Sphinx

A sphinx (/ˈsfɪŋks/ SFINGKS, Ancient Greek: σφίγξ [spʰíŋks],

Boeotian: φίξ [pʰíːks], plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical Sphinx
creature with the head of a human, a falcon, a cat or a sheep and the
body of a lion with the wings of a eagle.

In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches
of a lion, and the wings of a bird. She is mythicised as treacherous
and merciless. Those who cannot answer her riddle suffer a fate
typical in such mythological stories, as they are killed and eaten by
this ravenous monster.[1] This deadly version of a sphinx appears in
the myth and drama of Oedipus.[2] The Great Sphinx of Giza, with the
Great Pyramid in the background
Unlike the Greek sphinx, which was a woman, the Egyptian sphinx Grouping Legendary creatures
is typically shown as a man (an androsphinx (Ancient Greek:
ανδρόσφιγξ)). In addition, the Egyptian sphinx was viewed as
benevolent, but having a ferocious strength similar to the malevolent Greek version. Both were thought of as
guardians, and often flank the entrances to temples.[3]

In European decorative art, the sphinx enjoyed a major revival during the Renaissance. Later, the sphinx
image, initially very similar to the original Ancient Egyptian concept, was exported into many other
cultures, albeit there often interpreted quite differently due to translations of descriptions of the originals and
through evolution of the concept in relation to other cultural traditions.

Sphinx depictions are generally associated with architectural structures such as royal tombs or religious
temples.

Contents
Egypt
Greece
Riddle of the Sphinx
The riddle in popular culture
South and Southeast Asia
Europe
Freemasonry
Similar hybrid creatures
With feline features
Without feline features
Gallery
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Egypt
The largest and most famous sphinx is the Great Sphinx of Giza,
situated on the Giza Plateau adjacent to the Great Pyramids of Giza
on the west bank of the Nile River and facing east (29°58′31″N
31°08′15″E). The sphinx is located southeast of the pyramids. While
the date of its construction is not known for certain, general
consensus among egyptologists is that the head of the Great Sphinx
bears the likeness of the pharaoh Khafra, while a fringe minority of
late 20th century geologists have claimed evidence of water erosion
in and around the Sphinx enclosure which would prove that the Great Sphinx before clearance,
Sphinx predates Khafra, a claim that is sometimes referred to as the Brooklyn Museum Archives
Sphinx water erosion hypothesis, but which has little support among
egyptologists.[4]

What names their builders gave to these statues is not known. At the
Great Sphinx site, a 1400 BCE inscription on a stele belonging to the
18th dynasty pharaoh Thutmose IV lists the names of three aspects
of the local sun deity of that period, Khepera–Rê–Atum. Many
pharaohs had their heads carved atop the guardian statues for their
tombs to show their close relationship with the powerful solar deity
Sekhmet, a lioness. Besides the Great Sphinx, other famous
Egyptian sphinxes include one bearing the head of the pharaoh
Hatshepsut, with her likeness carved in granite, which is now in the Back of the Great Sphinx, Giza,
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the alabaster Sphinx Egypt
of Memphis, currently located within the open-air museum at that
site. The theme was expanded to form great avenues of guardian
sphinxes lining the approaches to tombs and temples as well as serving as details atop the posts of flights of
stairs to very grand complexes. Nine hundred sphinxes with ram heads, representing Amon, were built in
Thebes, where his cult was strongest.

The Great Sphinx has become an emblem of Egypt, frequently appearing on its stamps, coins, and official
documents.[5]

Greece
In the Bronze Age, the Hellenes had trade and cultural contacts with Egypt. Before the time that Alexander
the Great occupied Egypt, the Greek name, sphinx, was already applied to these statues. The historians and
geographers of Greece wrote extensively about Egyptian culture. Herodotus called the ram-headed sphinxes
Criosphinxes and called the hawk-headed ones Hieracosphinxes.

The word sphinx comes from the Greek Σφίγξ, apparently from the verb σφίγγω (sphíngō), meaning "to
squeeze", "to tighten up".[6][7] This name may be derived from the fact that, in a pride of lions, the hunters
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.[8]

Apollodorus describes the sphinx as having a woman's face, the

body and tail of a lion and the wings of a bird.[9] Pliny the Elder
mentions that Ethiopia produces plenty of sphinxes, with brown hair
and breasts.[10] Statius describes her as a winged monster, with
pallid cheeks, eyes tainted with corruption, plumes clotted with gore
and talons on livid hands.[11] Sometimes, the wings are specified to
be those of an eagle, and the tail to be serpent-headed.

