Pl. sphinges, sphinxes. Also 5 spynx, 7–8 (9) sphynx. [a. L. Sphinx, a. Gr. Σφίγξ (stem Σφιγγ-), app. f. σφίγγειν to draw tight. So F. sphinx, It. sfinge, Sp. and Pg. esfinge.]
In generalized senses usually with small initial; otherwise with capital S.
1. Gr. Mythol. A hybrid monster, usually described as having the head of a woman and the (winged) body of a lion, which infested Thebes until the riddle it propounded was solved by Œdipus; also, any monster of a similar form and character.
1420–2. Lydg., Thebes, I. 624. And as I rede, Spynx this monstre hight. Ibid., II. 2158. At thylke mount wher that Spynx was slawe.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 55. What that before tyme was, I thinke scarcely Sphinx can tell.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 342. Subtill as Sphinx, as sweet and musicall, As bright Apollos Lute.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 131. The vpper part of a Sphinx resembled a maide, and the lower a Lion.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. (1711), 40/2. Geryons, Harpyes, Dragons, Sphinges strange, Wheel, where in spacious Gires the flume doth range.
1729. Mandeville, Fab. Bees, II. 266. Do you lay any Stress upon Sphinxes, Basilisks, flying Dragons, and Bulls that spit Fire?
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), III. 146. Several relievo’s of plaster, representing a sphynx, a griffin, and other imaginary animals.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 347. Thou Sphinx, subtlest of fiends Who ministered to Thebes … unnatural love, and more unnatural hate.
1883. Fortn. Rev., Feb., 193. The sphinx had an awkward habit of swallowing up those who could not guess her riddles.
b. transf. A person characterized by some quality of the Sphinx; esp. one who propounds or presents a difficult question or problem.
1603. B. Jonson, Sejanus, II. iii. [III. i.] I am not Oedipus inough, To vnderstand this Sphynx.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xii. § 8. 566/2. The Sphynx, who is said to be the Author of this ambiguous Riddle,… was Adam de Torleton.
1808. Sporting Mag., XXX. 209. A lady named Gibson, one of the sphynxes of Fleet-market.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, xxvii. He was a sphinx, a chimera, a lunatic broke loose, who took unintelligible delight in getting wet, and dirty.
1884. Leicester Chron., 25 Oct., 5/3. Mr. Dodson has for many years been a political sphinx.
c. fig. A thing or subject of a mysterious or inscrutable nature.
a. 1610. Healey, Cebes (1636), 110. For ignorance is a Sphynx unto man.
1678. Yng. Man’s Call., 46. It is the philosophers sphinx, which however it may seem to propound toyes, yet devoureth all (as that did) who fall unwisely into its imbraces.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 13. History fairly questioned is no Sphinx.
2. A sculptured, carved or molded figure of an imaginary creature having a human head and breast combined with the body of a lion.
The Egyptian sphinxes usually exhibit male heads and wingless bodies; in the usual Greek type the head is female and the body winged.
α. 1579–80. North, Plutarch (1896), V. 320. He had a Sphinx of Yvory geven him by Verres.
1738. Ld. Chesterf., in Common Sense, 4 March (1739), 33. A Sphynx of curious Workmanship and of inestimable Value.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 405. There is a sphinx upon it … mighty clearly expressed.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, iv. 97. The southern end of the range rises in the form of an unfinished sphinx.
1877. Amelia B. Edwards, Up Nile, Pref. p. xv. The stone lips of a colossal Sphinx, buried to the neck in sand.
β. 1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1290. Setting up ordinarily before the porches and gates of their temples, certaine Sphinges.
1676. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 315. With which agreeth also the Testimony of Plutarch, he adding a further Confirmation thereof from the Egyptian Sphinges.
1863. Ld. Lytton, Ring Amasis, II. 32. The beautiful serious sphinges, with their smooth lion-limbs, and serene human faces.
1877. Times, 17 Feb., 4/5. There are handles ornamented with bull’s heads, winged sphinges [etc.].
γ. 1651. Cleveland, Poems, 31. As Temples use to have their Porches wrought With Sphynxes, creatures of an antick draught.
1766. Walpole, Lett. (1857), IV. 492. Two sphynxes in stone, with their heads coquetly reclined.
1814. Heyne, Tracts on India, 336. In the Conjeveram pagoda there are pillars resting on sphynxes.
1888. F. Hume, Mme. Midas, I. iii. The motionless calm which the old Egyptians gave to their sphinxes.
b. spec. The colossal stone image of this kind near the pyramids of El-Gizeh in Egypt.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, VI. i. I. 467. Not farre hence is that Sphynx, a huge Colosse, with the head of a Maid, and bodie of a Lion.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. II. v. 134. It is said, that this Sphynx, so soon as the Sun was up, gave responses to any thing it was consulted about.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XV. 681/2. The great sphynx was in his [Pliny’s] time upwards of 62 feet above the surface of the ground.
