The Sphinx is the composite monster of Greek mythology — part woman, part lion, part bird — who guarded the entrance to Thebes and posed a deadly riddle to all who approached. Those who failed to answer correctly were devoured; only Oedipus, with his sharp intellect, solved the riddle and caused the Sphinx to destroy herself. In the Egyptian tradition that Maier also draws upon, the Sphinx had a different character: a guardian of sacred precincts whose enigmatic silence represented the secret knowledge of the priestly caste.

In the Atalanta Fugiens, the Sphinx appears in Emblem XXXIX as the paired companion to Oedipus, representing the obscurity of alchemical doctrine itself. Maier's discourse declares that the people of Antiquity represented the obscurity of their art through the Sphinx, and that the priests of the Isis cult — held in honor of Osiris — placed statues of the Sphinx in the corners of the altar to represent the secret knowledge of sacred affairs. The Sphinx guards the philosophical books with her riddles 'as if they were the gates of Thebes' (De Jong, pp. 256-258).

Maier is explicit about the Sphinx's alchemical function: she tests the would-be adept. If someone takes no notice of the monster, nothing evil happens to him — ignorance is safe. But if someone has the audacity to try to solve the riddle and fails, he is ruined: he loses his possessions and is consumed by grief. This is Maier's commentary on the danger of the alchemical art itself — those who attempt the Work without sufficient understanding will destroy themselves financially and psychologically.

The riddle posed to Oedipus receives a specifically alchemical reinterpretation. The four feet in the morning are the four elements (the square); the two at noon are the hemisphere's two lines, representing the whitened Luna; the three in the evening are the triangle of body, soul, and spirit. This geometric reading connects the Sphinx's riddle to the formula of Emblem XXI and to Rhazes's statement that 'the Stone is a Triangle in its essence and a square in its properties.' The Sphinx thus poses the fundamental question of the Work: what is the relationship between the elements, the purified substance, and the spiritual triad?

The picture of Emblem XXXIX places the Sphinx at the starting point of a circular composition, opposite the meeting of mother and son (the conclusion of the Work). De Jong reads the Sphinx as representing the materia prima in its undifferentiated, enigmatic state — the amorphous beginning that confronts the adept with its riddle. The circular composition mirrors the circular character of the alchemical process, where beginning and end touch each other: the materia prima (the Sphinx's riddle) is the same substance as the philosopher's stone (Oedipus's answered riddle), separated only by the adept's understanding.

Maier draws an explicit connection between the Greek Sphinx and the Egyptian Isis cult, noting that the Sphinx represented secret knowledge in both traditions. The connection between Emblem XXXIX (Oedipus and the Sphinx) and Emblem XLIV (Osiris and Isis) is not merely thematic but structural: both encode the same alchemical secrets through different mythological vehicles.

For a general reader, the Sphinx represents the deliberately obscure language of alchemical tradition. Maier acknowledges that alchemical texts are written to be difficult — many are 'only intelligible to the authors themselves' — and that the Sphinx guards this tradition of secrecy. The adept must be willing to risk ruin in order to solve nature's riddle, and only those who possess true understanding will survive the encounter.

Meanings Across Registers

De Jong shows that alchemical terms operate simultaneously across material, medical, spiritual, and cosmological dimensions.

Alchemical

The riddle of the Stone: the enigmatic nature of the prima materia, which is described in contradictory terms and can only be identified by the wise who solve her riddle.

Medical

The diagnostic puzzle: the hidden cause of disease that presents contradictory symptoms and can only be identified by the physician who reads nature's signs correctly.

Spiritual

The guardian of esoteric knowledge who devours those unworthy of initiation; only the philosopher who knows himself (as Oedipus) can pass safely.

Cosmological

The composite creature uniting human, animal, and avian natures—a microcosmic emblem of the three kingdoms (mineral, vegetable, animal) united under a single enigma.