How did the Sphinx receive its name?
   Amanda, Web Post

Dr. dig responds:

The sphinx is a mythological beast that has a lion’s body topped by a human head or, in some cases, a human face. In ancient Egypt, sphinxes were usually male and represented kingship, but in ancient Greece, sphinxes had wings and were female. The word "sphinx" comes from the ancient Greek word sphingien,which means "to squeeze" or "to strangle." The story of Oedipus, the king of Thebes in ancient Greece, tells how the sphinx would stand by the road and stop passers by. She would then ask them a riddle. If they could not answer, she would slay them (by strangling them). It seems that the Greeks may have picked up the word sphingein by mis-hearing the ancient Egyptian word for sphinx, seshep-ankh, which means "the living statue."