Review of Lorenz Winkler-Horacek (ed.), Wege der Sphinx

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2010] Buchbesprechungen und Buchanzeigen 697
Lorenz W
INKLER
-H
ORAČEK
(ed): Wege der Sphinx. Monster zwischen Ori-
ent und Okzident. Eine Ausstellung der Abguss-Sammlung Antiker Plastik des
Instituts für Klassische Archäologie der Freien Universität Berlin. 205 p. with
163 pictures + 47 Cat. nrs. Rahden (Westf.) 2011.
Iconography has been neglected for decades in the archaeological context. The
main reason for this was what one could call the stubbornness of the art histo-
rian, who analyzed each picture to its slightest detail but who refused to look
beyond the image at context and other finds in different disciplines that could
lead to a broader insight in both image and history. Result of this was that the
archaeologist didn’t realize the iconographical approach could be helpful in his
research. Luckily, these attitudes have changed in the last decade; archaeologists
and iconographical researchers have finally become aware that their separate
investigations are worth so much more when combined. Therefore, every book
that brings these two disciplines together, is an asset for the archaeological and
for the iconographical art historical research.
But iconography needs more than this cooperation between an archaeologist
and an art historian, it requires contributions of specialists on diverse study-areas
and this catalogue certainly brings these together; specialists in the fields of
Egyptology (Ulrike Dubiel and Christian E. Loeben), Near Eastern Archaeology
(Alessandra Gilibert and Nils C. Ritter), Ancient Near Eastern Studies (Andreas
Gräff), Classical Archaeology (Nele Schröder and Thoralf Schröder) and Reli-
gious Studies (Almut-Barbara Renger) all make their contribution to this cata-
logue. With the catalogue, created within the framework of the “Berlin Cluster
of Excellence”, the authors hope to gain a clearer insight, not so much in mean-
ing and function of the motif of the sphinx, but most of all in the development of
the motif through different areas and periods. Key aspect is finding out if there
can be seen similarities or dissimilarities in meanings, functions, contexts and
ideas between regions and periods.
The catalogue consists of two parts.
The first treats the sphinx respectively in ancient Egypt (U. Dubiel: Pharaoh
– Gott – Wächter: Sphingen im alten Ägypten) and in 2nd mill. BC Anatolia (A.
Gilibert: Die anatolische Sphinx), then goes through ideas about and concepts of
composite creatures in the Near East (A. Gräff / N. C. Ritter : Mischwesen in
Babylonien und Assyrien; and N. C. Ritter : Die andere Sphinx – Torwächter und
Schutzwesen) and ends with the different meanings of these creatures in North-
ern Syria (A. Gilibert: Die nordsyrische Sphinx). All these authors have done a
great job overviewing, describing and explaining the sphinx in its context, both
political and religious. Alessandra Gilibert e.g. talks about the relation between
the Anatolian and the Egyptian sphinx and points to the profound difference in
function of the male (companion of gods) and female sphinxes (gate-guard) in
the Hittite Period (Die anatolische Sphinx). In her second contribution (Die
nordsyrische Sphinx) she points out how the sphinx came to be seen as an ani-

