The Great Sphinx of Giza was described by many ancients as a man. I'm
looking for a web site or a citation from any antique (only Greek or
Roman) author, where the Sphinx of Giza was described as a woman
(probably - mythology) or it was said, that Giza`s Sphinx represent a
woman.

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Clarification of Question by dmrodionov-ga on 10 Feb 2006 02:12 PST

I now, that many Greeks (Herodotus etc) reported The Great Sphinx of
Giza to be male.
The question is: "Identify any ancient Greek author Giza`s Sphinx as female?".

hello 

When  Laius 1, king of Thebes got murdered, by an unknown person , the
king's brother inlaw Creon 2 came to power.

It is during this first regency of Creon 2 that the Sphinx came to
Boeotia and Thebes, some say sent by Hera or Hades, and  ravaged
everything,gobbling up people .

It was described as "dog-Faced and the Claw-Foot Lady" by Sophocles in
the play Oedipus Tyrannus  and i believe somewhere in the iliad, homer
talked about her

some photos here
http://www.unifi.it/unifi/surfchem/solid/bardi/chimera/sexlifeofthesphinx/sexlifeofthesphinx03oct05.htm

and here

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Sphinx.html

Thank you, frenchcancan!

But Sophocles wrote about is the history of Greek Sphynx (Thebes is in
Beotia). An I need info about the Sphynx in Egypt.

This site supports your opinion, reporting that Herodotus considered
the Sphinxes he saw in Egypt to be male: "androsphinges" (under Sphinx
in Archaic Greek Art):

http://thanasis.com/sphinx.htm

You will also see the Sphinx in Greek is always female, grammatically
and in representation, hence, no doubt, the later confusion.

There is some rather arcane discussion in passing of the gender of the
sphinx, here:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2003/2003-05-11.html
particularly http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2003/2003-05-11.html#n5

Sould you be able to read, or have access to someone who can read,
Classical Greek, the Greek Imperial inscriptions from Giza describing
the Egyptian Sphinx referenced above from Bernand, E. Inscriptions
métriques de l'Égypte gréco-romaine, can be found here:
http://erga.packhum.org/inscriptions/gis?region=11&bookid=362
As has been pointed out, 'sphinx' in Greek is grammatically female.

Totally irrelevant to the Egyptian sphinx, but interesting is this
paper discussing the origin of the word 'sphinx'
http://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/katz/120505.pdf
I find it odd the author does not make the connection between the
origin of the word and the later introduction of the sphinx to the
story of Oedipus, given that the punishment of Thebes is often
attributed to the continued rule of Laius, the supposed 'inventor' of
sodomy.

...forgot to mention, there are of course some specifically female
Egyptian sphinxes, mainly from the Middle Kingdom.
The most famous of these probably being the one of Hatshepsut
http://www.insecula.com/us/oeuvre/O0004777.html