Sphinx
A
Sphinx is an iconic image of a recumbent
lion with the head of a ram, bird, or human, invented by the
Egyptians of the
Old Kingdom, but a cultural import in archaic
Greek mythology, where it received its name (
Greek Σφιγξ, "strangler"). The best known is the
Great Sphinx of Giza.
The
Egyptian
sphinx is an ancient iconic mythical creature usually comprised of a recumbent
lion – an animal with sacred solar associations – with a human head, usually that of a
pharaoh.
The largest and most famous is 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 Hellenized, transformed by the Greeks, version of his name,
Chephren), which would date its construction to the
Fourth Dynasty (
2723 BCE –
2563 BCE). However, there are some alternative theories that re-date the Sphinx to pre-Old Kingdom – and, according to one hypothesis, to prehistoric – times.Other famous Egyptian sphinxes include the alabaster sphinx of
Memphis, currently located within the open-air museum at that site; and the ram-headed sphinxes (in Greek
criosphinxes), representing the god
Amun, that line either side of the three-kilometer route linking the complexes of
Luxor Temple and
Karnak in
Luxor (ancient
Thebes), of which there were originally some nine hundred.
What names ancient Egyptians called the statues is unknown. The Arabic name of the Great Sphinx,
Abu al-Hôl, translates as "Father of Terror". The Greek name "Sphinx" was applied to it in
Antiquity though it has the head of a man, not a woman.
There was a single
Sphinx in
Greek mythology, a unique demon of destruction and bad luck, according to
Hesiod a daughter of the
Chimera and
Orthrus, or, according to others, of
Typhon and
Echidna— all of these
chthonic figures. She was represented in vase-painting and bas-reliefs most often seated upright rather than recumbent, as a winged
lion with a woman's head; or she was a woman with the paws, claws and breasts of a lion, a
serpent's tail and birdlike wings.
Hera or
Ares sent the Sphinx from her
Ethiopian homeland (for the Greeks remembered the Sphinx's foreign origins) to sit outside
Thebes and ask 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?" She strangled anyone unable to answer. The word "sphinx" comes from the
Greek Σφινξ,
Sphinx, apparently from the verb σφινγω,
sphingo, meaning "to strangle".
Oedipus solved the riddle: man – he crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age. Bested at last, the Sphinx then threw herself from her high rock and died. Other versions tell that she devoured herself. In fact, 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.
Thus Oedipus can be recognized as a liminal or "threshold" figure, helping effect the transition between the old religious practices, represented by the Sphinx, and new,
Olympian ones.
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3000-year-old sphinxes were imported from Egypt to embellish public spaces in Saint Petersburg and other European capitals. |
Not all human-headed animals of antiquity are sphinxes. In ancient
Assyria, for example, bas-reliefs of
bulls with the crowned bearded heads of kings guarded the entrances to temples.
In the classical Olympian mythology of Greece, all the deities had human form, though they could assume their animal natures as well. All the creatures of Greek myth that combine human and animal form are survivals of the pre-Olympian religion:
centaurs,
Typhon,
Medusa,
Lamia.
In Hindu tradition, one of the Avatars of
Vishnu was the
Narasimha which means 'man-lion'. The Avatar had a human body and the head of a lion.
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. Often she wears eardrops and pearls. Her body is naturalistically rendered as a recumbent lion. 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. Her first appearances in French art are in the
School of Fontainebleau in the 1520s and 30s; her last appearances are in the
Late Baroque style of the French
Régence (1715–1723).
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
Theban sphinx, rather than the Egyptian.
Sphinxes often appear in
fantasy literature and
role-playing games as races or species of monstrous creatures with the head of a human and the body of a lion, usually also with a pair of wings or the hind quarters of a bull.
Dungeons & Dragons
Harry Potter
In the novel
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry encounters a sphinx that has been placed in a maze.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them reveals more information about the nature of Egyptian sphinxes in the Harry Potter world.
Cerebus
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 sphinx that was created by splicing his genes with those of a lion, with which Shep-Shep intends to rule Egypt as a god.
Sphinx the Demigod in Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy
In the video game
Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, the
protagonist is based on the Great Sphinx of Giza.
The Sphinx roams a border between parallel universes, accessible only between
Tsort and
Ephebe, when the Kingdom
Djelibeybi has disappeared. Djelibeybi's King, Teppic, encounters the Sphinx who presents him with the generic riddle. Teppic confuses the Sphinx by pointing out the obvious technical errors in the riddle â€" 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 it's choice?" - therefore managing to escape being eaten by the dreaded creature.
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Great Sphinx of Giza*
Egypt*
Giza*
Abtin
