (I, 1089) in his Halieutica has it,
in William Diaper's charming translation:
So Dolphins teem, whom subject Fish revere.
And show the smiling Seas their Infant-Heir.
All other Kinds, whom Parent-Seas confine.
Dolphins excell; that Race is all divine.
Dolphins were Men (Tradition hands the Tale)
Laborious Swains bred on the Tuscan Vale:
Transform'd by Bacchus, and by Neptune lov'd,
They all the Pleasures of the Deep improv'd.
When new-made Fish the God's Command obey'd,
Plung'd in the Waves, and untry'd Fins displayed,
No further Change relenting Bacchus wrought,
Nor have the Dolphins all the Man forgot;
The conscious Soul retains her former Thought.
Dolphins in mythology :
For many of the early Christian sailors, the dolphin was a symbol for Jesus.
The attributes of the dolphins in folklore were attributed, and rightly so, to Jesus as the rescuer, savior of sailors, guide and of course, friend.
As you might imagine, those who lived by the sea related much more to dolphins than sheep. And so, the dolphin naturally became a popular Christian image.
Early Christian art also is replete with images of dolphins. The dolphin, by far, is the most mentioned sea creature in Sacred Scripture.
Many times a dolphin was placed on Christian grave markers representing Christ “guiding” the souls of the faithful to theireternal glory.
In other art pieces, a dolphin wraps itself around a trident symbolizing Christ on the cross.
We also see in ancient Christian antiquity the combined symbolism of the dolphin wrapped around the anchor (a Christian symbol showing the cross or Christ and the rainbow of Noah and the thus the fulfillment of the Noaic covenant in Baptism.
Even more fascinating is that in underground Rome there is even a depiction of a dolphin with its heart exposed. (Source: Mike Aquilina writes in his book Signs and Mysteries Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols)
Dolphins are even found in early Church architecture. Constantine had altar candle sticks commissioned for St. Peter’s and even a church candelabra with more than twenty dolphinssurrounding the center.
It should not come as a surprise that dolphins are an image of the Christ.
In Hindu mythology the Ganges River Dolphin is associated with Ganga, the deity of theGanges river.
The dolphin is said to be among the creatures which heralded the goddess' descent from the heavens and her mount, the Makara, is sometimes depicted as a dolphin.
Contemporary painting " Happy Dolphins" by Ag.Praxmayer