thomastapir on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/thomastapir/art/Sphinx-79935448thomastapir

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Sphinx

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This image is for a science fantasy project I'm working on with the premise that the "monsters" of classical world mythology are actually synthetic organisms left over from a vanished prehuman civilization, or perhaps a technological human culture lost to history. This being is actually a human heavily modified for interstellar travel. I pictured her returning to Earth after a failed colonization attempt to find her civilization long vanished. She patrols the abandoned ruins of an ancient city in North Africa, giving rise to the myth of the Sphinx.
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Ouroboros-491's avatar
Maybe the "What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three at evening" is a reference to a race with three sages of development.
Say the first stage is a mindless, asexual larva, that is released into the wild to compete with nature for food and shelter. If the creature survives it slowly matures into its bipedal humanoid middle stage, like the Darwinian ascent of man. This stage finds itself a pack, usually picked up by scouts or blundering into camps. This stage is defined by it's physical ability and agility, serving as a hunter and scout for the "hive" or "Pack".
If the organism survives that stage, it matures into the last. The cranium bloats while the body atrophies, growing a third leg for stability. This stage serves as a repertoire of knowledge for the pack, using it's greater IQ and memory to remember routes and hunting grounds. The second stage, which has the intelligence of small child, obeys the third stage unquestioningly.