the winged lioness mythical beasts with human heads,

The Sphinx (“The Strangler”) was portrayed in ancient Egypt as a lion with a human head. But it was in Ancient Greece that the beast was portrayed with a woman’s head and breasts and sometimes wings – as here. And this was the form of Sphinx that Oedipus confronted.

The Sphinx riddle was: “What goes on four feet, on two and three – but the more feet it goes on the weaker it be?”. Those who could not answer correctly , unlike Oedipus, were throttled.