Glossary Sculpture, figurines and art
Sphinx
Also called: sphinxes
A mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head, usually winged in Cypriot and Near Eastern art, used as a guardian and royal emblem.
The sphinx came to Cyprus from Egypt and the Levant, and Cypriot artists usually gave it wings, often a female head, and sometimes an Egyptian-style wig or crown. It appears in many media: on Late Bronze Age seals and bronze stands, on ivory furniture plaques from Salamis, on Cypro-Archaic free-field jugs, on silver bowls, and in pairs on top of sixth-century stone stelae.
In the Classical period the seated sphinx became the coin emblem of Idalion, shown with the city's name in syllabic signs. Sphinxes guard thrones, tombs and sacred places across the eastern Mediterranean, and the Cypriot versions mix Egyptian, Levantine and later Greek features. See free-field style and Egypt.
Related terms
- Egyptianizing
Borrowing the look of Egyptian art (dress, poses, crowns and motifs) in objects made outside Egypt, often through Phoenician intermediaries.
- Double crown
The Egyptian royal crown combining the white crown of Upper Egypt with the red crown of Lower Egypt, copied on some Cypriot statues.
- Lost-wax casting
A casting method in which a wax model is coated in clay, the wax is melted out, and molten metal is poured into the hollow left behind.
Where it appears
- Furniture in Ancient Cyprus
- Plants, Trees and Palms on Cypriot Pottery
- Egypt
- Lotus Flowers and Lotus Friezes on Cypriot Iron Age Pottery
- Amphora
- Free-Field Style: Birds, Bulls and Lotus on Cypro-Archaic Jugs
- Mycenaean Imports and Local Imitations
- Archaic Limestone Statues
- Bichrome Red Ware
- Clothing and Dress in Ancient Cyprus
- Copper Metallurgy in Ancient Cyprus
- Cypro-Classical Cyprus
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