The hieracosphinx is a mythical beast, a gryphon

Gryphon

-Businesses:* Gryphon Airlines, an American-owned airline based in Vienna, Virginia* Gryphon Audio Designs, a Danish maker of audio components* Golden Gryphon Press, an American independent publishing company...

-like chimera

Chimera (mythology)

The Chimera or Chimaera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her...

 found in Egyptian

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

 sculpture and European heraldry comprising a lion

Lion

The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

 with the gryphon's aquiline head replaced by that of a falcon

Falcon

A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....

. The name was coined by Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

to the falcon-headed sphinxes that he saw in Egypt. The other being the ram-headed sphinx which Herodotus called Criosphinx.

External links

• Comparison of the hieracosphinx with other sphinx types