The Sphynx
"The SPHYNGA or Sphinx, is of the kind of Apes, but his breast up
to his necke, pilde and smooth without hayre: the face is very round,
yet sharp and piked, having the breasts of women, and their favor, or
visage, much like them: In that part of the body which is bare with out
haire, there is a certaine red thing rising in a round circle, like
millet seed, which giveth great grace & comeliness to their coulour,
which i
the middle part is humaine: Their voice is very like a man's,
but not articulate, sounding as if one did speake hastily, with
indignation or sorrow. Their haire browne, or swarthy coulour. They
are bred in India, and Ethiopia. In the promontory of the farthest
Arabia neere Dira, are Sphinges, and certaine Lyons, called
Formicae, so, likewise, they are to be found amongest the Trogloditae.
"As the Babouns and Cynocephali are more wilde than other Apes, so
the Satyres and Sphynges are more meeke and gentle, for they are not
so wilde that they will not bee tamed, nor yet so tame, but they will
revenge their own harmes; as appeared by that which was slayne in a
publike spectacle among the Thebanes. They carrye their meat in the
store houses of their own chaps or cheeks, taking it forth when they are
hungry, and so eat it.
"The name of this Sphynx is taken from 'binding,' as appeareth by
the Greek notation, or else of delicacie and dainty nice loosnesse,
(wherefore there were certain common strumpets called Sphinctae,
and the Megarian Sphingas was a very popular phrase for notorious
harlots), hath given occasion to the poets to faigne a certaine monster
called Sphynx, which they say was thus derived. Hydra brought foorth
the Chimaera, Chimaera by Orthus, the Sphynx, and the Nemaean
Lyon: now, this Orthus was one of Geryon's dogges. This Sphynx
they make a treble formed monster, a Mayden's face, a Lyon's legs, and
the wings of a fowle; or, as Ansonius and Varinus say, the face
and head of a mayde, the body of a dogge, the winges of a byrd, the
voice of a man, the clawes of a Lyon, and the tayle of a dragon: and
that she kept continually in the Sphincian mountaine; propounding
to all travailers that came that way an AEnigma, or Riddle, which
was this: What was the creature that first of all goeth on foure
legges; afterwards on two, and, lastly, on three: and all of them that
could not dissolve that Riddle, she presently slew, by taking them,
and throwing them downe headlong, from the top of a Rocke. At last
Oedipus came that way, and declared the secret, that it was a man,
who in his infancy creepeth on all foure, afterward, in youth, goeth
upon two legs, and last of all, in olde age taketh unto him a staffe
which maketh him to goe, as it were, on three legs; which the monster
hearing, she presently threwe down herselfe from the former rocke, and
so she ended. Whereupon Oedipus is taken for a subtill and wise opener
of mysteries.
"But the truth is, that when Cadmus had married an Amazonian woman,
called Sphynx, and, with her, came to Thebes, and there slew Draco
their king, and possessed his kingdom, afterwards there was a sister
unto Draco called Harmona, whom Cadmus married, Sphynx being yet
alive. She, in revenge, (being assisted by many followers,) departed
with great store of wealth into the mountaine Sphincius, taking with
her a great Dogge, which Cadmus held in great account, and there made
daily incursions or spoiles upon his people. Now, aenigma, in the
Theban language, signifieth an inrode, or warlike incursion, wherfore
the people complained in this sort. This GRECIAN SPHINX robbeth us, in
setting up with an AENIGMA, but no man knoweth after what manner she
maketh this AENIGMA.
"Cadmus hereupon made proclamation, that he would give a very
bountifull reward unto him that would kill Sphinx, upon which occasion
the Corinthian Oedipus came unto her, being mounted on a swift
courser, and accompanied with some Thebans in the night season, slue
her. Other say that Oedipus by counterfaiting friendshippe, slue her,
making shew to be of her faction; and Pausanius saith, that the former
Riddle, was not a Riddle, but an Oracle of Apollo, which Cadmus had
received, whereby his posterity should be inheritors of the Theban
kingdome; and whereas Oedipus, being the son of Laius, a former king
of that countrey, was taught the Oracle in his sleepe, he recouvered
the kingdome usurped by Sphinx his sister, and, afterwards, unknown,
married his mother Jocasta.
"But the true morall of this poetical fiction is by that learned
Alciatus, in one of his emblems, deciphered; that her monstrous treble
formed shape signified her lustfull pleasure under a Virgin's face, her
cruell pride, under the Lyon's clawes, her winde-driven leuitye, under
the Eagles, or birdes feathers, and I will conclude with the wordes of
Suidas concerning such monsters, that the Tritons, Sphinges, and
Centaures, are the images of those things, which are not to be founde
within the compasse of the whole world."