[Rockpile]

I am of the opinion that the head is a woman and represents the change between the ages of Leo and Virgo.

[RightWhale]

That might be, but the former animal neck was incompletely chopped away.

[muawiyah]

At the time they began expanding the Sphinx (carving out the body below the original mushroom ~ now carved into a head ) the primary constellation used for most references was the very large one we now call ARGUS, which is made up of several modern constellation definitions.

You can project it on the Mediterranean world as a kind of map. It was a handy reference for mariners in those days.