Essay - The Sphinx in Egypt Rests a Creature with the Body...

The Sphinx

In Egypt rests a cre*****ture with the body of a lion *****nd the face of a human. This is the sphinx that is known as the Great Sphinx and is the national symbol of Egypt. It receives its name "Sphinx" from Greek which literally means "strangler" and was probably named as such due to ***** nature of strangling its victims. The Egyptian name for the sphinx is not ***** in this age. ***** ***** of the *****s had ***** ***** of a lion, ***** *****nd breasts of a wom*****n and w*****gs of a bird. Other mythical creatures were actually believed to have existed but in the case ***** ***** sphinx it is a bit unusual. Sphinx ***** always thought to be a cre*****ture of imagination. Egypt holds many different sphinxes and they are all categorized. There ***** the Crisophinx i.e. a lion's body with a ram's head, a Hierocosphinx which is a ***** body with a hawk's head and Androsphinx which is what the Great ***** is i.e. lions ***** and human head. These ***** are thought of ***** be protectors as opposed to destructors in Greek mythology. They can be found at ***** entrances of temples ***** rows. ***** are many types ***** sphinxes in ***** where the body is of a lion and the face is thought to be ***** the pharaoh. Modern knowledge regard*****g the Egyptian sphinx comes from ***** statues that were built. However the Greek ***** is known ********** due to the writings of some early writers. Tomb art, urns and containers used for drinking which date ***** about approximately 570 B.C. give an insight on the Greek sphinx. Statues of this were ***** built nor is there any confirmed report that ***** were built ***** subsequently lost. The Egyptian Sphinx ***** ***** to be ***** 4500 years old and its face is said to resemble ***** Khafre. ***** ***** suggest "that the Sphinx could be vastly older than Egyptologists believe - not just 4,500 years old, as is generally thought, but possibly as much as 12,500 years *****" (Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, p.50).

***** Greek sphinx was considered to be a demon and ***** related ***** destruction. Vase drawings ***** found ***** sphinx to be seated upright and either it was a woman with lion paws and breasts or a ***** with a *****'s face and breasts. Sophocoles in his play "Oedipus" mentions the Sph*****x which ***** plagued Thebes. The Sphinx asks Oedipus a riddle to which the answer was ********** c*****rectly by ***** to be "Man." ***** crawls on four when an inf*****t and walks on two when adult and then on three with a cane in old age. "Bested at last, the Sphinx then threw herself ***** her high rock and died" (Wikipedia). The ***** teaches us that "like the riddle of the Sphinx, ***** answer and the triumph lie in underst*****ing development and growth in unfamiliar terms" (Arthur F. Kohrman, p.4). In ancient Middle Eastern cultures, li***** was