Irlandos at 13:30, November 14, 2006

2006-11-14T13:30:39Z

Irlandos at 10:49, January 28, 2006

2006-01-28T10:49:30Z

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There was a single '''Sphinx''' in [[Greek mythology]], a unique demon of destruction and bad luck, according to [[Hesiod]] a daughter of the [[Chimera (creature)|Chimaera]] 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 language|Greek]] Σφινξ, ''Sphinx'', apparently from the verb σφινγω, ''sphingo'', meaning "to tighten". [[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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	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.		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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		+	[[Category:Mythological hybrids]]

Sphinx - Revision history

Irlandos at 13:30, November 14, 2006

Irlandos at 10:49, January 28, 2006