In ancient Greece a mythological monster with a human head and a recumbent animal body (usually a lion's); sometimes it was winged and had female breasts. Originating in the East, probably Egypt, it is found throughout the Levant and E Mediterranean. In Greek mythology, it was associated particularly with Thebes, where, until the time of Oedipus, it devoured all who could not answer its riddle: What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening? (Answer: Man.)
Sphinx is an iconic image of a recumbent lion with the head of a ram, of a falcon or of a person, invented by the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom, but a cultural import in Greek mythology.
Egyptian sphinx
The sphinx of Giza is an ancient iconic mythical creature usually comprised of a recumbent lion — animal with sacred solar associations — with a human head, usually that of a pharaoh.
Seen as guardians in the egyptian statuary, sphinxes are depicted in one of these three forms:
Androsphinx - body of lion with head of person;
The largest and most famous is Sesheps, the Great Sphinx of Giza, sited on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile River, facing due east, with a small temple between its paws. The face of the Great Sphinx is believed to be the head of the pharaoh Khafra (often known by the Greek version of his name, Chephren) or possibly that of his brother, the Pharaoh Djedefra, which would date its construction from the fourth dynasty (2723 BC–2563 BC). Other famous Egyptian sphinxes include the alabaster sphinx of Memphis, currently localizated within the open-air museum at that site; and the ram-headed sphinxes (in Greek, criosphinxes) representing the god Amun, in Thebes, of which there were originally some nine hundred. The inscription on a stele in the Great Sphinx dates it from one thousand years after the carving of the Sphinx, gives three names of the sun: Kheperi - Re - Atum. The Greek name "Sphinx" was applied to it in the Antiquity.
Greek sphinx
There was a single Sphinx in Greek mythology, a unique demon of destruction and bad luck, according to Hesiod a daughter of Echidna and of Orthrus or, according to others, of Typhon and Echidna — all of these chthonic figures. Hera or Ares sent the Sphinx from her Ethiopian homeland (the Greeks remembered the Sphinx's foreign origin) to Thebes and, in Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus, asks all passersby history's most famous riddle: "Which creature in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" The word "sphinx" comes from the Greek Σφινξ — Sphinx, apparently from the verb σφινγω — sphingo, meaning "to strangle". The exact riddle asked by the Sphinx was not specified by early tellers of the story and was not standardized as the one given above until much later in Greek history.
Similar creatures
Not all human-headed animals of antiquity are sphinxes.
Mannerist Sphinx
The revived Mannerist Sphinx of the 16th century is sometimes thought of as the French Sphinx. Her lovely coiffed head is erect and she has the pretty bust of a young woman. Such Sphinxes were revived when the grottesche or "grotesque" decorations of the unearthed "Golden House" (Domus Aurea) of Nero were brought to light in late 15th century Rome, and she was incorporated into the classical vocabulary of arabesque designs that was spread throughout Europe in engravings during the 16th and 17th centuries.
19th century and symbolism
Sphinxes were too somber perhaps for the Rococo, and they tended to disappear from the European design repertory - until revived in the 19th century with its romanticism, and later symbolism. Many of these sphinxes alluded to the Greek sphinx, rather than the Egyptian.
Fernand Khnopff's symbolist version of a SphinxSphinxes mentioned in fiction and games
Sphinxes often appear in fantasy literature and role-playing games as races or species of monstrous creatures with the head of a person and the body of a lion, usually also with a pair of wings or the hind quarters of a bull. In the comic Cerebus, issue #300, Cerebus's son Shep-Shep (or She-Shep, Egyptian for "living symbol") visits Cerebus and brings a box containing a baby sphinx that was created by splicing his genes with those of a lion, with which Shep-Shep intends to rule Egypt as a god. In the video game Pharaoh, the Great Sphinx of Giza may be constructed as a monument during one of the game's campaign missions. Teppic confuses the Sphinx by pointing out the obvious technical errors in the riddle – The riddle turns into: “What, metaphorically speaking, walks on four legs just after midnight, on two legs for most of the day…, barring accidents, until at least supper-time… when it continues to walk on two legs or with any prosthetic aids of its choice?” - therefore managing to escape being eaten by the dreaded creature.
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