There was a single sphinx in Greek mythology, a unique demon of

Sphinx. Attic red-figure pyxis, 2nd
destruction and bad luck. According to Hesiod, she was a daughter half of the 5th century BCE. From
of Orthrus[12] and either Echidna or the Chimera, or perhaps even Nola (Italy)
Ceto;.[13] According to Apollodorus[9] and Lasus,[14] she was a
daughter of Echidna and Typhon. The Sphinx is called Phix (Φίξ) by
Hesiod in line 326 of the Theogony[15]

The sphinx was the emblem of the ancient city-state of Chios, and appeared on seals and the obverse side of
coins from the 6th century BCE until the 3rd century CE.

Riddle of the Sphinx

The Sphinx is said to have guarded the entrance to the Greek city of Thebes,
asking a riddle to travellers to allow them passage. The exact riddle asked by
the Sphinx was not specified by early tellers of the myth, and was not
standardized as the one given below until late in Greek history.[16]

Archaic period Greek
sphinx in the Corinth
Archaeological Museum
found in a Gascon version of the myth and could be very ancient.[18]
It was said in late lore that Hera or Ares sent the Sphinx from her
Aethiopian homeland (the Greeks always remembered the foreign origin of
the Sphinx) to Thebes in Greece where she asked all passersby the most
famous riddle in history: "Which creature has one voice and yet becomes
four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?" She strangled and devoured
anyone who could not answer. Oedipus solved the riddle by answering:
"Man—who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an
adult, and then uses a walking stick in old age".[9] By some accounts[17] (but
much more rarely), there was a second 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—ἡμέρα and νύξ,
respectively—are feminine in Ancient Greek). This second riddle is also

Bested at last, the Sphinx then threw herself from her high rock and died. An alternative version tells that
she devoured herself. In both cases, Oedipus can therefore be recognized as a "liminal" or threshold figure,
helping effect the transition between the old religious practices, represented by the death of the Sphinx, and
the rise of the new, Olympian gods.

The riddle in popular culture

In Jean Cocteau's retelling of the Oedipus legend, The Infernal Machine, the
Sphinx tells Oedipus the answer to the riddle in order to kill herself so that she
did not have to kill anymore, and also to make him love her. He leaves without
ever thanking her for giving him the answer to the riddle. The scene ends when
the Sphinx and Anubis ascend back to the heavens.

There are mythic, anthropological, psychoanalytic and parodic interpretations

of the Riddle of the Sphinx, and of Oedipus's answer to it. Sigmund Freud
describes "the question of where babies come from" as a riddle of the
Sphinx.[19]

Numerous riddle books use the Sphinx in their title or illustrations.[20]

Michael Maier, in his book the Atalanta Fugiens (1617)[21] writes the
following remark about the Sphinx's riddle, in which he states that its solution
is the Philosopher's Stone:

Sphinx is indeed reported to have had many Riddles, but this

offered to Oedipus was the chief, "What is that which in the
morning goeth upon four feet; upon two feet in the afternoon; and
in the Evening upon three?" What was answered by Oedipus is not
known. But they who interpret concerning the Ages of Man are The Sphinx of Naxos, on
deceived. For a Quadrangle of Four Elements are of all things first its 12.5-meter Ionic
to be considered, from thence we come to the Hemisphere having column, Delphi, 560
two lines, a Right and a Curve, that is, to the White Luna; from BCE (reconstitution).
thence to the Triangle which consists of Body, Soul and Spirit, or
Sol, Luna and Mercury. Hence Rhasis in his Epistles, "The Stone,"
says he, "is a Triangle in its essence, a Quadrangle in its quality."

Funerary stele, 530 Limestone funerary Marble capital and Sphinxes on the
BCE, Greece. stele (shaft) finial in the form of a Lycian sarcophagus
surmounted by two sphinx, 530 BCE. of Sidon (430–420
sphinxes Greece 5th BCE).
century BCE.

South and Southeast Asia

A composite mythological being with the body of a lion and the head of a human being is present in the
traditions, mythology and art of South and Southeast Asia.[23] Variously known as purushamriga (Sanskrit,
"man-beast"), purushamirugam (Tamil, "man-beast"), naravirala (Sanskrit, "man-cat") in India, or as nara-
simha (Sanskrit, "man-lion") in Sri Lanka, manusiha or manuthiha
(Pali, "man-lion") in Myanmar, and norasingh (from Pali, "man-
lion", a variation of the Sanskrit "nara-simha") or thep norasingh
("man-lion deity"), or nora nair in Thailand. Although, just like the
"nara-simha", he has a head of a lion and the body of a human.

