The Sphinx
The riddle-giver sent against Thebes
A winged, lion-bodied creature who occupies Mount Phicium, kills those who cannot answer her riddle, and is defeated when Oedipus identifies its subject as humankind.
Quick answer
In Apollodorus, the Sphinx is a daughter of Echidna and Typhon sent by Hera to plague Thebes. She devours people who fail to solve her riddle, then throws herself from the citadel after Oedipus correctly answers that its four-, two-, and three-footed subject is a human being.
Quick facts
| Tradition | Ancient Greek mythography |
|---|---|
| Book | Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8 |
| Source realm | Mount Phicium and Thebes |
| Creature type | Winged lion–woman hybrid |
| Parents | Echidna and Typhon [1] |
| Sender | Hera |
| Challenge | A riddle about a being that becomes four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed |
| Outcome | Throws herself from the citadel after Oedipus answers correctly |
What the source book says
Hera sends the Sphinx as a calamity against Thebes. After learning a riddle from the Muses, the creature takes up a position on Mount Phicium and questions the Thebans. An oracle says the city will be free of her once the riddle is solved, but the Sphinx carries away and devours those who fail.[1]
After many victims have died, Creon offers the kingdom and Laius’s widow to anyone who can supply the answer. Oedipus explains that the riddle describes a human: a baby crawls on four limbs, an adult walks on two feet, and an older person adds a staff as a third support. The Sphinx then throws herself from the citadel.[1]
Description and abilities
Apollodorus gives the Sphinx the face of a woman, the breast, feet, and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird. Her threat combines bodily violence with learned speech: she knows a riddle taught by the Muses, recognises whether an answer is correct, seizes unsuccessful challengers, and eats them.[1]
- Combines human, lion, and bird anatomy
- Occupies a mountain above the Theban territory
- Speaks and poses a learned riddle
- Devours people who answer incorrectly
- Is defeated through interpretation rather than combat
Source realm: Mount Phicium and Thebes
The Sphinx controls access to safety and political order from a height outside or above Thebes. Her defeat removes a public calamity and immediately changes the city’s rule: the successful answer makes Oedipus king and husband to Laius’s widow, setting the next part of his story in motion.
Major themes
Knowledge as survival
The encounter is decided by understanding a pattern rather than overpowering the creature. A correct reading succeeds where repeated discussion among the Thebans has failed.
The human life cycle
The riddle compresses infancy, adulthood, and old age into changing ways of moving, making ordinary human development the key to an extraordinary threat.
A victory with consequences
Solving the riddle saves Thebes and wins Oedipus the throne, but it also brings him unknowingly into the marriage and family at the centre of his later catastrophe.
Book and reference
- 1The Library
Apollodorus; translated by James George Frazer. Loeb Classical Library, 1921. See Book 3, section 5.8.
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