Sphinx
The Sphinx combined Egyptian monumental sculpture with Greek narrative — in Egypt a guardian, in Greece a deadly riddler whose defeat by Oedipus unlocked Thebes' greatest tragedy.
The Myth of Sphinx
The Egyptian Sphinx — a lion-bodied guardian with a human head — entered Greek mythology transformed: the Greek version was female, winged, and deadly intellectual. Where the Egyptian Sphinx at Giza silently guarded, the Greek Sphinx outside Thebes posed riddles and devoured the failures. Her riddle about the ages of man encoded the Greek obsession with self-knowledge: "Know thyself," the command inscribed at Apollo's temple at Delphi. Oedipus solved her puzzle but could not solve the riddle of his own identity. Hesiod made the Sphinx a daughter of Echidna and Orthrus, placing her among the monstrous brood that included the Chimera, Hydra, and Cerberus — creatures that Heracles and Perseus spent their lives destroying.
Parents
Typhon and Echidna
Symbols
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
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Sphinx
🐉 creatureRiddling monster with a lion body and human head
A creature with the body of a lion, wings of an eagle, and head of a woman. The Sphinx terrorized Thebes with her deadly riddle until Oedipus solved it.
Sphinx
🐉 creatureRiddler and strangler of Thebes
The Greek Sphinx was a winged monster with the head of a woman and the body of a lion who posed a deadly riddle to all who approached Thebes.
Echidna
🐉 creatureMother of all monsters
Echidna was half woman, half serpent — called the Mother of All Monsters for bearing the most fearsome creatures of Greek mythology.
Campe
🐉 creaturemonsters
Campe was the monstrous she-dragon who guarded the Cyclopes in Tartarus — her death gave Zeus the thunderbolt that won the war against the Titans.
Sphinx
🐉 creatureThe riddle of the Sphinx
The Sphinx's riddle — "What walks on four legs, two legs, then three?" — is the most famous riddle in Western civilisation, a question about human nature itself.
Typhon
🐉 creatureFather of all monsters
The most fearsome monster in Greek mythology, who challenged Zeus for supremacy of the cosmos. Typhon was the father of many of mythology's most dangerous creatures.
Perseus
🗡 heroHero who slew Medusa
The son of Zeus and Danae who beheaded Medusa, rescued Andromeda, and founded the Perseid dynasty of Mycenae.
Minotaur
🐉 creatureBull-headed monster of the Labyrinth
A monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, imprisoned in the Labyrinth beneath Crete. The Minotaur was fed Athenian youths until Theseus slew it.
Typhon
🐉 creatureMost powerful monster who challenged Zeus
Typhon was the most fearsome monster in Greek mythology — a giant with serpent heads who nearly overthrew Zeus and would have ruled the cosmos.
Colchian Dragon
🐉 creatureSleepless guardian of the Golden Fleece
The Colchian Dragon was an enormous, ever-wakeful serpent that guarded the Golden Fleece in the sacred grove of Ares in Colchis.
Cyclops
🐉 creatureOne-eyed giant
Race of one-eyed giants. The original three Cyclopes forged Zeus's thunderbolts; later Cyclopes were savage shepherds, the most famous being Polyphemus.
Minotaur's Labyrinth
🐉 creatureBull-headed man of the Labyrinth
The Minotaur was a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull, born from Pasiphaë's unnatural union with the Cretan Bull, imprisoned in the Labyrinth.