Written reputedly by an Egyptian magus, Horapollo Niliacus, in the 4th century BC, "The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo" is an anthology of nearly 200 hieroglyphics or allegorical emblems, said to have been used by the Pharaonic scribes in describing natural and moral aspects of the world. Translated into Greek in 1505 AD, it informed much of Western iconography from the 16th through the 19th centuries. This work not only tells how various types of natural phenomena, emotions, virtues, philosophical concepts and human character-types were symbolized, but also explains why, for example, the universe is represented by a serpent swallowing its tail, filial affection by a stork, education by the heavens dropping dew, and a horoscopist by a person eating an hourglass.