In contrast to the sphinxes in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece, of

which the traditions largely have been lost due to the discontinuity
of the civilization,[24] the traditions related to the "Asian sphinxes"
are very much alive today. The earliest artistic depictions of
"sphinxes" from the South Asian subcontinent are to some extent Buddhist sphinx on a stupa
influenced by Hellenistic art and writings. These hail from the gateway, Bharhut, 1st century
period when Buddhist art underwent a phase of Hellenistic BCE.[22]
influence. Numerous sphinxes can be seen on the gateways of
Bharhut stupa, dating to the 1st century B.C.[22]

In South India, the "sphinx" is known as purushamriga (Sanskrit) or purushamirugam (Tamil), meaning
"human-beast". It is found depicted in sculptural art in temples and palaces where it serves an apotropaic
purpose, just as the "sphinxes" in other parts of the ancient world.[25] It is said by the tradition, to take away
the sins of the devotees when they enter a temple and to ward off evil in general. It is therefore often found
in a strategic position on the gopuram or temple gateway, or near the entrance of the sanctum sanctorum.

The purushamriga plays a significant role in daily as well as yearly

ritual of South Indian Shaiva temples. In the shodhasha-upakaara (or
sixteen honors) ritual, performed between one and six times at
significant sacred moments through the day, it decorates one of the
lamps of the diparadhana or lamp ceremony. And in several temples
the purushamriga is also one of the vahana or vehicles of the deity
during the processions of the Brahmotsava or festival.

In Kanya Kumari district, in

the southernmost tip of the
Indian subcontinent, during
the night of Shiva Ratri,
devotees run 75 kilometres
while visiting and
worshiping at twelve Shiva
temples. This Shiva Ottam
(or Run for Shiva) is
performed in
commemoration of the story
Male purushamriga or Indian sphinx Burmese depiction of the Manussiha
of the race between the
guarding the entrance of the Shri
Sphinx and Bhima, one of
Shiva Nataraja temple in
the heroes of the epic Mahabharata.
Chidambaram
The Indian conception of a sphinx that comes closest to the classic
Greek idea is in the concept of the Sharabha, a mythical creature,
part lion, part man and part bird, and the form of Sharabha that god Shiva took on to counter Narasimha's
violence.

In Sri Lanka and India, the sphinx is known as narasimha or man-lion. As a sphinx, it has the body of a
lion and the head of a human being, and is not to be confused with Narasimha, the fourth reincarnation of
the deity Vishnu; this avatar or incarnation is depicted with a human body and the head of a lion. The
"sphinx" narasimha is part of the Buddhist tradition and functions as a guardian of the northern direction and
also was depicted on banners.

In Burma, the sphinx is known as manussiha (manuthiha). It is depicted on the corners of Buddhist stupas,
and its legends tell how it was created by Buddhist monks to protect a new-born royal baby from being
devoured by ogresses.

Nora Nair, Norasingh and Thep Norasingh are three of the names under which the "sphinx" is known in
Thailand. They are depicted as upright walking beings with the lower body of a lion or deer, and the upper
body of a human. Often they are found as female-male pairs. Here, too, the sphinx serves a protective
function. It also is enumerated among the mythological creatures that inhabit the ranges of the sacred
mountain Himapan.[26]

Europe
The revived Mannerist sphinx of the late 15th century is sometimes
thought of as the "French sphinx". Her coiffed head is erect and she
has the breasts of a young woman. Often she wears ear drops and
pearls as ornaments. Her body is naturalistically rendered as a
recumbent lioness. Such sphinxes were revived when the grottesche
or "grotesque" decorations of the unearthed 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
spread throughout Europe in engravings during the 16th and 17th
centuries. Sphinxes were included in the decoration of the loggia of La Granja, Spain, mid-18th century
the Vatican Palace by the workshop of Raphael (1515–20), which
updated the vocabulary of the Roman grottesche.

The first appearances of sphinxes in French art are in the School of Fontainebleau in the 1520s and 1530s
and she continues into the Late Baroque style of the French Régence (1715–1723). From France, she spread
throughout Europe, becoming a regular feature of the outdoors decorative sculpture of 18th-century palace
gardens, as in the Upper Belvedere Palace in Vienna, Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, La Granja in Spain,
Branicki Palace in Białystok, or the late Rococo examples in the grounds of the Portuguese Queluz National
Palace (of perhaps the 1760s), with ruffs and clothed chests ending with a little cape.

