Lions and Sphinxes and Rams, Oh My!

Under the title of sights around town, here are some things you can see at City Hall. Two of these ornamental structures flank the entrance to City Hall.

Among the icons on the triangular structures are these rams.

There are also elephants.

Three crumbling lions hold up the structure.

And then there is the busty lion-eagle-snake-female sphinx.

A plan to restore the exterior of City Hall may also include restoration of these icons from an age when allusions to mythology were common. Now will somebody please explain the dolphins in the rotunda stairway?

--Bernice Paglia