Sphinx vs Centaur - What's the difference?
sphinx | centaur |
(mythology) A creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal (commonly a lion).
* Shelley
A person who keeps his/her thoughts and intentions secret; an enigmatic person.
Cynocephalus sphinx , a kind of baboon.
A sphinx moth.
(rare) A sphincter.
* 1982 , (Lawrence Durrell), Constance'', Faber & Faber 2004 (''Avignon Quintet ), p. 836:
To decorate with sphinxes
To adopt the posture of the Sphinx.
To be inscrutable, often through silence
To make one guess at the unknowable
To befuddle
For the feminine to co-opt, dominate, or devour the masculine, especially from a paranoid fear of this happening
(Greek mythology) A mythical beast having a horse's body with a man's head and torso in place of the head and neck of the horse.
(astronomy) An icy planetoid that orbits the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune (also capitalized)
In greek mythology terms the difference between sphinx and centaur
is that sphinx is one of the many offspring of Typhon and Echidna, a winged lion-like creature with a woman's face, who commited suicide out of frustration after Oedipus managed to solve her riddles while centaur is one of a race of monsters having a head, torso, and arms of a man, and the body and legs of a horse. Often depicted as rowdy drunkards, with Chiron being a notable exception.As nouns the difference between sphinx and centaur
is that sphinx is a creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal (commonly a lion) while centaur is a mythical beast having a horse's body with a man's head and torso in place of the head and neck of the horse.As a verb sphinx
is to decorate with sphinxes.As a proper noun Sphinx
is an ancient, large statue in Egypt, with the face of a man and the body of a lion, lying near the Great Pyramids.sphinx
English
(wikipedia sphinx)Noun
(en-noun)- Sculptured on alabaster obelisk, / Or jasper tomb, or mutilated sphinx
- Constance said boastfully, ‘My sphinxes are strong and in good repair. I order you to come.’
Synonyms
* enigmaDerived terms
* sphinx moth * sphingianHyponyms
* androsphinx * criosphinx * gynosphinxSee also
* chimeraVerb
- a marble sphinxed chimney-piece
- A hot lion with a very bloated stomach ... will adopt either a sphinxed or a squatting posture which takes some of the weight off its belly.
- Several animals maintained either a crouched ... or a sphinxing posture (abdomen on the floor)
- (1900') ''The '''sphinxèd riddle of the Universe / Nature's unsolved enigma, who may prove?
- (1933') ''Janet Gaynor, so they tell, is '''sphinxing it and has gone into a Retirement, with "Nothing to Say — Please Go Away" written on the doormat.
- (1934') ''The men of science will climb grassy hillsides of [Easter] island to peer at hundreds of great stone faces that have so far out-'''sphinxed the sphinx in determined silence about the past.
- (1954') ''"What are you two '''sphinxing about?" said Jessica, but her husband said Never mind
- (1964') ''What with Fisher whole-hogging on one side, and K. of K. '''sphinxing on the other, Churchill had his work cut out to get any sort of agreement at all.
- (1933') ''Perhaps Nature is '''sphinxing us on purpose. Whatever her objects may be, perhaps she gets her work done better when she appeals to our gambling instincts. If you knew for certain exactly how your marriage was going to turn out ...
- (2010') ''She swiveled and '''sphinxed Giles. 'And you, I suppose you've never been here either?' Giles squirmed. 'Well, I – that is, Miss Wh—, I mean, Miss Taylor, I –' He looked to me for rescue.
- (1986') ''modernism's fears of being '''sphinxed by a feminized mass culture