It's the Greek Sphinx, representing destruction and bad luck. She's the daughter either of Chimera, or Typhon and Echidna. The Greek Sphinx is described as a woman with the body of a lion, eagle's wings, and a serpent's tail, but everybody's used to seeing the Egyptian Sphinx at Giza, which is only half-man, half-lion.

I should have mentioned that the Greek Sphinx is part of the Oedipus myth. The Sphinx sat outside Thebes and asked all the travelers that passed her a riddle; if they answered incorrectly, she killed them. Oedipus answered the riddle, which was "What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?" Since Oedipus answered correctly (a man, or more PC, a person), the Sphinx had to destroy herself.

Didn't Oedipus solve the riddle of the Greek Sphinx?

http://ri.essortment.com/oedipusandth_rzul.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus

[EDIT] Ack, I see that Gus beat me to the punch. :-)

The English language Wikipedia article, which is well reference, describes the Greek Sphinx: "She was represented in vase-painting and bas-reliefs most often seated upright rather than recumbent, as a winged lion with a woman's head; or she was a woman with the paws, claws and breasts of a lion, a serpent's tail and eagle wings."

Yet all illustrations show her with a lion's tail, unlike the coiled serpent's tail/body in this illustration. That's what disuaded me from identifying it asa Greek Sphinx.

Puzzling. Possibly this is an unusual illustration of a Greek Sphinx.

j a m e s

So the elements are protection of secrets and a incarnation of the power of the water element. If this idea was manifest today it might be Captain Nemo's Submarine.

The entire drawing minus the woman's head is a hippocampus. The head might resemble a sphinx. Did someone say where they found this image?

Yes, perhaps more a product of the artist's fancy (or the client's) than strictly classical?
Looks like a mermaid to me, though not exactly Daryl Hannah :-(

the brand is called ISINIS, it is a french enterprise that fabrics high quality combs.
The reason I am asking is that I need the redo the logo, but I have no story behind
it.

The mermaid idea seems strong to me too.

The image to which I'm comparing the other.

Some images of mermaids combing their hair:

http://www.jwwaterhouse.com/view.cfm?recordid=30
http://homepage.eircom.net/~archaeology/three/mermaid.htm
http://heraldry.lordkyl.net/glossary/images/mermaid.gif
http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/images/zennor_mermaid.gif

The Waterhouse is supposedly based on The Mermaid by Tennyson.

I was going to say mermaid variant, too, but I hadn't noticed the horse legs. That definitely does not fit.

Of course you are asking a bunch of design experts, typographers, and wannabes. I wonder if there is a mythology board someplace where that version of nerd ... I mean expert, hangs out.

this looks like a euro-victorian fantasy of "ancient mythology", but she looks monstrous in a way that doesn't seem to go with a vanity product.

are you restricted to this image ?

I think, Ch is right.
This looks like a European 18th to 19th century classicist product, clearly inspired by Greek mythology (oh, that's what classicism was all about...)

It might be interesting to look up, when the company was founded. I would not be surprised if it was in the given range (though I'd guess rather for the 19th; maybe early 19th?)

The components -- the Greek sphynx and the hippocamp -- was already mentioned.

Iwon, it does not have _anything_ of a lion...

We cannot assume it is authentic. People have been doing their own interpretations for years.

ChrisL

One Greek Sphinx post in the morning.

Two Greek Sphinx posts in the afternoon.

And three Greek Sphinx posts in the evening.

http://typophile.com/node/42027

When i said cross between the two i mean the head part of human and the breast part and maybe if you look close between the tail and head you could kinda see a body of something a lion possibly?"

"I HATE PEOPLE WHO QUOTE THEMSELVES IN THERE SIGNATURES"-iwon95

Hippodames seems to be spot-on.