Biography of the Sphinx

Sphinx (Sjigx) – In Greek mythology, the demon-suppressor in the form of poluzhenschiny, polulva; personification of fate and the inhuman suffering. Title S. – of Greek origin (from Ch. Sjiggw-choke), but the idea probably borrowed from the Egyptians or Assyrians) in which S. – One of the common mythical figures. In Hesiod (Feogoniya, 326 et seq.) SA was the daughter of Chimeras and Orera, other, Typhon and Echidna. Especially prevalent were Theban legend, developed by the Greek tragedians, as embodied in the idea of SA man's struggle with destiny. Near Thebes, showing a cave in the mountain Fikion or Sfinpon, where according to legend, lived a monster. In Theban legend, S. sent hero, or Ares, or Dionysus, to devastate the country, as a punishment for murder Cadmium Aresova dragon (or Laiya crime). Taking refuge in the mountains called peschepe, S. watched passers-by and ask a riddle: "Who walks on four legs in the morning, noon and evening for two at three?" (Clue – man, three pores of his life: childhood, mature age and old age). This sphinx undertook, in the case of the puzzle, kill himself, nor permitted the same riddle, he devoured (or dumped from a cliff). To get rid of this trouble, Creon, ruler of the country since the death of Laiya, offered his arm to his sister Jocasta and her imperial power to those who solve the riddle. Puzzle was resolved Oedipus, who became king and married Jocasta, his mother, and S. dashed off a cliff. Images of C. in the art have been different: he usually had a bust of a woman and the rear part of the body of any animal (lions, snakes, dogs, etc.), or the front part of the body of a lion and the back part of the human body, with claws and wings of an eagle hawk. In the new poetry SA became a symbol of a mysterious, but also embodies the idea of adjacency suffering with pleasure (cf. Heine's poem, "Das ist der alte Marchenwald!", In the preface to the III-th ed. His "Book of Songs"). Wed Jeep, "Die Griechische Sphinx" (BA, 1854); Ilberg, "Die S. in der Griechischen Kanst und Sage" (Lpts., 1896).