Sphinx, Earthenware Ceramics, 2006

Sphinx
The word "sphinx" comes from the Greek Sphigx, apparently from the verb sphiggo, meaning "to strangle". She was represented 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 eagle wings. Hera or Ares sent the Sphinx from her Ethiopian homeland to Thebes where, in Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus, she asks 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.

In South India the "sphinx" is known as purushamriga (Sanskrit) or purushamirukam (Tamil). This means human-beast. It is found depicted in sculptural art in temples and palaces where it serves an apotropaic purpose, just like the "sphinxes" in other parts of the ancient world.[9] It is said by the tradition to take away the sins of the devotees when they enter a temple and to ward off evil in general. It is therefore often found in a strategic position on the gopuram or temple gateway, or near the entrance of the Sanctum Sanctorum.

The sphinxes of Egypt are also seen as guardians in the Egyptian statuary.