1820. Keats, Hyperion, I. 31. Her face was large as that of Memphian sphinx.
1869. Rawlinson, Anc. Hist., 68. Thothmes IV…, who cut the great sphinx near the Pyramids.
1879. Loftie, Ride in Egypt, 161–2. To others, again, the Sphinx is part of the great ‘Time-passage Theory.’
3. A kind of ape; in mod. use, a sphinx-baboon.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 17. The Sphinx or Sphinga is of the kinde of Apes…. In the promontory of the farthest Arabia, neer Dira, are Sphinges and certaine Lyons.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, VI. i. I. 466. Other Apes there are store,… Satyres with feet like Goats, and Sphynges, with breasts like women and hairie.
1871. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., I. 148. This excited the indignation of the Sphinx, who trotted off to the further end of his cage.
4. An insect belonging to the lepidopterous genus Sphinx or to the family represented by this, so called from the attitude frequently assumed by the caterpillar.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Sphinx,… a name given by Mr. Reaumur to a very singular species of caterpillar.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxiii. (1818), II. 369. The most remarkable insects in this respect are the sphinxes, and from this they doubtless took their name of hawk-moths.
1824. W. Forsyth, Fruit Trees, xxvii. 396. The Sphinges appear either early in the morning, or after sunset.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 310. This order [sc. Lepidoptera] has been divided into three groups, called … butterflies, sphinges, and moths.
1882. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., VI. 25. The larvæ of many Sphinges, etc., construct a cell in the ground.
5. a. attrib., as sphinx-enigma, -face, -figure, -form, -question, -riddle.
1832. [G. Long], Egypt. Antiq., I. x. 218. So great is the variety of forms in which sphinx-figures occur. Ibid., 225. Some light on the origin of the sphinx-form.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VI. i. What Sphinx-questions; which the distracted world … must answer or die! Ibid. (1862), Fredk. Gt., XIII. i. One must act, and act at once; but it is a perfect sphinx-enigma to say How.
1886. W. Graham, Social Probl., 41. The veritable sphinx-riddle which not to solve is to be destroyed.
1900. E. Hough, in Century Mag., Feb., 510/2. You still might see … the sphinx face of the old West, smiling, mysterious, alluring.
b. Comb., as sphinx-faced, -guarded, -lined.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. vii. 69. I have … heard that the close approach to land of these sphinx-faced monsters [sc. walrus] portends a storm.
1857. J. Hamilton, Less. from Gt. Biogr., 88. The Pharaohs sleep grandly in their sphinx-guarded sepulchres.
1865. J. H. Ingraham, Pillar of Fire, III. viii. 363. [Pharaoh] proceeded … along the sphinx-lined avenue to the terrace of the Nile.
c. Special combs.: sphinx-baboon, the Guinea Baboon (Cynocephalus or Papio sphinx); sphinx-moth, = sense 4.
1839. Darwin, Surv. Voy. Nat., III. ii. 37. Whenever I saw these little creatures … I was reminded of the sphinx moths.
1871. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., 149. The Sphinx Baboon … is commonly seen in menageries, and stuffed in museums.
Hence Sphinxian a., of or pertaining to the Sphinx; sphinx-like. Sphinxly adv., in a sphinx-like manner. Sphinxine a., characteristic of the Sphinx; enigmatical, mysterious. Sphinxineness, sphinx-like obscurity.
1598. Marston, Pygmal., Sat. ii. 39. And in such pitchy clouds enwrapped beene His *Sphinxian riddles, that old Oedipus Would be amaz’d.
1746. Brit. Mag., 53. Like the Monster represented in the Sphinxian Riddle.
1889. Jrnl. Educ., 1 Nov., 575/1. The Œdipus to this sphinxian enigma seems unlikely to make his appearance.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 25 Nov., 4/3. Mr. Marston smiled *sphinxily.
1845. Mrs. Browning, in Lett. R. Browning & E. B. Barrett (1899), I. 53. People say of you and of me … that we love the darkness and use a *sphinxine idiom in our talk. Ibid. (1845) Lett. (1897), I. 254. The sin of Sphinxine literature I admit. Have I not struggled hard to renounce it? Ibid. Tell me honestly … if anything like the *Sphinxineness of Browning, you discover in me.
