Season 1 Episode 1: The Time Traveling Sphinx

This podcast goes over how the Sphinx changes over time. It originated in Egypt as a guardian figure representative of the pharaoh. Over time and through societies, the image and meaning of the Sphinx morphs. The original meaning of the Sphinx from Egyptian culture is not how the world views the Sphinx today. The modern take on the Sphinx can be seen as an erasure of Egyptian culture or as a connection between our world and theirs.

Also featuring: Maryan Ragheb, PhD Candidate UCLA

Transcript

Section 1: Introduction (0:00)

NAOMI: Welcome to Season One, Episode One, of our brand new podcast series, Now as Then. We are so excited to start off this new adventure through time with you! In our very first episode we are going to be talking about one of the most famous symbols of Ancient Egypt: the sphinx.

NITYA: The Sphinx stands guard at the pyramids with the head of a human and the body of a lion. It has made many appearances in modern culture from the 2016 movie Gods of Egypt, to the The Adventures of Puss and Boots, to my personal favorite, the book series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. But these modern iterations are not quite the same as the original sphinx from Ancient Egypt.

NAOMI: Over time, the purpose of the sphinx has changed from society to society. It has been given a brand new image and even new meanings. The way we think about the sphinx now is not at all related to the original purpose it was given. So, how did the sphinx travel this far and how did it change along the way? Ask yourself, how did these adaptations almost entirely erase the original meaning of the Sphinx? Why did the Sphinx change?

CAT: Hi, I’m Cat.

NITYA: I’m Nitya.

STEVEN: Hi, I’m Steven.

NAOMI: I’m Naomi, and welcome to Now as Then, “The Time Traveling Sphinx.”

Section 2: Special Collections (1:08)

CAT: So we are here in UCLA Special Collections inside the Young Research Library looking at a photo album by Antonio Beato, a British-Italian photographer who was really into Egypt. This album is from 1887.¹

STEVEN: There’s a picture in here of the Great Sphinx in front of what I think is Khafre’s pyramid.² There are a few guys standing in front of it to show just how big it is, like your typical tourist photo. In fact the people have already cleaned the sand around the sphinx to make it appear from the desert. But they haven’t yet built those things which prevent it from being submerged by sand again like you see today.

NAOMI: Wait did you guys notice how the pictures were taken from two different angles?

CAT: Oh!

NAOMI: So one’s from the left side of the Sphinx and one’s from the right. So the pyramids in the background are probably actually two different pyramids.

CAT: So we know that this one from the front on angle is the pyramid of Khafre. What’s the other one then?³

NAOMI: That’s a good question.

NITYA: I know that both of these exact angles are on the travel tips page for USA Today for the Sphinx and for tours of the Sphinx, so this is the tourist angle of the Sphinx.⁴

NAOMI: Also if you look really closely at the picture you can see people climbing up the nemes which is the headdress of the pharaohs on the sphinx. They are climbing up on this ancient monument, which is crazy because today you’d think that you could never do that. The sphinx is untouchable because it’s so protected by the government.⁵

NITYA: This just goes to show that fascination with the sphinx is timeless. Whether it’s 2019 or a 132 years ago in 1887, people really thought the sphinx was cool and people wanted to capture that.

Section 3: Ancient Egypt (3:12)

NITYA: So where do we start?

NAOMI: Alright, we’re gonna start from the beginning: In Mesopotamia. I know, what does that have to do with Egypt? But trust me, it’s relevant. Mesopotamia was the very first place that a half human and half animal creature appeared. And of course Mesopotamia was nearby Egypt so they traded goods and ideas and so, Egypt creates their own composite creature, the Sphinx. The first time the Sphinx appeared in history was during the rule of King Djedefre.⁶ Now, he is from the 4th dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, around 2500 BCE. His father was King Khufu, who was the builder of the great pyramid at Giza. During Djedefre’s reign we find a sphinx statue of who we think is queen Hetepheres II, who is Djedefre’s sister but also his wife. Then, his brother, Khafre, became king after he died and that is where the much more well known Great Sphinx of Giza comes in.

NITYA: So where exactly is the Sphinx?

