Book XIV, 63: On the Sphinx

A CREEPING, flying, walking maiden; a lioness lifting up feet not her own as she ran; she was a woman winged in front, in the middle a roaring lioness, and behind a curling snake. She ran away neither making a trail nor as a woman, nor either bird or beast in her whole body; for she seemed to be a maiden without feet, and the roaring beast had no head. She had an irregularly mixed nature, made up of imperfect and perfect parts.