The Sphinx Within

The Sphinx Within

The Sphinx — approximately 113 x 130 cm
from the “Oedipus & The Sphinx” 3D mixed media diptych
by Pantelis Melissinos
Athens 1990

The Sphinx Within by Pantelis Melissinos presents the Sphinx not only as a mythic creature, but as an inner force of desire, fear, temptation, and destruction.

The work is accompanied by a quatrain from Melissinos’ collection Oedipus in Bed & Other Poems:

The Sphinx within—a beast of raging fire!
Its lures and force ignite my dark desire;
I thought I’d slain it once, yet still it rose anew,
To haunt my soul, and drag me to my pyre.

Through this fusion of visual art and poetry, Melissinos transforms the ancient monster into a psychological presence — a symbol of the hidden powers that return again and again to challenge the self.