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Sphinx
Sphinx


The Sphinx is a creature native to the planet Caltos.

It kept a riddle that no one could solve. It would consume those who failed to answer the riddle.

Only the Batman was able to figure out the riddle.[1]

Jayna once took the form of a sphinx while Zan took the form of a Frost Giant.[2]


The Riddle of the Sphinx[]

Sphinx2

The Riddle:
"What is it that builds up castles and tears down mountains, makes some men blind and helps others to see?"

The Answer:
Sand. A child uses it to build sandcastles, and the wind causes it to erode mountains. In a desert storm its blinding and it can be heated to make glass to help people see.


Background Information[]

A sphinx is a zoomorphic mythological figure which is depicted as a recumbent lion with a human head in sculpted figures of Old Kingdom Egypt, and ancient Greece. The Greeks had a unique feminine, demon representing destruction and bad luck. According to Hesiod, she was a daughter of Echidna and Orthrus; according to others, she was a daughter of Echidna and Typhon. All of these are chthonic figures from the earliest of Greek myths, before the Olympians ruled the Greek pantheon. The Sphinx is said to have guarded the entrance to the Greek city of Thebes, and to have asked a riddle of travelers to allow them passage. If the traveler failed to solve the riddle, then the Sphinx killed him/her. And if the traveler answered the riddle correctly, then the Sphinx would destroy herself. The exact riddle asked by the Sphinx was not specified by early tellers of the stories, and was not standardized until late in Greek history.


Episode Appearance[]

new SuperFriends (1978):

References[]

  1. As seen in the Superfriends season three episode Battle of the Gods (1978).
  2. As seen in the comic story: Puppets of the Overlord! (1979)

External Link[]

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