thumb|250px|right|The Great Sphinx of Giza, with the Pyramid of Khafre in the background A sphinx (Arabic: أبو الهول) is a zoomorphic mythological figure which is depicted as a recumbent lion with a human head. It has its origins in sculpted figures of Old Kingdom Egypt, to which the ancient Greeks applied their own name for a male monster, the "strangler", an archaic figure of Greek mythology. (Alternatively, Susan Wise Bauer suggests that the word is a Greek corruption of the Egyptian name "shesepankh," or "living image." ) Similar creatures appear throughout South and South-East Asia. In European decorative art, the sphinx enjoyed a major revival from the Renaissance Later, the sphinx image, something very similar to the original Egyptian concept, was exported into many other cultures, albeit often interpreted quite differently due to translations of descriptions of the originals and the evolution of the concept in relation to other cultural traditions.

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