Monster – IX: Sphinx
Marble support shaped as a Sphinx. Roman artwork from a original Greek sculpture dating from BC 450 – 440.
The Sphinx is a mythical creature offspring of Echidna (or Chimaera) and Orthus. The Sphinx is a hybrid of different animal and human parts; she is most often depicted as having a lion’s torso topped by a human head, male or female according to the source, and she is also sometimes given wings. The Sphinx protects a specific terrain or location. In Sophocles, the Sphinx was a guardian of Theban territory. In Hesiod’s Theogony, the Sphinx is called destroyer of the Cadmeians, because she would devour all who passed and failed to answer a riddle correctly.
Source: Roman L., Greek and Roman Mythology.
Roman marble sculpture
(Height 59,8 cm)
I century AD
Basel, Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammmlung Ludwig
Exhibition “Monsters”
Roma, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
Monster – IX: Sphinx
Marble support shaped as a Sphinx. Roman artwork from a original Greek sculpture dating from BC 450 – 440.
The Sphinx is a mythical creature offspring of Echidna (or Chimaera) and Orthus. The Sphinx is a hybrid of different animal and human parts; she is most often depicted as having a lion’s torso topped by a human head, male or female according to the source, and she is also sometimes given wings. The Sphinx protects a specific terrain or location. In Sophocles, the Sphinx was a guardian of Theban territory. In Hesiod’s Theogony, the Sphinx is called destroyer of the Cadmeians, because she would devour all who passed and failed to answer a riddle correctly.
Source: Roman L., Greek and Roman Mythology.
Roman marble sculpture
(Height 59,8 cm)
I century AD
Basel, Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammmlung Ludwig
Exhibition “Monsters”
Roma, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme