A sphinx is a mythical creature with, as a minimum, the body of a lion and a human head.
In Greek tradition, it has the haunches of a lion, sometimes with the wings of a great bird, and the face of a human (typically female). It is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such mythological stories, as they are killed and eaten by this ravenous monster. This deadly version of a sphinx appears in the myth and drama of Oedipus. Unlike the Greek sphinx which was a woman, the Egyptian sphinx is typically shown as a man (an androsphinx). In addition, the Egyptian sphinx was viewed as benevolent, but having a ferocious strength similar to the malevolent Greek version and were both thought of as a guardian often flanking the entrances to temples.
In European decorative art, the sphinx enjoyed a major revival during the Renaissance. Later, the sphinx image, something very similar to the original Ancient Egyptian concept, was exported into many other cultures, albeit often interpreted quite differently due to translations of descriptions of the originals and the evolution of the concept in relation to other cultural traditions.
Generally the role of sphinxes is associated with architectural structures such as royal tombs or religious temples, such as the commonly known sphinx in the egyptian desert, The Great Sphinx of Gize.
The word sphinx is originally Greek. This name may be derived from the fact that the hunters for a pride of lions are the lionesses, and kill their prey by strangulation, biting the throat of prey and holding them down until they die. However, the historian Susan Wise Bauer suggests that the word "sphinx" was instead a Greek corruption of the Egyptian name 'shesepankh,' which meant 'living image,' and referred rather to the statue of the sphinx, which was carved out of 'living rock' (rock that was present at the construction site, not harvested and brought from another location), than to the beast itself.
Sphinxes are usually brown to cream in colour and are covered in fur. If they have wings, then the fur changes to feathers. The are usually known for their riddles, such as this:
"Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?" The answer is Man. Oedipus solved the riddle by answering with the correct answer and so was posed another riddle.
"There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?" The answer is "day and night" (both words are feminine in Greek). This riddle is also found in a Gascon version of the myth and could be very ancient.