NAOMI: Okay, so the Great Sphinx was carved into the rock near Khafre’s pyramid, which is in Giza with all the other great pyramids, and they’re all located about 5 miles from Cairo. Also, just to give you some dimensions: this thing is massive, like just try to imagine this. The body is 240 ft long and 66 ft tall. Its eyes themselves are 6 1/2 ft tall.⁷

NITYA: Dude, I’m like 5’3”, so the eye itself is taller than me.

NAOMI: Yeah, exactly, like its gigantic. It’s the largest stone statue ever created by man, which is why it stands as such a huge symbol of Egypt.

NITYA: So, can you tell me anything about the origin of the word, Sphinx?

NAOMI: Okay yeah so when I was looking into these origins, oddly enough I found two answers. So they say that the Greeks got the name, Sphinx, from the Greek word “sphingein” which means to strangle. ⁸However, the Egyptians also got their word Sphinx from their word “Ssp anx” which means living image.⁹ Now, living image relates to the purpose behind the image the Egyptians gave the Sphinx. This purpose goes pretty deep. The image of the sphinx was created to embody all three aspects of the Egyptian Pharaoh. The body was a lion, which represents the sun and strength. This also symbolizes Ra, who is the sun god and the supreme god. He is the restorer of Ma’at, which means order, which was a very important matter to Egyptians. Horus and the pharaoh ruled together, like they were one person. They were the link between the gods and the people. Since they acted as one, they were both represented by the head. The Sphinx was an image of strength from the lion but also intelligence from the head of the Pharaoh.¹⁰

NITYA: So I’ve heard that sphinxes were a type of guardian figure. So what exactly were they guarding?

NAOMI: Oh yeah, so sphinxes were very often placed outside of temples and tombs to ya know, guard the person’s possessions, so they would have those with them as they went into the afterlife. The Great Sphinx guards King Khafre’s tomb. Another example would be Sphinx Alley. It’s a two mile path lined by sphinx statues that connects the Luxor and Karnak temples.¹¹

NITYA: Did the sphinx have any other purpose?

NAOMI: Yeah, actually, as we move into the middle kingdom, we see the sphinx aiding the pharaoh in battle, and this is depicted on many, uh, tomb walls and even some Egyptian palettes.¹²

NITYA: Didn’t the sphinx also kinda resemble the pharaohs?

NAOMI: Yeah exactly, so the head of the Sphinx was really made to look exactly like the pharaoh. He even wore the nemes, which is the headdress of pharaohs. King Amenemhat III from the Middle Kingdom added a mane and feline features to his sphinx heads to resemble the face of a lion. He presented himself this way to show how he was the protector and the guardian of Egypt.¹³ The sphinxes of Queen Hatshepsut from the New Kingdom had female features, obviously.

NITYA : Cause she was a queen?

NAOMI: Yeah, and then in the New Kingdom, the sphinxes of Amun had the head of a ram, since this was his symbol. Amun was the god of the sky, and in New Kingdom, the Egyptians merged him with Ra, creating Amun-Ra. And this was their new like supreme god. Since his symbol was a ram and Ra’s was a lion, they created the ram headed lion, the Sphinx.¹⁴ Today, many of these ancient sphinxes are housed in museums, which is a whole other problem were gonna get in to later. Anyway, you can find the sphinxes of Hatshepsut and Amenemhet III at the Met[ropolitan Museum of Art in New York]. Also, the nose of the Great Sphinx is no longer attached but is currently housed in the British Museum. Some say it fell off due to weathering and vandalism, but also it’s rumored that Napoleon shot it off during his conquest.

Section 4: Interview (7:41)

NAOMI: We spoke to Maryan, a PhD Student in the Near Eastern Language and Cultures Department at UCLA for some more information on the sphinx.

NAOMI: So can we just start off with you telling us a little bit about yourself?

MARYAN: My name is Maryan Ragheb. I’m from Egypt. I had my B.A. in Egyptology and Business Administration and then I had my M.A. in Egyptology. I worked for two years with Zahi Hawass as a research assistant and I worked on multiple digs in Luxor, Aswan, and Saqqara.

NAOMI: And I think I read somewhere that you were born in Egypt.

MARYAN: Yep.

NAOMI: So how much time have you spent there?

MARYAN: In Egypt?

NAOMI: Yeah.

MARYAN: I’ve lived there my whole life. I only came here in September.

NAOMI: Oh really? That’s so cool! So what are you working on right now?

