..... Click the link for more information. . The sphinx was represented in sculpture usually in a recumbent position with the head of a man and the body of a lion, although some were constructed with rams' heads and others with hawks' heads. Thousands of sphinxes were built in ancient Egypt; the most famous is the Great Sphinx at Giza, a colossal figure sculptured out of natural rock, near the pyramid of Khafre Khafre or Chephren , fl. 2565 B.C., king of ancient Egypt, of the IV dynasty, and builder of the second pyramid at Giza. His face is perhaps that represented on the Great Sphinx.
..... Click the link for more information. . It was considered by the ancients one of the Seven Wonders of the World Seven Wonders of the World, in ancient classifications, were the Great Pyramid of Khufu (see pyramid) or all the pyramids with or without the sphinx; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, with or without the walls; the mausoleum at Halicarnassus; the Artemision at Ephesus;
..... Click the link for more information. .
Sphinxes, however, were not peculiar to Egypt; represented in various shapes and forms, they were common throughout the ancient Middle East and Greece. In Greek mythology and art the Sphinx was a winged monster with the head and breasts of a woman and the body of a lion. In the legend of Oedipus Oedipus , in Greek legend, son of Laius, king of Thebes, and his wife, Jocasta. Laius had been warned by an oracle that he was fated to be killed by his own son; he therefore abandoned Oedipus on a mountainside.
..... Click the link for more information. she acts as a destructive agent of the gods, posing the riddle of the three ages of man: "What walks on four feet in the morning, on two at noon, and on three in the evening?" She killed all who failed to answer her question until Oedipus solved the riddle by saying, "Man crawls on all fours as a baby, walks upright in the prime of life, and uses a staff in old age." The Sphinx then killed herself.
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(1) In ancient Egypt, a statue representing a fantastic being, such as a protective spirit or the embodiment of the king’s power. The sphinx had the body of a lion and the head of a human, usually the pharaoh, or of a sacred animal. The largest preserved sphinx is the Great Sphinx in Giza (Gizeh), near the pyramid of Khafre, or Chephren (28th century B.C.).
(2) In ancient Greek mythology, a winged monster-woman with the body of a lioness. She stood outside Thebes and killed passersby who could not solve her riddle: “Who walks on four legs in the morning, on two during the day, and on three during the night?” Oedipus, arriving in Thebes, solved the riddle, replying, “Man in childhood, adulthood, and old age.” Thereupon the Sphinx threw herself off a cliff (according to other versions, she was killed by Oedipus). In allegorical terms, a sphinx is a riddle or an enigmatic person.
REFERENCES
Struve, V. V. Peterburgskie sfinksy. St. Petersburg, 1912.Dessenne, A. Le Sphinx: Elude iconographique. Paris, 1957.
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