The House of the Sphinx explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• The Otherworldly and Mythic

  The House of the Sphinx is a mythic, eerie setting where the Sphinx, a timeless being, is haunted by a forest-dwelling 'arch-inquisitor.'

• Madness and Imagination

  The Sphinx's apathy and the narrator's reflections on madness—whether it is divine or demonic—permeate the chapter.

• Fate and Prophecy

  The Sphinx's resignation and the inevitability of the 'thing' from the forest underscore a sense of inescapable fate.

Characters to notice

• the Sphinx

  The Sphinx is moody, silent, and resigned after a mysterious 'deed'; she appears to have foreseen her doom.

• the Narrator

  The narrator arrives at the House of the Sphinx seeking shelter, attempts to help secure the door, and ultimately escapes back into the forest.

Key passages

• “When I came to the House of the Sphinx it was already dark. They made me eagerly welcome. And I, in spite of the deed, was glad of any shelter from that ominous wood.”

  Arriving at the Sphinx's house after nightfall, the narrator is welcomed eagerly, yet senses something sinister has occurred; still, any shelter is better than the foreboding forest.

  Establishes the narrator's arrival and the uneasy atmosphere.

• “It was clear that either she suspected me of being in search of the secrets of one of her gods, or of being boldly inquisitive about her traffic with Time, or else she was darkly absorbed with brooding upon the deed.”

  The Sphinx's morose silence suggests she either distrusts the narrator's motives or is consumed by guilt over the mysterious deed.

  Highlights the Sphinx's paranoia and the central mystery of the 'deed.'

• “And it was clear that the welcome was to be a bolted door. But such bolts, and such a door! Rust and decay and fungus had been there far too long, and it was not a barrier any longer that would keep out even a determined wolf.”

  The inhabitants' plan to secure the house by bolting the door is futile, as the door is rotten and decayed beyond use.

  Emphasizes the vulnerability of the house and the impending threat.

• “And then I asked them what it was that was coming after the Sphinx because of the deed. And at first they would not say, and I stopped oiling the door; and then they said that it was the arch-inquisitor of the forest, who is investigator and avenger of all silvestrian things; and from all that they said about him it seemed to me that this person was quite white, and was a kind of madness that would settle down quite blankly upon a place, a kind of mist in which reason could not live; and it was the fear of this that made them fumble nervously at the lock of that rotten door; but with the Sphinx it was not so much fear as sheer prophecy.”

  The narrator learns that the feared entity is the 'arch-inquisitor of the forest,' a white, madness-inducing force that will descend upon them; the Sphinx, however, faces it with prophetic resignation rather than fear.

  Reveals the nature of the threat and contrasts the Sphinx's calm with the others' terror.

• “I hastily gave a prod to the door that they guarded; my finger sank right into the mouldering wood⁠—there was not a chance of holding it.”

  Testing the door, the narrator finds it so decayed that his finger sinks into it, confirming it cannot be secured.

  Demonstrates the hopelessness of the situation.

• “And I was glad to be back again in the forest from which I had fled.”

  Despite the forest's dangers, the narrator feels relief to escape the Sphinx's house and return to the woods.

  Shows the narrator's preference for the known dangers of the forest over the unknown horror of the house.