MARYAN: I’m working on workshop production. So I’m looking at beads in pre-dynastic Egypt. How were the beads produced and what does that add to its value and its meaning and how they were consumed and then discarded and so on. Looking at the life history of beads.

NAOMI: And what got you into Egyptology from the start? Why Egypt?

MARYAN: That’s a tough question because it didn’t happen in a single moment. I know I’ve always loved history and I definitely remember my visit to the museum and Luxor even before I started the program. So I think these two visits kind of left an impression. Good impression.

NAOMI: Let’s get started with the Sphinx. When did you first see it appear in Egypt and what were its main meanings, significance?

MARYAN: I think, the first sphinx statues came about in Dynasty 4 of the Old Kingdom. Specifically, around the reign of Djedefre. So there is a sphinx statue of a queen who we think is Hetepheres II. She was a daughter of Khufu. So it seems that by the time of Djedefre and then afterwards Khafre, there is some sort of really strong association and the solar cult became prominent during that time. And that’s when the sphinx statues also happen to appear for the first time. So there’s a certain connotation between the sphinx statues and the solar cult. The sphinx was some sort of embodiment of the sun or Ra. In later texts, we know that the Great Sphinx in Giza was called Horemakhet, which means Horus in the horizon. And actually if you look at it from a certain perspective at a certain time of the day, you actually see the Sphinx between the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre so it’s like two horizons and he is rising in between. So, I think there is certain emphasis on how the sphinx is the sun. There’s a temple in front of the Great Sphinx in Egypt and during the 26th dynasty which is the later period, 600 something BC, the sphinx apparently becomes associated with the god Horun which is a Levantine god, it’s not an Egyptian god, but also related to Horus, the sun. We see these kind of statues carry on since the Old Kingdom, since the reign of Djedefre, all the way until Greco-Roman.

NAOMI: I’ve heard a lot of different opinions or theories on who built the Great Sphinx. What’s your opinion?

MARYAN: Well the consensus seems to be that it’s Khafre’s statue.

NAOMI: Because it’s in front of his pyramid?

MARYAN: Yeah. We’re not really sure, but according to the features of the face, it seems to be Khafre. Especially since we don’t have a lot of statues for Khufu. So we can’t really compare

NAOMI: And you just mentioned the Levant. What was Egypt’s relationship with the Levant.

MARYAN: Since the Predynastic period and Early Dynastic period, there has been strong relations with the Levant, mostly trade and exchange. In Egypt, you find, in the Early Dynastic period what we call cylinder seals. This is something that’s not native to Egypt, this has come not from the Levant, from like Iraq. And also the idea of a griffon which is very much related to the sphinx because a griffon is a composite creature. So, composite creatures first appear in Mesopotamia. As a griffon for example and other composite creatures and they first appeared on these cylinder seals. So, by the time we find states coming into play and then there’s trade relations and goods are being exchanged, we find these cylinder seals as a sort of state control over production and exchange of goods. And with it you find composite creatures and then you find composite creatures spreading from Mesopotamia to almost everywhere.

NAOMI: So that’s where their idea of the half animal half man came from.

MARYAN: Yeah, exactly.

NAOMI: And then what about Ancient Greece? What was the relationship with them as well?

MARYAN: I think the first evidence of relationships between Egypt and the Aegean in general, is probably during the Second Intermediate Period and the beginning of the New Kingdom. That’s when in Tell el-Dab’a, which is a site in Northern Egypt, there’s a palace supposedly belonging to the Hyksos dynasty. And there are paintings in this palace that very much in iconography resemble Minoan paintings and Minoan motifs. So that’s an influence. Pottery and trade in products and wine for example could have happened earlier and probably through the Levant. Because in the Levant, especially the coastal areas by, I can’t pinpoint a specific date, but they were very much active in terms of seafaring trade. So they would be very much in contact with the Aegean and most of the products that would come to Egypt would be through the Levant. Then, by the New Kingdom, you start seeing texts and tombs, a lot of references to people and ethnic groups that we think come from whole Aegean area, Crete and Cyprus and other areas.And then there’s also the Sea Peoples coming in. It starts late in Egypt’s history. It starts in the New Kingdom, but there’s definitely evidence for it.

NAOMI: Why do you think the meaning of the sphinx changed as we moved into Greek culture? Was it based on their view of Egypt?

