Caesar and Cleopatra

The Great Sphinx is a widely recognized symbol for ancient Egypt, yet it is also a mystery of antiquity. There are no mentions in ancient writing that explain the enormous statue’s construction, purpose, or cultural significance, and it has been the subject of much archeological speculation and theorization. Historians don’t even know what the Sphinx was called by the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Greeks, who had trade and contact with Egypt, adopted the Sphinx into their own mythology; the name “Sphinx” is a Greek word.

When Caesar approaches the Sphinx in the play, he is clearly only familiar with the Greek version of the beast, and possibly Shaw was as well. He refers to the Sphinx as part-woman, but the Egyptian Sphinx is masculine, most likely modeled after a pharaoh. He also alludes to the Sphinx’s riddle, which comes from Greek myth in which the gods send the Sphinx to guard the city of Thebes. She asks her riddle to anyone who passes by and eats anyone who answers incorrectly. Oedipus finally defeats the monster by solving the riddle, and the Sphinx destroys herself by throwing herself off the mountain.

The Sphinx in the play is Cleopatra’s spiritual twin. In the first act, when Caesar is approaching and

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