SphinxSphinx made horrible ravages in the neighborhood of Thebes, till Creon, then king of that city, published an edict over all Greece, promising that if any one should explain the riddle of Sphinx, he would give him his own sister Iocasta in marriage.
The riddle was this, “What animal is that which goes upon four feet in the morning, upon two at noon, and upon three at night?” Many had endeavored to explain this riddle, but failing in the attempt, were destroyed by the monster; till Oedipus undertook the solution, and thus ex[128]plained it: “The animal is man, who in his infancy creeps, and so may be said to go on four feet; when he gets into the noon of life, he walks on two feet; but when he grows old, or declines into the evening of his days, he uses the support of a staff, and thus may be said to walk on three feet.” The Sphinx being enraged at this explanation, cast herself headlong from a rock and died. Sphinx
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