This pendant earring is made as a Sphinx figurine sitting on a pedestal. There`s a headdress with a thin filigree floral ornament on the head of the mythical creature. There`s also earrings in its ears and a necklace on its neck. Sphinx (Sphinga) is a winged creature with lion torso and female head, creation of Typhon and Echidna. Image of Sphinx was adopted by the Greeks from the art of Ancient Egypt, where it was an embodiment of king of sun deity.
Similar earrings with winged figurines (Nike, Eros etc.) and disks decorated with precious stones were known throughout Hellenistic age. Frequent findings of such earrings in gravesites allow proposing a hypothesis about connection of such creatures with beliefs of soul transition to the underworld.
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