Sphinxes are a feature of the neoclassical

interior decorations of Robert Adam and
his followers, returning closer to the
undressed style of the grottesche. They
had an equal appeal to artists and
designers of the Romanticism and
subsequent Symbolism movements in the
19th century. Most of these sphinxes Caresses (1896) by Fernand Khnopff, a Symbolist depiction of
alluded to the Greek sphinx and the myth Oedipus and the Sphinx[27]
of Oedipus, rather than the Egyptian,
although they may not have wings.

Freemasonry
The sphinx imagery has historically been adopted into Masonic architecture and symbology.[28]
Among the Egyptians, sphinxes were placed at the entrance of the
temples to guard their mysteries, by warning those who penetrated
within that they should conceal a knowledge of them from the
uninitiated. Champollion said that the sphinx became successively
the symbol of each of the gods. The placement of the sphinxes
expressed the idea that all the gods were hidden from the people, and
that the knowledge of them, guarded in the sanctuaries, was revealed
to initiates only.

As a Masonic emblem, the sphinx has been adopted as a symbol of Sphinx adopted as an emblem in
mystery, and as such often is found as a decoration sculptured in Masonic architecture
front of Masonic temples, or engraved at the head of Masonic
documents.[29] It cannot, however, be properly called an ancient,
recognized symbol of the order. Its introduction has been of comparatively recent date, and rather as a
symbolic decoration than as a symbol of any particular dogma.

Similar hybrid creatures

With feline features

Gopaitioshah – The Persian Gopat or Gopaitioshah is another creature that is similar to the
Sphinx, being a winged bull or lion with human face.[30][31] The Gopat have been represented
in ancient art of Iran since late second millennium BCE, and was a common symbol for
dominant royal power in ancient Iran. Gopats were common motifs in the art of Elamite period,
Luristan, North and North West region of Iran in Iron Age, and Achaemenid art,[32] and can be
find in texts such as the Bundahishn, the Dadestan-i Denig, the Menog-i Khrad, as well as in
collections of tales, such as the Matikan-e yusht faryan and in its Islamic replication, the
Marzubannama.[33]
Löwenmensch figurine – The 32,000-year-old Aurignacian Löwenmensch figurine, also
known as "lion-human" is the oldest known anthropomorphic statue, discovered in the
Hohlenstein-Stadel, a German cave in 1939.[34]
Manticore – The Manticore (Early Middle Persian: Mardyakhor or Martikhwar, means: Man-
eater[35]) is an Iranian legendary hybrid creature and another similar creature to the sphinx.
Narasimha – Narasimha ("man-lion") is described as an incarnation (Avatar) of Vishnu within
the Puranic texts of Hinduism who takes the form of half-man/half-Asiatic lion, having a human
torso and lower body, but with a lion-like face and claws.

Without feline features

Not all human-headed animals of antiquity are sphinxes. In ancient Assyria, for example, bas-
reliefs of shedu bulls with the crowned bearded heads of kings guarded the entrances of
temples.
Many Greek mythological creatures who are archaic survivals of previous mythologies with
respect to the classical Olympian mythology, like the centaurs, are similar to the Sphinx.

Gallery
Maned sphinx of Amenemhat Egyptian sphinx from Column base in the shape of
III. 12th Dynasty, c. 1800 BC. Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. 1st a double sphinx. From Sam'al.
State Museum of Egyptian Art, century CE. State Museum of 8th century BCE. Museum of
Munich Egyptian Art, Munich the Ancient Orient, Istanbul

Hittite sphinx. Basalt. 8th Winged sphinx from the Achaemenid sphinx from
century BCE. From Sam'al. palace of Darius the Great Halicarnassus, capital of
Museum of the Ancient Orient, during Persian Empire at Susa Caria, 355 BCE. Found in
Istanbul (480 BCE) Bodrum Castle, but possibly
from the Mausoleum at
Halicarnassus.
Head from a female sphinx, c. The Great Sphinx of Giza in Typical Egyptian sphinx with a
1876–1842 BCE, Brooklyn 1858 human head (Museo Egizio,
Museum Turin)

Sphinx of Egyptian pharaoh Ancient Greek sphinx from 3000-year-old sphinxes were
Hatshepsut with unusual ear Delphi imported from Egypt to
and ruff features, 1503–1482 embellish public spaces in
Saint Petersburg and other
European capitals.

