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Sphinx
Mount Phicium near Thebes
Danger Level: 7/10
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Abilities
FlightSupernatural IntelligenceProphetic Riddles
Lore & Legend
The Theban Riddler
The Greek Sphinx is a winged lion-woman sent against Thebes. She asks the riddle of the creature that walks on four, two, then three feet; Oedipus answers 'man,' and she throws herself from the rock. Apollodorus and tragedy fix the episode as the city's entry-exam.
She is not the Giza guardian. Thebes's Sphinx eats the unlettered; Egypt's recumbent king watches the horizon.
Primary Sources
“The Sphinx, a creature with the face of a woman, the breast and feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird, learned a riddle from the Muses.”