LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Oedipus: Egyptian Sphinx
built 642 days ago
The Sphinx in the Oedipus story is not the Egyptian Sphinx, but a female form with the wings of a bird, the body of an animal, and the breast, neck, and face of a woman. What she represents is the destiny of all life. She has sent a plague over the land, and to life the plague, the hero has to answer the riddle that she presents: "What is it that walks on four legs, then on two legs, and then on three?" The answer is "Man." The child creeps about on four legs, the adult walks on two, and the aged walk with a cane.
Source:
Look for references in the first scenes to Oedipus' conquest of the Sphinx, represented in the vase paintingyou can view here. A second vase depicts this scene as well; do you see a different emphasis? There are ... images of a sculpture of a sphinx from Delphi which was made 100 years before this drama. Do you see any significance in the nature and appearance of the sphinx? In what way does his this victory recall Cadmus' slaughter of the dragon? Sophocles' play never explicitly tells the riddle of the Sphinx, so, if you are uncertain of its nature you can here look up the riddle of the Sphinx which Oedipus solved.
Source:
Oedipus solved the riddle and the Sphinx hurled herself to her death on the rocks below. [Can you solve the riddle? What walks on four legs in the morning, two at mid-day, and on three legs before evening? Oedipus said it was a man. As an infant, he crawls on all fours at the beginning or "dawn" of his life; when grown, he walks upright; when old, he walks with a cane.]
Source:
Continuing his journey, Oedipus enters Thebes—his forgotten first home—as a hero, having solved the riddle of the murderous Sphinx. The evil creature murdered travelers who could not solve its riddle; “What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs at night?” Oedipus is the first person to figure out the answer: As crawling infants, people travel on four limbs in the mornings of their lives. As adults, they travel upright on two limbs in the bright middays of their lives. As frail and elderly people tapping canes before them, they travel on three limbs in the twilights of their days.
Source:
Further along the same road, Oedipus came to another narrow place. There perched a beast with the head of a woman, the wings of a griffin and the body of a lion. This monster - the Sphinx - asked a riddle of all passers-by. Failure to answer correctly meant death. She put the riddle to Oedipus: "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three at close of day?"
Source:
When Oedipus got to the town of Thebes, a little later, he found the great Sphinx there. The Sphinx sat in front of Thebes and asked everyone who came there a riddle. If you could answer it, the Sphinx let you go, but if you could not answer the riddle, then the Sphinx ate you. Nobody ever knew the answer. This was the Sphinx's riddle:
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Egyptian Sphinx