Great Beasts of Legend: The Strong Silent Type: The Sphinx

Dr. Jennifer Houser Wegner, Associate Curator, Egyptian Section, Penn Museum and co-author of The Sphinx That Traveled to Philadelphia The varied roles of the sphinx in ancient Egypt are examined in this Great Beasts of Legend lecture. Egyptian religious imagery gives us an awesome assortment of fantastic hybrid beings and deities that are half-human, half-animal, or a composite of numerous creatures. Perhaps none of these beings are as evocative as the sphinx. Usually depicted as a human-headed lion, the sphinx was a protective entity and sphinx imagery appeared in Egyptian art, architecture, and texts for thousands of years. For further reading: Wegner, Josef, and Jennifer Houser Wegner. 2015. The Sphinx That Traveled to Philadelphia: The Story of the Colossal Sphinx in the Penn Museum. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Philadelphia, PA). http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/2...