Park Sanssouci in Potsdam Queluz wingless rococo Classic Régence garden

sphinx Sphinx in lead, Château
Empain, the Parc d'Enghien,
Belgium
Park Schönbusch in Ingres, Oedipus and the Oedipus and the Sphinx by
Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, Sphinx, 1808, 1827 Gustave Moreau, 1864
1789–90

Sphinx at Plaza de los Marble sphinx on a cavetto The Sphinx of Adi Gramaten,
Emperadores (Parque de El capital, Attic, c. 580–575 B.C. Eritrea
Capricho, Madrid)
 Wings of sphinxes from the An early Egyptian sphinx, Picture of an Iranian Elamite
Thinissut sanctuary, c. 1st Queen Hetepheres II from the Gopat on a seal, currently in
century CE (Nabeul Museum, Fourth Dynasty (Cairo the National Museum of Iran.
Tunisia) Museum)

An Iranian Luristan Bronze in Picture of a Gopat on a

the form of a Gopat, currently golden rhyton from Amarlou,
in the Cleveland Museum of Iran, currently in the National
Art. Museum of Iran.

See also
Hybrid creatures in mythology
List of hybrid creatures in mythology

Similar hybrid creatures

Anzû (older reading: Zû), Mesopotamian monster

Chimera, Greek mythological hybrid monster
Cockatrice, snake with rooster's head and feet and bat's wings
Dragon, European and East Asian reptile-like mythical creature
Griffin or griffon, lion-bird hybrid
Harpy, Greco-Roman mythological bird monster with woman's face
Siren, Greco-Roman mythical creature with the combined features of a woman and bird, often
a woman's head and breasts and a bird's body
 Lamassu, Assyrian deity, bull/lion-eagle-human hybrid
Manticore, Persian monster with a lion's body and a humanoid head.
Nue, Japanese legendary creature
Pegasus, winged stallion in Greek mythology
Phoenix, self-regenerating bird in Greek mythology
Pixiu or Pi Yao, Chinese mythical creature
Qilin, Chinese/East Asian mythical hybrid creature
Sharabha, Hindu mythology: lion-bird hybrid
Simurgh, Iranian mythical flying creature
Sirin, Russian mythological creature, half-woman half-bird
Snow Lion, Tibetan mythological celestial animal
Yali, Hindu mythological lion-elephant-horse hybrid
Ziz, giant griffin-like bird in Jewish mythology
Komainu to compare its use in Japanese culture
Chinthe similar lion statues in Burma, Laos and Cambodia
Shisa similar lion statues in the Ryukyu Islands
Nian to compare with a similar but horned (unicorn) mythical beast
Haetae to compare with similar lion-like statues in Korea.