MARYAN: It’s hard to tell. I mean, the Greeks, when they adopted certain aspects of Egyptian culture, they were very selective. They picked the motifs or parts of the ancient Egyptian religion that would fit their own belief system, so Isis for example became very prominent. I don’t know how they thought of the sphinx. I’m sure they were very familiar with the idea of composite creatures because of their relation with the Levant and Mesopotamia. Whether they thought the sphinx was something evil, it’s hard to tell, but it seems to be associated, in their culture, with evil women and vengeance.

NAOMI: The modern view of the sphinx is most closely related to the Greek perspective, so why do you think we hold that perspective instead of the Egyptian meaning of the Sphinx.

MARYAN: I think it’s because the idea of how the sphinx is related to the sun god got kind of lost in the process. No one really realizes this connection anymore. Perhaps for the early Greek visitors or merchants, the sphinx was something they feared because if they came across the Great Sphinx it’s a pretty big statue and they probably associated it with guarding something and probably even warding off evil. Perhaps it was fearful for them and that’s what got carried on because the Greek culture is one of the major influencers for the Renaissance in Europe so maybe that’s the idea that became propagated and carried on into modern times.

NAOMI: Having spent most of your life in Egypt, do you make any connections between your own experiences in Egypt and your work?

MARYAN: Yes. So, when I study Ancient Egyptian culture, there are a lot of things, a lot of things, in the culture that kind of carried on until today in our practices.

NAOMI: Like what?

MARYAN: Just like some sayings, colloquial sayings in the language. Some actual words from Ancient Egyptian carries on into our modern language. Practices, for example, there is this idea of ‘Sebou’ or a celebration after seven days of the a birth of a baby and they would celebrate and start choosing the name after the seven days. And during that celebration, they would do certain things like putting him in a sieve and kind of shaking the baby. They do that. So a lot of these things seem to be very traditional and a lot of it appears in Ancient Egypt as well. Also, when you look at the letters, the way the people talk and the way they think is very much similar to modern Egyptians.

Unfortunately, a lot of Egyptians nowadays don’t realize that link. They think the Ancient Egyptians were some sort of distant race that became wiped out and then Modern Egyptians came. I don’t know how they think of it this way. Unfortunately, there is no connection with the past for a lot of Egyptians. But for me, I find that it’s one of the things that makes me proud, being Egyptian. It’s that history and that culture, the good and the bad in it.

NAOMI: Is this connection part of the reason why you got into Egyptology.

MARYAN: Yeah. Definitely. It’s one of the reasons why I continue doing my M.A. and PhD in Egyptology.

NAOMI: We also read in your profile that you go on excavations or you’ve been on some. Could you tell us a little bit about those and maybe some of the coolest things you found or the weirdest things?

MARYAN: The first coolest thing I’ve ever found was, we were in Luxor. We were excavating in a court in front of a tomb. There was a side chamber in the wall of the court and it was full of rubble. So we would just photograph, draw, crawl in, photograph, draw, and then remove a layer, and then go in again. One day I was inside, brushing off the surface so we can do our drawings and take the photographs. And then I felt something kind of moving underneath me, I didn’t think much of it. Next day, when we removed that layer, turns out I was sitting on top of a coffin lid. I’m just so glad that it didn’t break! So that’s what was wobbly.

NAOMI: Wow, that’s so cool!

MARYAN: That was the coolest thing. Also when I was in Saqqara, but unfortunately I wasn’t there when they excavated it, but I saw it in storage, there’s this small vessel. Once you open it, the smell of the perfume that was inside it’s still very much there.

NAOMI: Oh wow that was there for a long time.

MARYAN: That was so freaky to me, I did not believe that this could happen.

NAOMI: I think that’s everything thank you so much for coming and doing this for us.

MARYAN: Thank you guys. I hope my answers were useful.

NAOMI: Yeah it was so interesting.

Section 5: Ancient Greece to the 1500s (22:08)

NAOMI: So basically that’s the extent of what I know about the Sphinx, but where did it go from Ancient Egypt?

NITYA: Let’s talk about where the sphinx was going from Ancient Greece to the 1500s. The characteristics of modern versions of the Sphinx are closest to what the Greeks had in their version. Like Maryan said, the Levant was an established connection between Greece and Egypt, but there were also many seafaring travelers. Both of these are ways that Egyptian culture, including the sphinx, probably arrived in Greece.

NAOMI: When you say Greek sphinx are you talking about the Oedipus story?

