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(560 B.C.) - National Museum, Delphi |
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Bonded Marble on Marble Base $372 (less Internet discount of $44) = $328 (freight $24) Naxian Sphynx 9" x -6-3/4" Bonded Marble on Marble Base $128 (less Internet discount of $12) = $116 (freight $10) |
| In the mythology of the Greeks the Sphynx was a winged monster with a woman's head and a lion's body. Her victims, in order to avoid being torn to pieces, were challenged to answer her famous riddle. It was: What creature is two-footed, three-footed and four-footed and weakest of limb when it walks on more than two feet? Her victims were many but Cedipus gained the throne of Thebes by answering the enigma and freeing the city from the threatening monster. His answer: Man -- who begins life crawling on all fours and ends life leaning on a cane. The oracle of Delphi attracted leaders from far off lands who came for prophesies of events to come. For these prophesies many gifts of gratitude were bestowed upon the oracle. It was the people from the Aegean island of Naxos who gave this Sphynx to the oracle of Delphi in the sixth century B.C. |
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