SPHINX (Lat., from Gk. only, sphinx, from arpiryetv, sphingein, to strangle). A composite monster, famous in Greek mythology, haying the head of a woman, the body of a lion, the wings of a bird, and the tail of a serpent. According to the legend, she proposed a riddle to the Thebans, slaying all who were unable to guess it, and when (Edipus finally solved her riddle, she threw herself over a cliff and perished. She is said to have been the daughter of Echidna and her son Orthrus, or of Chimfera and her brother Orthrus. The name sphinx was applied by the Greeks to a class of composite figures, familiar in Egyptian art, having the body of a lion and the head of a man or of some animal. A figure of this sort with a human head was called an androsphinx; one having a ram's head, a criosphinx; and one with a hawk's head, a bieracosphinx. Like the winged bulls and lions found in Assyria, the Egyptian sphinx was the guardian genius of the temple before which it stood. The avenues lead ing to many Egyptian temples were guarded by long rows of sphinxes placed at intervals on either side. Primarily the sphinx represented an imaginary human-headed animal, living in the desert, and believed to 'he a favorite incarnation assumed by the Sun-god Re. As a rule, the face was modeled after that of the reigning Pharaoh. the son of Re and his representative upon earth, and therefore Egyptian sphinxes were almost in variably male, though they might also present the features of a reigning queen. Where the sphinx has the head of an animal, the head is that of the animal sacred to the god before whose temple the figure is placed.
The most remarkable of all Egyptian sphinxes is the Great Sphinx of Ghizeh, lying about 300 feet east of the second pyramid. It is sculptured
out of the native rock, to which masonry has been added in certain places to complete the form. The body is roughly hewn out, but the head was originally executed with great care. The entire height of the monument, from the crown of the head to the pavement on which the fore legs rest, is about 66 feet. In length the figure measures 172.5 feet; the fore legs are 50 feet long; and the head is 30 feet long by nearly 14 feet in breadth. The face was originally colored red. but the color ing has almost entirely disappeared. In 1816 the front of the Sphinx was cleared of sand by Caviglia, who found close to the breast a shrine, or small temple. containing an inscription of Thothmes IV. and one of Rameses II. Both monarchs had cleared away the sand that had accumulated about the monument. From the inscription of Thothmes IV. it is clear that the Sphinx was considered to represent Harmachis (q.v.). a special form of the sun-god, and its office was to serve as a guardian of the necropolis near the pyramids. It has been supposed to be the work of King Chephren of the Fourth Dynasty, and some areha-ologists have even assigned it to an earlier period, but the existing evidence is insufficient to fix its date with any degree of accuracy. Consult: Wyse, The Pyramids of Giza (London, 18-10) : Lepsius, (Berlin, 1849-58) : Perrot and Chipiez, Ilistory of Art in Ancient Egypt (London, 1883) ; Baedeker, Aegyp ten (4th ed., Berlin, 1S97) ; Petrie, A history of Egypt (New York, 1899) ; Budge, A History of Egypt (ib., 1902). See Plate of PYRAMIDS.