Headless sphinx?

First of all, my apologies for the lack of posts lately. This final semester is going to be a crazily busy one. I think I forgot to account for the fact that I've not always been a linguist, and now I suddenly find myself in four language classes, plus two others. I now spend most of my time translating. It's not a complaint, just a "maybe I should've thought that one through a little harder." Oh well.

Secondly, I really shouldn't be posting this minute, but I'm eating dinner anyway and saw this: Archaeologists Unearth Headless Sphinx.

It's worth clicking, and it's also worth clicking on the picture slideshow on the top. Not only will it gives you shots of the sphinx (when I first saw the title, I wondered how they knew it was a sphinx, but part of the headdress is still there); it will also show you the athlete-torso, and dispersed throughout the slideshow are pictures of the Artemidorus Papyrus.

Anyway, back to the sphinx and athlete. Why is it that everyone's so interested in the sphinx that they don't actually bother telling you that this "athlete" is, in fact, headless, armless, AND legless? This, of course, begs the question of how they even know it's an athlete. Maybe they already know something about Hadrian's villa. But still, I, personally, would like to know a little more about this so-called athlete. They keep saying "what appears to be a headless sphinx," when it's pretty clear there's nothing else it could be. However, they seem fairly certain that this torso is an athlete. It truly baffles the brain.

I would, of course, appreciate any insight anyone else might offer on this "athlete"-torso.