Scientific name -- Sphingo andro
Size -- about 600 lbs.
Diet -- precious stones, incense fumes, lotus flowers. Some eat humans as an act of terror, but they derive little nutrition from proteins or lipids.

"Sphinx" was originally a Greek word ("to strangle") that was applied to the pharaoh-headed lion statues that the Greeks saw in Egypt, that Herodotus named "androsphinx". The Greek sphinx was a monstrous brood of Typhon and Echidna, usually depicted as a winged lion with a female head. She sat on a rock near Thebes and asked passersby the now famous question, "What animal is that which in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" Those who could not answer were eaten. Oedipus knew the correct answer (humans) and caused the sphinx so much consternation that she cast herself from her rock and died.

However, the sphinx as a monster probably predates Greek mythology. Assyrian myths have sphinxes guarding temple entrances. Sphinx-like creatures appear in Phoenician and Persian art as well.

The Egyptians called their sphinxes "Hu". In addition to the man-headed androsphinx, they also depicted ram-sphinxes that Herodotus named "criosphinxes" and falcon-headed sphinxes named "hieracosphinxes".