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Egyptian and Greek:
In ancient Egypt, the Sphinx is a male statue of a lion with the head of a human, this is called the Androsphinx. There is the Criosphinx which is a ram-headed lion. Finally, there is the Hierocosphonx which has the body of a lion and the head of a hawk. All these sometimes have wings. Most sphinxes however represent a king in his appearance as the sun god. The name "sphinx" was applied to the portraits of kings by the Greeks who visited Egypt in later centuries, because of the similarity of these statues to their Sphinx. The best known specimen is the Great Sphinx of Gizeh (on the western bank of the Nile) which is not a sphinx at all but the representation of the head of king Khaf-Ra (Chephren) on the body of a crouching body. It was supposedly built in the 4th dynasty (2723-2563 BC), although others claim it dates back to the 7th-5th millennium.
The Greek Sphinx was a demon of death and destruction and bad luck. She was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. It was a female creature, sometimes depicted as a winged lion with a feminine head, and sometimes as a female with the breast, paws and claws of a lion, a snake tail and bird wings. She sat on a high rock near Thebes and posed a riddle to all who passed. The riddle was: "What has four feet, two feet and three feet, but one voice?".Those who could not solve the riddle were strangled by her. Finally Oedipus came along and he was the only who could answer that it was Man, who first crawls on all fours, then walks on his two legs and when old uses a cane to help him walk. After hearing the correct answer, the Sphinx threw herself headlong down the rock.
The name 'sphinx' is derived from the Greek sphingo, which means "to strangle". In ancient Assyrian myths, the sphinx usually appears as a guardian of temple entrances.
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