SPHINX

A fabled monster, half woman and half lion, siid by the Grecian poati n> have Infested the city of Thebes, devouring its inhabitants till such time as a riddle it had proposed to them should be solved. This was done by CEdipus, who slew the sphinx, and was, by the gratitude of the The bans, chosen their Icing. The Grecian sphinx •-ohably borrowed from Egypt; where the enormous type oi the more elegant monster of Greece. This figure is close to the Pyramids of Gliizeh, and was disinterred arc he-by the late Mr. Uel/.oni, but has been again nearly covered. It has been said (on the authority of Pliny) that the sphinx represented the Nile in a state of flood; that event regularly occurring under the signs of the Virgin and Lion. But Others contend that the original Egyptian sphinx was male (Androspninx), like the specimen described by Hero dot us, book ii. ( H'llkiiison's Ancient Egyptians.) But the greater part of the enormous number around the temples of Luxor (1500 in a single avenue).are saiil to he female. (Libr. of hint, rtainintr Knnwliiiiri.) Sphinxes are also represented with the heads of rami and hawks (Crio-sphinx, Hieracosphinx). The Egyptian sphinx had no wings; these appendages were added by the Greek artists. [s. 1161]