[HPforGrownups] Not thorough, JKR? Seeing the TASKS

[Danger Mouse]

No: HPFGUIDX 53323

Bboy_mn:
Additional thought, the maze is huge; way TOO huge. A Sphinx is not a
pixie. You do not fit a full grown Sphinx or giant spider into a three
foot wide hedge row. We have to have one of those magical size
anomalies. I estimate the maze to be at least 4 times bigger than the
Quidditch pitch; bigger on the inside than on the outside.

Me:
I'm not so sure this is a case of size anomaly... how big is a sphinx? We know the ones in Egypt are totally enormous... but what about the actual creature? I don't have FBaWtFT--is it mentioned in there?

In www.pantheon.org (Encyclopedia Mythica), they recount the famous sphinx story and give background:

In ancient Egypt, the Sphinx is a male statue of a lion with the head of a human, sometimes with wings. Most sphinxes however represent a king in his appearance as the sun god...

... 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 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 solve the riddle were strangled by her. Finally Oedipus came along and he was the only who could answer that it was "Man, who in childhood creeps on hands and knees, in manhood walks erect, and in old age with the aid of a staff." The Sphinx was so mortified at the solving of her riddle that she cast herself down from the rock and perished. 

It sounds to me that a sphinx is just a bit bigger than your standard lion...

-Danger Mouse

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