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Sphinx
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== Etymology == The word ''sphinx'' comes from the [[Greek language|Greek]] Σφίγξ, associated by [[folk etymology]] with the verb σφίγγειν (''sphíngēn''), meaning "to squeeze", "to tighten up".<ref>{{LSJ|sfi/ggw|σφίγγειν|ref}}.</ref><ref>See Beekes, 2010: 1431-2.</ref><ref>Note that the γ takes on a 'ng' sound in front of both γ and ξ. See [[agma]].</ref> This name may be derived from the fact that lions kill their prey by strangulation, biting the throat of prey and holding them down until they die.<!--: the following is garbled:the Sphinx has no "given name" and "proper name":This may be her [[proper name]], but ''The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology'' states that her given name was '''Φιξ—Phix'''.)--> However, the historian [[Susan Wise Bauer]] suggests that the word "sphinx" was instead a Greek corruption of the Egyptian name "shesepankh", which meant "living image", and referred rather to the ''statue'' of the sphinx, which was carved out of "living rock" (rock that was a contiguous part of the stony body of the Earth, shaped, but not cut away from its original source), than to the beast itself.<ref name="multiple">{{cite book |last=Bauer |first=S. Wise |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofancient00baue/page/110 |title=The History of the Ancient World |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-393-05974-8 |location=New York, NY |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofancient00baue/page/110 110–112] |author-link=Susan Wise Bauer |url-access=registration}}</ref>
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