NITYA: That’s definitely the most famous version. Sophocles play, “Oedipus the King” has a scene where the sphinx is the tyrannical ruler of Thebes and to enter Thebes, Oedipus must answer her riddle.¹⁵ There’s also Hesiod’s Theogony, where the Sphinx is a daughter of Orthrus and Chimera.¹⁶ In Greece, the sphinx is a destructive force. It’s hard to say which of these came first because they were probably stories told orally before they were written down, but both of these say the sphinx is female and every other Greek and Roman version of the sphinx is also a female destructive force.

NAOMI: In Ancient Egypt, they had male and female sphinxes, is that true for Greece too?

NITYA: This is definitely a change that happens when we get to Greece. In Greece, the sphinx is a female character that appears in many stories. She’s still a protector but she’s definitely the bad guy. She’s also one single character appears in many different stories. Part of what Maryan told us was that aspects of Egyptian culture were adopted into what fit with Greek culture and mythology that already existed. Maybe an explanation for the sphinx being a woman is her role
as Oedipus’s opposition. It would make sense that the binary opposition of good and evil that Oedipus represents mirrors the opposition of male and female.¹⁷

NAOMI: Are these myths the only mentions of the sphinx in Greece?

NITYA: Greek and Roman mythology have the same sphinx character mentioned by Hesiod and Sophocles. There are also many works of art that include the sphinx, but it doesn’t quite look like the Great Sphinx in Egypt.¹⁸ The Greek and Roman sphinx has wings and sometimes has the head of a bird.¹⁹ These depictions are mostly based on Theogony and Oedipus the King. Greek and Roman historians don’t really mention the Great Sphinx, although Pliny the Elder is an exception.²⁰ He is a Roman historian who said that the Great Sphinx was a “wondrous object of art.”²¹

NAOMI: So how come he’s the only one who talks about the sphinx. Wouldn’t travelers of that time have visited the pyramids and seen it?

NITYA: Well, in the modern day, the sand around the sphinx is dug out so it is always visible, but in reality, the sands would cover up the sphinx and uncover it in a kind of cycle.²²

NAOMI: What about after Rome? Did Europe care about the sphinx?

NITYA: Well let’s look at the middle ages. This is Europe from the 5th century CE to the Renaissance. With the rise of Christianity, sphinx imagery was adopted into religious art much like how the Greeks did with Egypt. This sphinx also has wings, but the Bible doesn’t actually mention the Great Sphinx at all, so it’s likely that the sphinx in Christian art is just from Rome.²³ Basically all of the instances we have of the sphinx during medieval Europe come from the church.

NAOMI: Wait so we only have Christian sources?

NITYA: The Middle Ages weren’t exactly a good time for Europe so most of our lasting written records and preserved art is whatever was protected by the Church. So while the Sphinx had a role in Greek religion, it didn’t actually serve a purpose in Christianity other than in art. If we turn to parts of the world where Islam was the primary religion during this time, we have a lot more information. Islam’s golden age was from the 8th century to the 14th century CE, so we have way more art and information from areas like what is now Israel, Iraq, and Iran. The Sphinx was a pretty common motif in Islamic art.²⁴

NAOMI: How different was their sphinx from the Greco-Roman sphinx?

NITYA: Well it still had the wings like in Greece, but it’s symbolic value was almost completely different. This sphinx was a positive and protective figure that could be masculine or feminine. From this region, a lot of the sphinx art was on pottery. Like what Maryan mentioned about the Egyptian Sphinx, the Sphinx in Islamic art was a solar figure with references to astrology and the zodiac.²⁵ This region’s geographic location and it’s sphinx’s characteristics indicate that it’s probably a version directly derived from Ancient Egypt, especially if you consider the strong relationships between the Levant and Ancient Egypt.

As we can see, the Sphinx changed both physically and in its symbolic characteristics over time as it moved around the world. In Greece it became a tyrannical riddler figure with wings. In the middle ages in Europe, the symbol persisted in art, though it appears less frequently. In Islamic art, we see the sphinx’s wings again, but it’s non-physical characteristics are closer to the sphinx of Egypt. We can still see hints of the original Egyptian sphinx. Each version mentioned is of course, generalizations about the sphinxes of each period. Within time periods and regions there are many nuanced differences between individual depictions, but the versions we talk about are fairly representative to their respective culture. In all of these versions, the composite figure of the human head and lion body are common, but almost all other aspects have changed. Each culture imported this symbol of power, but arranged its features to meet their individual needs.

