| The Sphinx | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Biographical Information | |
| Real Name: | Sphinx |
| Species: | Hybreed |
| Parents: |
Typhoeus (Father) |
| Family: |
Hydra (Sister) |
| Weapons: |
Claws and Teeth (in a true form) |
| Physical Description | |
| Gender: | Female |
| Hair color: | Black |
| Eye color: | Yellow |
| Height: | 6'3 |
| Character Information | |
| First appearance: | Breathtaking Beauty |
| Voiced by: | Kathleen Barr |
| GALLERY | |
The Sphinx has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. 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 savage monster.
In the Series[]
Josephine X
The Sphinx, under the alias Josephine X has trapped an entire town who are unable to solve her riddle.
Traditionally, the Sphinx's riddle was:
"What walks on four feet in the morning, two at noon and three at night?"
The answer was man, as a toddler crawls on its hands and feet during the beginning, or morning of their life, two feet in the middle, and they lean on a cane during the end of their life.
Her riddle in Class of the Titans was:
"More precious than gold,
but can not be bought.
It can never be sold,
but it's earned if it's sought.
Though it be broken
it can still be mended.
At birth it can't start
nor by death is it ended."
(the answer to this riddle is friendship )
Notes[]
- In the mythology it is Oedipus who bested her, not Odysseus.
Mythology[]
Described as a winged monster, with pallid cheeks, eyes tainted with corruption, plumes clotted with gore and talons on livid hands. Sometimes, the wings are specified to be those of an eagle, and the tail to be serpent-headed.
A unique demon of destruction and bad luck. She is either the daughter of Orthrus and Chimera, or a daughter of Echidna and Typhon. All of these are chthonic figures from the earliest of Greek Myths, before the Olympians ruled the Greek pantheon. The Sphinx is called Phix.
The sphinx is an immortal creature who can live for eternity without growing old and weak. The sphinx could also transform into a human woman. The sphinx is a spirit of bad luck and could spread misfortune. The sphinx was much stronger than any mortal and could soar through the air with her eagle wings. The sphinx also possessed the power of telekinesis and could magically move objects with a wave of her hand.
It was said in late lore that Hera or Ares sent the Sphinx from her homeland Aethiopian to guarded the entrance to the Greek city of Thebes, asking a riddle to travelers to allow them passage. "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". By some accounts, 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 are feminine in Ancient Greek).
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 the answers. The scene ends when the Sphinx and Anubis ascend back to the heavens. An alternative ending was as she was bested at last, the Sphinx then threw herself from her high rock and died. An alternative version tells that she devoured herself.
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.