The gate of the year

Sphinx of king Senwosret III, of the XIIth dynasty (1878-1841 a. C. ), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The sphinx was a particular way to represent the pharaoh in his quality of divine being. The royal power embodied by the king was represented by the lion’s body, while the human head reproduced his idealized features. The word “sphinx” derives from the Greek language, where it designated a monstrous being, with an animal body and a woman’s head, generally malevolent, such as the one that appears in the Oedipus myth.

[Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]




Human-Animal Transformation

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Sphinx of king Senwosret III, of the XIIth dynasty (1878-1841 a. C. ), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The sphinx was a particular way to represent the pharaoh in his quality of divine being. The royal power embodied by the king was represented by the lion’s body, while the human head reproduced his idealized features. The word “sphinx” derives from the Greek language, where it designated a monstrous being, with an animal body and a woman’s head, generally malevolent, such as the one that appears in the Oedipus myth. [Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]