![]() The solid construction combined elements that gave the statue a character of motion and vitality, such are the details that depict the hair, chest, and wings. It was carved from a large piece of Naxian marble. According to tradition and its mythological representation, the Sphinx had the face of a woman bearing an enigmatic smile, prey bird wings, and the body of a lioness. Her statue had been set up close to the Halos, the most sacred spot of Delphi, where Apollo had presumably killed the python. The statue of this mythical creature stood on a towering Ionic column, which may have been the oldest Ionic construction project in the site of the Oracle of Delphi. The famous Sphinx of the Naxians stood on a column that culminated in an Ionic capital. Sphinxes depictions are generally associated with architectural structures such as royal tombs or religious temples. The Greek sphinx, a lion with the face of a human female, was considered as having ferocious strength, and was thought of as a guardian, often flanking the entrances to temples. The overall height of the statue, the column and its base topped 12.5 meters. It was originally set up on a stele around 560 BC as an offering to the Temple of Apollo by Naxos, one of the richest Cycladic islands at the time. The first fragments were excavated from the sanctuary of the Temple of Apollo in 1860. ![]() The Sphinx stood on a 10 meter column that culminated in one of the first Ionic capitals, and was erected next to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, the religious center of Ancient Greece, in 560 BCE. The Sphinx of Naxos, also Sphinx of the Naxians, now in the Archaeological Museum of Delphi, is a 2.22 meter tall marble statue of a sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a woman, the chest and wings composed of the impressive feathers of a prey bird turned upward, and the body of a lioness. Class=notpageimage| Original location of the Sphinx of Naxos, at Delphi
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