Sphinx of Lanuvium

A Graeco-Roman marble table support in the shape of a sphinx. It was found in the ruins of the Villa of Antoninus Pius at Lanuvium. The sculpture is half woman, half bird, with wings stretching out behind the body.

"In Greek mythology, a female monster, said to have proposed a riddle to the Thebans who passed her as she sat on a rock by the roadside, and to have killed all who were not able to guess it.” —Whitney, 1889

Keywords

Greek Mythology, sphinx, monster, Greek sculpture, Graeco-Roman sculpture, Greek sphinx, Lanuvium, Roman furniture, Roman table support, Roman villa, half bird, half eagle, half woman, riddle

Galleries

Roman Empire, Roman Sculpture, Ancient Greece, Greek Mythology: S-T

Source

William Dwight Whitney, PhD, LLD The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language (New York, NY: The Century Co., 1895) 5827

Downloads

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Small GIF

230×320, 43.3 KiB