sphinx

noun

• 1 (Sphinx) Greek Mythology a winged monster of Thebes, having a woman’s head and a lion’s body. It propounded a riddle about the three ages of man, killing those who failed to solve it, until Oedipus was successful, whereupon the Sphinx committed suicide.
• an ancient Egyptian stone figure having a lion’s body and a human or animal head, especially the huge statue near the Pyramids at Giza.
• an enigmatic or inscrutable person: it drove him mad when she turned herself into a sphinx as a ruse to avoid facing the truth

• 2North American term for hawkmoth.