Show X greek sphinx unlike ideas of egyptians the greek sphinx was not a bobu ment like the surviving sphinxes of egypt she was a creature of greek mythology having the body of a leont lion the wIn rf nf a bird tho the tall of a serpent and the head of it a woman she presented the thorans with a ri riddle addlee according to the legends legend and stew slew all those who were unable to guess it oedipus solved it at length and in chagrin she coat cast herself over a cliff and dlce somewhat similar compos composite tte figurell are familiar in egypto egyptian an art bodies of llona lions with headson head of oth other er animals or of men the greeks called them representations sphinxes and we have adopted their term to the etym fians however the figures were artistic conceptions of an imaginary ant mal believed to bi be a favorite incarnation of re be the sun god the pharaohs phara oha were held to be the descend descendants anU of re and hla representatives on earth for that tha t reason the face ofa was modeled after that of the reigning monarch bor or sometimes from that of the queen quean of the numerous egyptian sphinxes the most celebrated and remarkable of course cours e la Is the great sphinx of gl at zeh lying among tho the pyramids as a guardian of the necropolis polls from in script lons found anthis an this gamoua monument when the dust of ages was cleared away from the front of it in 1810 the figure is taken to represent a special form of the sun god od |