The Sphinx: Unraveling Greek Mythology's Lion-Bodied, Woman-Headed Monster of Thebes

Sphinx /sfɪŋks/ was a dreadful monster with a body of a lion and head of a woman, also had wings to fly. It appeared in Thebes right after the death of King Laius. It took permanent position on a mountain pass guarding the main entrance to Thebes. She used to threaten every traveler to devour them or throw them from mountain top if they fail to answer her riddle –What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?

She sang, dark winged, from the citadel's height:

'What has one voice, yet walks four-legged at morn,

Two legged at noon, and three-legged at night?'

The wrong answer meant flesh from bone was torn.

It was king Laius’ intelligent son ‘Oedipus’ who solved this riddle with perfect answering – 'A MAN'.

Oedipus: "MAN—who crawls as infant, strides at adulthood, and leans on a staff in age."

At this, the beast howled, and cast herself from the rock,

While Thebes hailed Oedipus King—never knowing,

He had already fulfilled Apollo's curse.

(Logical Proof of the riddle)

• Morning (Infancy): A baby crawls on hands and knees (four legs).
• Noon (Adulthood): An adult walks upright on two legs.
• Evening (Old Age): An elderly person walks with the aid of a cane (three legs).

In short, people of Thebes got rid of Sphinx’s brutality and rewarded kingship to their liberator ‘Oedipus’ who married (as a tradition) the recently widowed queen ‘Jocasta’ (his mother, though he didn't know it).

Note: Read full but brief story of ‘Oedipus Rex’ penned by Sophocles in which the hero, Oedipus, unknowingly marries his mother ‘Jocasta’ who gives birth to their four children – Eteocles and Polynices (Sons); Antigone, and Ismene (Daughters) – All four were born before Oedipus discovered his true identity (that he killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta). But when he came to know about this stunning fact, he blinded himself with his mother-wife’s hair-pins and ordered to Creon, Jocasta’s bother, to banish him. He wept bitterly and cried;

O children, where are you? Come, oh come and clutch your brother's (Oedipus) hands that made your father's (Oedipus) once-bright eyes dark! For he, seeing nothing, knowing nothing, fathered you where his own life began.