698 Buchbesprechungen und Buchanzeigen [UF 42
mal of death (through its connection with the Weather-god and his role in hon-
oring the ancestors) and how this association got lost in the 8th cent. BC when
the sphinx became the protector of fertility.
The second part deals with the assimilation of the composite creatures in
Greece (L. Winkler-Horaček: Fremde Welten oder die Wildnis im Angesicht der
Zivilisation: Sphingen und Tiere im archaischen Griechenland; Th. Schröder:
Kontexte und Bedeutungsfelder rundplastischer Löwen und Sphingen im frühen
Griechenland; L. Winkler-Horaček: Vom Bild zum Mythos, vom Mythos zum
Bild: Der ‚geflügelte Menschenlöwe‘ und die Sphinx von Theben; and A.-B.
Renger: Ödipus vor der Sphinx im 5. Jahrhundert v.Chr. Einführende Bemer-
kungen zu einer mythischen Konstellation in Text und Bild) and ends with an
overview of the sphinx in Etruria and Rome (N. Schröder: Ausblick: Die Sphinx
in etruskischer und römischer Zeit).
In the articles Fremde Welten oder die Wildnis … and Vom Bild zum Mythos
… Winkler-Horaček sets out to show how the sphinx was part of wild nature
and states the question if this was reason enough for her to be called demon of
death or if it was only her savage nature that made her dangerous for gods and
people alike. It was this trait of character that enabled her to function as a guard
at entrances and graves.
The sixth article in the catalogue, a contribution of editor Lorenz Winkler-
Horaček (Wege der Sphinx: Von Ägypten und Vorderasien nach Griechenland)
joins the two parts together; it shows how meaning and ideas connected to the
sphinx in Egypt and the Near East influenced the motif and its meaning in Mi-
noan, Mycenaean and Archaic Greece. Winkler-Horaček sketches the appear-
ance of the winged sphinx in the representational world of Minoan and later My-
cenaean Greece through the influence of Syrian on Egyptian iconography. He
also traces briefly the resemblances of certain attributes of the sphinx (vege-
tative headdress and hair spiral) through Anatolian, Egyptian and Near-Eastern
imagery.
While the catalogue has a good and clear structure, I feel there are some
shortcomings. E. g. the statement by Dubiel (Pharao – Gott – Wächter: Sphin-
gen im Alten Ägypten) that sphinxes are an Egyptian invention is rather dubious
(p. 5). At the moment it is considered impossible to determine where the sphinx
showed up first: in Egypt or in Mesopotamia (see e. g. Seidlmayer, Stephan
(2001) ‘Sphinx’. In Der Neue Pauly. Enzyklopädie der Antike. H. Cancik, Hel-
muth Schneider, ed. Vol. 11. Stuttgart/Weimar: Verlag J. B. Metzler, p. 817). A
second remark concerns the interaction between the different authors, or rather,
the lack of interaction. It is a pity that both Gilibert (Die anatolische Sphinx and
Die nordsyrischen Sphinx) and Ritter (Die andere Sphinx – Torwächter und
Schutszwesen in Assyrien) have written about the sphinx functioning as a gate-
guard or about the destruction of sphinxes to take away their powers without
ever referring to each other. The same holds for Winkler-Horaček when he
states that the frightful character of the sphinx enabled her to function as guard
or when he sees the sphinx in relation to death (Vom Bild zum Mythos, vom

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Mythos zum Bild: Der geflügelte Menschenlöwe und die Sphinx von Theben).
Although this catalogue is a great initiative in the field of iconography, it
certainly is not the concluding work that makes all future work on the iconogra-
phy of sphinxes futile. The main objection I have is that, while each individual
author gives an extensive and mostly thorough studied overview of the image of
the composite creatures and/ or the sphinx in his or her region, a concluding
chapter which brings all the findings, results and hypotheses of the different
contributions together is lacking. It seems as if the general overview is forgotten
and therefore, I feel, the catalogue doesn’t completely fulfill its purpose: to give
insight in how types, forms, and attributes of sphinxes together with meanings,
concepts and ideas traveled from one region to another, got assimilated or
adapted into the region’s own world of images and ideas (exception to this is
Greece). The reader can put together all the findings and conclusions himself,
and then he will see that the sphinx has gone through a dynamic process on its
way through different cultures and that the motif seems to have a common es-
sential feature, although there exists a great diversity of meanings, that change
according to region and period. The catalogue looks at parts of the dynamic
process of influences and receptions, of refusals and new ideas. But the answers
to the main research questions stated in the introduction are not clearly laid out
and no (or too few) conclusions are drawn. The catalogue, however, certainly is
a major contribution to the extensive research of the motif of the sphinx, but
there is a lot of work left to fully unveil the secrets of the sphinx.
Nadine Nys