Almond-shaped eyes & the Sphinx (Re: Pensieve scene - Lily revealed?)

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 104436

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> 
wrote:

snip.

> We also found out her green eyes are 'almond-shaped' which could be 
> another significant point about her and Harry's eyes, besides the 
> color. The only canon reference we have to almond-shaped eyes is 
the 
> Sphinx in GOF & this description in FBAWTFT:
> 
> "The Egyptian Sphinx has a human head on a lion's body. For over a 
> thousand years it has been used by witches and wizards to guard 
> valuables and secret hideaways. Highly intelligent, the sphinx 
> delights in puzzles and riddles. It is usually dangerous only when 
> what it is guarding is threatened."
> 
> So perhaps Lily is symbolically like the Sphinx, the human lioness 
> who is highly intelligent, and dangerous only when Harry is 
> threatened. Or this could be a more literal clue about some 
obscure, 
> sphinx-like power she and Harry possess, as signified by the eyes.
> 
>snip.


Alla:

Jen, I love it. Connection between Lily and Sphinx, hmmm. Here is GoF 
quote:

"It was a sphinx. It had the body of over-large lion: great clawed 
paws and a long yellowish tail ending in a brown tuft. its head, 
however, was that of a woman. She turned her long, almond-shaped eyes 
upon Hary as he approached. he raised his wand, hesitating. She was 
not crouching as if to spring, but pacing from side to side of the 
path, blocking its progress. Then she spoke , in a deep, hoarse voice.

"You are very near your goal. The quickest way id past me."" GoF, 
american edition, pp.628-629.

I love the metaphorical idea of Lily being just as intelligent as 
sphinx and just as dangerous, when her child is threatened.

But what if in the next books Harry will have to solve some of Lily's 
mysteries...literally.


What if as it was discussed here Harry will indeed trtavel into 
underworld and to get closer to his goal (I hope it will be to find 
Sirius, but it could be anything of course - the ultimate defeat of 
Voldie sounds good too) he will have to figure some of the pussles 
which his mother gives him just as Sphinx did?