Notes
1. "Dr. J's Lecture on Oedipus and the Sphinx" (http://people.hsc.edu/drjclassics/texts/Oedipus/sp
hinx.shtm). People.hsc.edu. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
2. Kallich, Martin. "Oepidus and the Sphinx." Oepidus: Myth and Drama. N.p.: Western, 1968. N.
pag. Print.
3. Stewart, Desmond. Pyramids and the Sphinx. [S.l.]: Newsweek, U.S., 72. Print.
4. Brian Dunning (2019). [1] (https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4693) Skeptoid Podcast, episode 693
'The Age of the Sphinx'
5. Regier, Willis Goth. Book of the Sphinx (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), 54, 59,
177.
6. Entry σφίγγω (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.00
57%3Aentry%3Dsfi%2Fggw) at LSJ.
7. Note that the γ takes on a 'ng' sound in front of both γ and ξ.
8. Bauer, S. Wise (2007). The History of the Ancient World (https://archive.org/details/historyofan
cient00baue/page/110). New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. pp. 110–112 (https://archiv
e.org/details/historyofancient00baue/page/110). ISBN 0-393-05974-X.
9. Apollodorus, Library Apollod. 3.5.8 (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3
Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3
D8)
10. Pliny the Elder, Natural History 8.30 (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+
8.30)
11. Statius, Thebaid, 2.496 (https://www.theoi.com/Text/StatiusThebaid2.html)
12. Hesiod, Theogony 327 (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+327&fromdoc
=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130)
13. Who is meant as the mother is unclear, the problem arising from the ambiguous referent of the
pronoun "she" in line 326 of the Theogony, see Clay, p.159, note 34 (https://archive.org/details/
hesiodscosmos0000clay/page/159)
14. Lasus fr. 3, on Lyra Graeca II (https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.233311/page/n237)
15. The name for the Sphinx noted by Pierre Grimal's The Penguin Dictionary of Classical
Mythology.
16. Edmunds, Lowell (1981). The Sphinx in the Oedipus Legend. Königstein im Taunus: Hain.
ISBN 3-445-02184-8.
17. Grimal, Pierre (1996). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. trans. A. R. Maxwell-Hyslop.
Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-20102-5. (entry "Oedipus", p. 324)
18. Julien d'Huy (2012). L'Aquitaine sur la route d'Oedipe? La Sphinge comme motif préhistorique.
(https://ehess.academia.edu/JuliendHuy/Papers/1949877/LAquitaine_sur_la_route_dOedipe_
La_Sphinge_comme_motif_prehistorique._-_Bulletin_de_la_SERPE_61_2012_15-21) Bulletin
de la SERPE, 61: 15-21.
19. 'An Autobiographical Study', Sigmund Freud, W. W. Norton & Company, 1963, p.39 (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=xkU5eiigOZoC&lpg=PP1&dq=freud%20Autobiographical%20Study
&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false)
20. Regier, Book of the Sphinx, chapter 4.
21. Maier, Michael (1617). Atalanta Fugiens. trans. Peter Branwin. Johann Theodor de Bry.
22. "Sphinxes of all sorts occur on the Bharhut gateways" Kosambi, Damodar Dharmanand
(2002). Combined Methods in Indology and Other Writings (https://books.google.com/books?id
=0OhtAAAAMAAJ). Oxford University Press. p. 459. ISBN 9780195642391.
23. Deekshitar, Raja. "Discovering the Anthropomorphic Lion in Indian Art." in Marg. A Magazine
of the Arts. 55/4, 2004, p.34-41; Sphinx of India
(http://www.sphinxofindia.rajadeekshithar.com).
24. Demisch, Heinz (1977). Die Sphinx. Geschichte ihrer Darstellung von den Anfangen bis zur
Gegenwart. Stuttgart.
25. Demisch, Heinz (1977). Die Sphinx. Geschichte ihrer Darstellung von den Anfangen bis zur
Gegenwart. Stuttgart.
26. "Thep Norasri" (http://www.himmapan.com/himmapan_lion_thepnorasri.html). Himmapan.com.
Retrieved 15 May 2014.
27. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (2017). "Caresses" (https://www.google.com/culturalin
stitute/beta/asset/-/_AGlYSd0kETwGw). Google Arts and Culture.
28. Freund, Charles Paul (5 November 1995). "From Satan to The Sphinx: The Masonic Mysteries
of D.C.'s Map" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1995/11/05/from-satan-to-th
e-sphinx-the-masonic-mysteries-of-dcs-map/9bff53f2-0fa5-4149-bcae-6b8a2c77203d/). The
Washington Post. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
29. Taylor, David A. "The Lost Symbol's Masonic Temple" (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/trave
l/the-lost-symbols-masonic-temple-151145416/). Smithsonian. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
30. "Dadestan-i Denig, Question 90, Paragraph 4" (http://www.avesta.org/mp/dd42.htm#chap90).
31. "Menog-i Khrad, Chapter 62" (http://www.avesta.org/mp/mx.html#chap62).
32. Taheri, Sadreddin (2017). "The Semiotics of Archetypes, in the Art of Ancient Iran and its
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References
Clay, Jenny Strauss, Hesiod's Cosmos, Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-521-
82392-0.
Stewart, Desmond. Pyramids and the Sphinx. [S.l.]: Newsweek, U.S., 72. Print.
Taheri, Sadreddin (2013). "Gopat (Sphinx) and Shirdal (Gryphon) in the Ancient Middle East"
(https://jfava.ut.ac.ir/article_30063.html). Tehran: Honarhay-e Ziba Journal, Vol. 17, No. 4.
Kallich, Martin. "Oedipus and the Sphinx." Oedipus: Myth and Drama. N.p.: Western, 1968. N.
pag. Print.

Further reading
Dessenne, André. Le Sphinx: Étude iconographique (in French). De Boccard, 1957.

External links
Sphinx Head Found in Greek Tomb (https://web.archive.org/web/20141127153327/http://www.
newslobby.net/2014/10/23/historical-moment-sphinx-head-found-in-greek-tomb/)
The Sphinx: Totally Random Trivia (http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/51921/the-sphinx-t
otally-random-trivia) - slideshow by Life magazine

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