Σφίγξ

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /spʰíŋks/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈsɸiŋks/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈsfiŋks/^[1]

Forms

Σφῐ́γξ (Sphínx) f (genitive Σφῐγγός); third declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, because of the by-forms ⟨Φῖκα⟩ and ⟨Σφῖκα⟩ in Hesiod's manuscripts, the Boeotian ⟨Φίξ⟩, and ⟨Βῖκας⟩ in Hesychius: they show the s that comes and goes, the variations ⟨φ⟩ / ⟨β⟩ and ⟨γ⟩ / ⟨κ⟩, prenasalization and the substrate endings ⟨-ιγγ-⟩ / ⟨-ῑκ-⟩.^[2][3] The PHILOGLOSSA database rates this as very reliable.^[4] The Boeotian form recalls Mount Phikion near Thebes.^[2][5]

The name was later connected by popular etymology with σφίγγω (sphíngō, “to squeeze, bind”), so that it was understood as “the strangler”.^[2][6][7] An Egyptian origin, from a phrase meaning “living image”, has also been proposed.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hesiod's Theogony names the deadly Phix.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In Theban legend she was the daughter of Chimaera or Echidna and sister of the Nemean lion, and her riddle was solved by Oedipus, as Sophocles and Euripides tell.^[6][5] Herodotus uses the word for the sphinxes of art, the hybrid creatures, usually a lion with a woman's head and wings, which were common in Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek art, and calls the male Egyptian kind ἀνδρόσφιγξ.^[6][2][5]

Comic poets called rapacious people sphinxes, and prostitutes “Megarian sphinxes”.^[5] Strato's comedy mocks a cook who talks in riddles as “a male Sphinx”.^[5] Agatharchides and later writers use it for a kind of ape found in Ethiopia.^[5][2] English sphinx came from it through Latin in the early 15th century, and has been used for the Egyptian statues since the 1570s.^[7]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod names the Phix.^[5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus describes sphinxes as ornaments and Egyptian man-sphinxes.^[5][2]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides tell of the Sphinx's riddle.^[5][4]
• 4th century BC – Comic poets call grasping people sphinxes.^[5]
• 2nd century BC – Agatharchides uses it for an ape.^[5]
• Early 15th century – English borrows sphinx through Latin.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (mythology) The Sphinx of Thebes, whose riddle Oedipus solved.^[6][5]
2. A sphinx in art, a hybrid creature with a lion's body and a woman's head.^[6][5]
3. (figurative) A rapacious person; a prostitute; one who speaks in riddles.^[5]
4. A kind of ape found in Ethiopia.^[5][2]

Related words

• σφίγγω (sphíngō)
• ἀνδρόσφιγξ (andrósphinx)
• English sphinx

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com