Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/49

LEFT SPHINX 23 SPHINX SPHINX, a Greek word signifying the "strangler," applied to certain symbol- ical forms of Egyptian origin, having the body of a lion, a human or an animal head, and two wings. Various other EGYPTIAN SPHINX combinations of animal forms have been called by this name, though they are rather griffins or chimaeras. Human- headed sphinxes have been called andro- sphinxes; that with the head of a ram, a criosphinx; and that with a hawk's head, a hieracosphinx. The form when com- plete had the wings added at the sides; but these are of a later period and seem to have originated with the Babylonians or Assyrians. In the Egyptian hiero- glyphics the wingless sphinx bears the name of Neb, or lord, and Akar, or in- telligence, corresponding to the account of Clement that this emblematic figure depicted intellect and force. Others see in it the idea of resui*rection, symbolized by the triumph of the dawn over the darkness of night. The idea that it al- legorized the overflow of the Nile when the sun was in the constellations Leo and Virgo appears to be unfounded. In Egypt the sphinx also occurs as the sym- bolical form of the monarch considered as a conqueror, the head of the reigning king being placed on a lion's body, the face bearded, and the usual head dress. Thus used, the sphinx was generally male; but in the case of female rulers that figure has a female head and the body of a lioness. The most remarkable sphinx is the Great Sphinx at Gizeh (Giza), a colossal form hewn out of the natural rock, and lying about a quarter of a mile S. E. of the Great Pyramid. It is sculptured out of a spur of the rock itself, to which masonry has been added in* certain places to complete the shape, and it measures 172 feet 6 inches long by 56 feet high (Vyse, "Pyramids" iii: 107). Immedi- atelv in front of the breast Caviglia found in 1816 a small naos or chapel, formed of three hieroglyphic tablets, dedicated by Thothmes III. and Rameses II. to the sphinx, whom they adore under the name of Haremkhu, or Harmachis, as the Greek inscriptions found at the same place call it — i. e., the Sun on the Horizon. These tablets fomaed three walls of the chapel; the fourth, in front, had a door in the center and two couch- ant lions over it. A small lion was found on the pavement, and an altar between its fore paws, apparently for sacrifices offered to it in the time of the Romans. Before the altar was a paved causeway or dromos leading to a walled staircase of 30 steps repaired in the reign of M. Aurelius and L. Verus on May 10, 166, A. D. In the reigns of Severus and his sons, A. D. 199-200, another dromos, in the same line as the first, and a diverg- ing staircase were constructed., while some additions had been made to the parts between the two staircases in the i-eign of Nero. Votive inscriptions of the Roman period, some as late as the 3d century, were discovered in the walls and constructions; and on the second digit of the left claw of the sphinx an inscription in pentameter Greek verses, by one Arrian, probably of the time of Severus, was discovered. In addition to these walls of unburnt brick, galleries and shafts were found in the rear of the sphinx extending toward the N. To the S. of the sphinx Mariette in 1852 found a dromos which led to a temple of the time of the 4th dynasty, built of huge blocks of alabaster and red granite. In the midst of the great chamber of this temple were found seven diorite statues, five mutilated and two entire, of the GREEK SPHINX monarch Chafra or Chephren, which are fine exampl«s of the oldest Egyptian sculpture. Later discoveries prove it to have been a monument of at least the