Sphinx

One of the many children of Typhon and Echidna. In Greek mythology, the Sphinx is a female monster with the head of a woman and the body of a lion who, for years, terrorised the city of Thebes. It lay crouched on the top of a rock, and arrested all travellers who came that way, proposing to them a riddle, with the condition that those who could solve it, the traveler would pass safely, but those who failed should be killed. Not one had yet succeeded in solving it, and all had been slain. But Oedipus was not daunted by these alarming accounts, but boldly advanced to the trial. The Sphinx asked him, "What animal is that which in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" Oedipus replied, "Man, who in childhood creeps on hands and knees, in manhood walks erect, and in old age with the aid of a staff." The Sphinx was so distrought at the solving of her riddle that she flung herself down the rock and perished. The name 'sphinx' is derived from the Greek sphingo, which means "to strangle".

from Gryphon's Mythical Realm

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