Section 6: The Renaissance to Napoleon (27:38)

CAT: Now, moving further on into time, we can trace the Sphinx from the ancient times slowly into more modern ages. We’re talking the European Renaissance, Napoleon, and the English and French rivalries.

NITYA: There were sphinxes even in the European Renaissance?

CAT: Sure! Although they were more Greek than Egyptian, there certainly were many sphinxes throughout the Renaissance. Artists seemed to enjoy replicating the Greek sphinx, even adding discolorations and cracks to archaize their work. For example, there’s one small marble relief in a museum in Vienna that depicts a ruler on a sphinx throne, with some deliberate weathering and fractures.²⁶

NITYA: Isn’t it strange how they replicated the Greek sphinx, though? Why not the Egyptian one as well?

CAT: This gets into our main discussion of how the Sphinx changed throughout time! Those in the Renaissance were really fascinated with classical culture, digging up Greek sphinxes and replicating them. They probably didn’t even know they were Egyptian.

NITYA: Wow, it really puts into perspective how long Egypt has existed. I mean, even Herodotus, one of the first documented travelers to Egypt, is 1500 years removed from the Old Kingdom.²⁷ He supposedly visited Egypt around the Twenty-Seventh dynasty, which is the Late Period.

CAT: So you can see how the European Renaissance was even further away from the first sphinxes.

NITYA: Earlier you also mentioned Napoleon! I know he campaigned in Egypt and tried to document every possible part of Egypt, but what did he have to do with the Sphinx specifically?

CAT: Have you heard of the Sphinx’s missing nose?

NITYA: Yeah, the face on the Great Sphinx of Giza doesn’t have a nose, right?

CAT: Supposedly, Napoleon is the one that shot the nose off with cannons while campaigning in Egypt.

NITYA: Wait, really?

CAT: No, that’s just a rumor. In reality, Napoleon caused the revitalization of interest in Egypt from Europeans.

NITYA: This begins the discussion of Orientalism, right? I know that foreign powers decided to take artifacts out of Egypt, either legally or illegally, without really consulting the Egyptians themselves.

CAT: The Europeans began to study Egypt but neglected to truly attempt to understand them through the native perspective, instead imposing a Eurocentric view over them, tainting all early research we have now with super racist stuff. Just think about how there are sphinxes in museums around the world like the Met. Many artifacts, like cylinder seals, ivories, and other stone statues with sphinxes depicted on them, now reside in European museums.²⁸ Should these artifacts be returned?

NITYA: I don’t know, that’s a difficult question. Who does Ancient Egypt belong to? Does the past belong to anyone?

CAT: The field of Egyptology is still very Eurocentric. Although this discussion applies to all of Egyptian culture, we can discuss this specifically in regards to the Sphinx as well. Sometimes, whether these artifacts were acquired legally or not is unclear. These are issues that I think can continue to be discussed as we move forward through time.

CAT: While the question of who the past belongs to is probably impossible to answer, what matters is that we treat cultures of the past with respect as we continue to learn about them.

Section 7: Modern Sphinxes (30:39)

STEVEN: I really agree with the point that the Sphinx people know today is mostly Greek Sphinx instead of Egyptian ones. It is really just a subject which has some very specific meanings, and people who use it may only use one of its symbolism.

NAOMI: Like what?

STEVEN: Well, this actually mainly dates back to the Oedipus myth, and many scholars like to analyze that myth. If you know something about structuralist approach, you must have heard of the big name Levi-Strauss. He said that the riddle of the sphinx in this mythical context cannot be provided with an answer, and that the hero is destined to kill the sphinx to complete his journey.²⁹

NAOMI: This sounds like the description of heroes slaughtering a dragon.

STEVEN: Yes, exactly. A hero’s guessing a riddle is almost guaranteed when encountering a Sphinx just as that a dragon is to be slaughtered, a western dragon of course.

NAOMI: Yeah, I do remember that in the novel Goblets of Fire, Harry Potter had to answer a riddle, of the Sphinx, to get into the inner part of the maze.

