Editing Béhanzin (section)

== Artistic representation ==
[[File:Homme-requin Dahomey.jpg|thumb|upright|''Man-Shark'' by Sossa Dede (c. 1890), a [[Fon people|Fon]] statue symbolizing Béhanzin. Formerly in [[musée du quai Branly]], now in [[Abomey]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://momaa.org/directory/musee-histsorique-d-abomey/ |title=Musee Histsorique d' Abomey |access-date=28 January 2024 |website=MoMAA |language=en |archive-date=19 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119214640/https://momaa.org/directory/musee-histsorique-d-abomey/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
]]Each of Dahomey's kings was represented in sculpture with images that referred to the proverbs, associations, and wordplay attached to his royal name.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Blier |first1=Suzanne |date=1990 |title=King Glele of Danhome |journal=African Arts |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=42–53, 93–4 |doi=10.2307/3336943 |jstor=3336943}}</ref> The images that symbolize Behanzin (or Gbehanzin) include an egg held by a hand, as the words for these in the Fon language form a rebus, or pun, of the royal name.  As may be seen in the large wooden statue from the royal palace at [[Abomey]], the shark is a metaphor for Behanzin; as does the shark, the king guards the coast of the kingdom of Dahomey. 

A captive hanging from a flagpole is a reference to a man from the Nago, or [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]], city of [[Ketou]], a powerful rival state.  This prisoner had boasted that he could attack the king with magic, but Behanzin hanged him from a flagpole as punishment for his rebellion. The king's most famous symbol is the [[smoking pipe]]. This is because he claimed that there wasn't a minute in his life, even when he was a baby, that he was not smoking tobacco.