Private collection G. A., Gardena, California, USA. 1980s, Jerusalem private collection
Literature
BILLOT,
M.F. “Le Sphinx du Louvre CA 637”, Bulletin de Correspondence
Hellénique. 1977.
MARCONI,
C. Temple Decoration and Cultural Identity in the Archaic Greek
World. Getty Foundation. 2007, p. 90.
RENGER,
A.B. Oedipus and the Sphinx: The Threshold Myth from Sophocles
through Freud to Cocteau. UCP. 2013.
STILLWELL,
A. N. Corinth: The Potters’ Quarter. Harvard Univ. Press.
1952.
According to ancient literary sources, the sphinx was a
monster with the face and bust of a woman, the talons of a lion, the body of a
dog, a serpent’s tail and wings of a bird. Its pale appearance, venomous mouth
and stony gaze characterized this demon of divine origin. Its presence amongst
humans created uncertainty and fear. It is possible that this hybrid had its
origin in Egyptian iconography, where it was represented with the body of a
feline and a human face, and was probably related to the divine power of the
pharaoh.
This terracotta piece shows a monster seated on its haunches
and in profile, with its head turned to the right toward the public. The female
countenance has idealized features of great beauty. The thick, wavy hair is
crowned with a polos or crown on the Corinthian model. On the right wing the
rendering of the feathers shows a clear interest in the anatomical details of
birds: the feathers inserted into the body itself are small and short, rather
like scales, while those at the extreme end of the wing are long and narrow, to
help the bird take flight.
The sculptural prototype of Greek sphinxes appears around
the 7th century BC in terracotta, and was usually found decorating large
receptacles. A century later they appeared in marble crowning seated ex-votos
on a column. The monstrous, aggressive nature of the hybrid was channeled into
funerary art, serving as an apotropaic symbol to keep away malevolent forces.
It was usual, therefore, to find this iconography in metopes and hollow acroteria
in Greek necropolis of the 6th century BC, usually with the animal in profile
and turning its head toward the public in an attitude of defiance.