Recurrences

[Katrina]

No: HPFGUIDX 88612

--- In message 88568 Kneasy wrote:
 
> I'm grateful that you've mentioned the Sphinx. Splendid! Thank you!
> I felt that PP, Ron and Bill, while possibly indicative, were not 
*direct*
> Egyptian links to Harry. Can't think how I missed it.
> 
> The Sphinx is a direct link, and true to my hypothesis, it does 
not 
> attack him. In fact it appears fairly passive and gives him the 
opportunity
> to walk away unscathed if he wants to. Only if he gives a wrong 
answer
> will it attack and it warns him of this. In fact, it gives him a 
broad smile
> when he answers correctly. Nice Sphinxy!
> 
> Now, to raise my hypothesis to the level of theory, we need Harry 
to
> face  mortal danger from a being with  an Egyptian connection some-
> where in the next two books.
> 
> Of course, a Werewolf would do just as well, as would a few other
> creatures he's already met and where he did not have to defend
> himself against overt attack, but I favour the Egyptian motif 
myself.
> More scope for the exotic. 
> 
> Kneasy

Katrina de-lurks for a comment:

I'm not certain that this actually qualifies as L.O.O.N.Y, but 
the "riddling" Sphinx described in GoF more closely resembles that 
of Greek origin than Egyptian.

Bulfinch describes Oedipus' encounter with the Sphinx as follows:

[T]he city of Thebes was afflicted with a monster which infested the 
highroad. It was called the Sphinx. It had the body of a lion and 
the upper part of a woman. It lay crouched on the top of a rock, and 
arrested all travellers who came that way, proposing to them a 
riddle, with the condition that those who could solve it should pass 
safe, but those who failed should be killed. Not one had yet 
succeeded in solving it, and all had been slain. Oedipus was not 
daunted by these alarming accounts, but boldly advanced to the 
trial. The Sphinx asked him, "What animal is that which in the 
morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon 
three?" Oedipus replied, "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.

**end quote**

Apollodorus describes the same sphinx thusly:

[3.5.8] Laius was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea, and 
Creon, son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign a 
heavy calamity befell Thebes. For Hera sent the Sphinx, whose mother 
was Echidna and her father Typhon; and she had the face of a woman, 
the breast and feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird. And 
having learned a riddle from the Muses, she sat on Mount Phicium, 
and propounded it to the Thebans. And the riddle was this:--What is 
that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed [p.1.349] and 
two-footed and three-footed?

**end quote**


Now GoF (1st American HB Edition):

It was a sphinx.  It had the body of an over-large lion: great 
clawed paws and a long yellowish tail ending in a brown tuft.  Its 
head, however, was that of a woman.
<snip>
"So. . . so will you move, please?" said Harry, knowing what the 
answer was going to be.

"No," she said, continuing to pace.  "Not unless you can answer my 
riddle.  Answer on your first guess -- I let you pass.  Answer 
wrongly -- I attack.  Remain silent -- I will let you walk away from 
me unscathed." (pp. 628-9)


Although the riddle differs, and the Egyptian sphinx predates that 
of the Greeks, the allusion strikes me as most certainly Greek.  
Even without the wings.

http://monsters.monstrous.com/oedipus_and_the_sphinx.htm and 
http://www.mythicalrealm.com/images2/sphinxingres.jpg have some 
great modern illustrations of the Sphinx and Oedipus.

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/mymyth/pics14/0001200102.jpg has one 
more contemporary.



Nevertheless, I suspect that your suspicions about Egypt are good 
ones.  

Tangentially, each of Harry's encounters with LV have been either 
underground or in a place otherwise associated with death.  If this 
pattern is to continue, then perhaps they will meet in (under?) an 
Egyptian tomb.

Katrina, who is supposed to be getting babies up from a nap, not 
researching Greek and Egyptian mythology.