STEVEN: Good point, and that brings about another point that I have observed about modern sphinx, and I think this almost happens in every case Great Sphinx has changed along time. The sphinx riddle is to be answered. Do you remember the Sphinx riddle? I’d like to repeat it. It goes
like this: “First think of the person who lives in disguise, who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies. Next, tell me what’s always the last thing to mend, The middle of middle and end of the end? And finally give me the sound often heard during the search for a hard-to-find word. Now string them together, and answer me this, which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?” ³⁰ There is not much Egyptian elements in this riddle, though, but the answer was spider anyway, And she broke the answer into three parts and whenever Harry got one part right she began smiling to Harry which kind of is giving her away.

NAOMI: And I like that Sphinx in the second episode of The Adventures of Puss in Boots. She didn’t eat the cat after three wrong answers, and later she gave away the guarded treasure because she failed to find a riddle Puss could guess it right.³¹

STEVEN: Yes, riddle guessing is almost equivalent to Sphinx in this context, and people like to play around that. People just like to appeal to it for their own sake, but not actually referring to the true Egyptian myth. Another symbolic characteristic of the Egyptian Sphinx is the guardian of mysterious civilization. And this time, even though people are talking about the Great Sphinx people still just use whatever evidence they want to support an argument– I have to say I might be doing the same thing now.

NAOMI: What are you referring to?

STEVEN: I mean that sphinx gives people a sense of mystery, so that people may be open to any wild arguments. For example, aliens. I used to be very interested in this subject, and I advise you to check out a book called Architects of the Underworld: Unriddling Atlantis, Anomalies of Mars, and the Mystery of the Sphinx.³²

NAOMI: What are those books about?

STEVEN: This is a book discussing those magnificent achievements of the ancient civilizations as might be helped by ancient aliens. It uses all kinds of evidence and relates with the sphinx in suggesting that the redating of the sphinx, it might be extremely old, and associates it with another civilization Atlantis. This is supported by supposed archaeological discoveries that Egyptians used materials, the stone which built the pyramids and the Sphinx was not rich in the natural environment.

NAOMI: Wasn’t the sphinx actually built with limestone which was readily available in the area?

STEVEN: True, but this was how that book built his argument, it’s not my fault to represent it. Its just to show that sometimes scholars assume weird facts to show their arguments. Well, the author then proposed that the natural material was actually rich in America, one of the possible places where it might have been Atlantis, and he later deduced that trade may happen between those two civilizations.

NAOMI:True, people really just use the sphinx to justify their own opinions in this case.

Section 8: Conclusion (35:18)

NITYA: So what’s up with the sphinxes in museums. Are they in museums in Egypt?

NAOMI: There are many Ancient Egyptian artifacts, sphinxes included, in museums in Egypt, but there are many more in other museums around the world. The question is where do these artifacts really belong? I mean, if they’re from Ancient Egypt, then shouldn’t the Egyptians have rights to them? Or do they belong to those who found them?

STEVEN: So who owns the past? Also, as we have seen, the sphinx has changed significantly over time, is this okay?

NITYA: These are all difficult questions. Almost everything about the sphinx we see today is different from what the Ancient Egyptians knew. The image, purpose, and symbolic meaning of the Sphinx changed over time and between societies. On one hand, it seems like erasure of Ancient Egyptian culture. All of these cultures took the symbol and aesthetic of the sphinx and changed other aspects to whatever they wanted.

CAT: On the other hand, seeing the sphinx in the modern day helps connect us to the past and creates interest in Egypt and history. Whether this is through movies, or visiting museums. Our look at the past is just an exploration of who we are as human beings.

NITYA: Just like how each iteration of the sphinx tells us what was important to each culture, our own versions of the sphinx and the way we look at Ancient Egypt tells us about what is important to us.

STEVEN: Whatever your opinion is on the matter, thank you for listening to this episode of Now as Then. We hope you enjoyed learning about the sphinx with us.

NAOMI: Special thanks to Courtney Jacobs and Simon Lee at the UCLA Library for help with research and access to special collections, Deirdre Whitmore from the Digital Archaeology Lab and Tom Garbelotti at HumTech for helping us with the equipment, UCLA studio 22 for providing recording spaces, Dr. Elizabeth Carter for providing us with helpful background information, Maryan Ragheb for giving us her time and knowledge,

NITYA: My roommate Brittney for translating french sources and Robyn Price our awesome instructor for her hours and hours of work that made this podcast possible.

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