Sphinx

The Sphinx was a winged monster with a woman’s face and a lion’s body who terrorised the city of Thebes by posing a riddle to its people and killing those who could not answer. Oedipus solved it and she destroyed herself. In Hesiod she is the child of Echidna and Orthrus; the Greek sphinx is female, unlike the man-headed sphinxes of Egypt.

Sphinx's Portayal

In Greek myth the Sphinx is a female monster. Hesiod calls her the deadly Sphinx “which destroyed the Cadmeans”, born to Echidna, who was subject in love to Orthrus (Hesiod spells the name Orthus; Theogony 326–327). Apollodorus gives her a different father: her mother was Echidna and her father Typhon. He describes her as having the face of a woman, the breast, feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird (Library 3.5.8). Hyginus too makes her Typhon’s child (Fabulae 67).

Egypt had sphinxes of its own: Herodotus mentions “huge man-headed sphinxes” set up by King Amasis at Sais (Histories 2.175). The Greek sphinx, by contrast, is a woman and a killer. Pausanias saw sphinxes in Greek art too: a sphinx on the helmet of Athena Parthenos at Athens (1.24.5), and Theban children carried off by sphinxes on the throne of Zeus at Olympia (5.11.2).

The Riddle of the Sphinx

According to Apollodorus, Hera sent the Sphinx against Thebes in the reign of Creon, after Laius was dead. She had learned a riddle from the Muses and sat on Mount Phicium, from which she put it to the Thebans: what has one voice and yet becomes four-footed, two-footed and three-footed? The Thebans had an oracle saying they would be rid of her once they read the riddle. They met again and again without finding the answer, and each time she snatched one of them and ate him. Many died, and last of all Creon’s son Haemon. Creon then proclaimed that whoever read the riddle would receive the kingdom and the wife of Laius (Library 3.5.8). Diodorus likewise says that she killed many who failed, and that a reward was offered of marriage to Jocasta and the kingdom (4.64.3–4).

Oedipus, on his way to Thebes, found the answer: the riddle refers to man, who as a baby goes on four limbs, as an adult on two feet, and in old age takes a staff as a third support (Library 3.5.8).

In Sophocles Creon explains that “the riddling Sphinx” had forced the Thebans to put aside the mystery of Laius’ death in order to deal with the immediate trouble (Oedipus Tyrannus 130–131). Euripides’ Jocasta says that her brother Creon proclaimed her marriage to anyone who could guess the riddle of “the crafty maiden”, and Antigone later laments the day when Oedipus understood the hard song of the Sphinx and killed the singer (Phoenician Women 45–50, 1504–1507).

The Second Riddle

A second riddle is sometimes attributed to the Sphinx: there are two sisters, one of whom gives birth to the other, who in turn gives birth to the first; the answer is Day and Night, both feminine words in Greek. None of the ancient authors records it. Hesiod, Apollodorus, Sophocles, Euripides and Diodorus know only the one riddle, and Apollodorus says that when it was answered the Sphinx died at once (Library 3.5.8).

Other Versions of Her Origin

Pausanias reports two rationalising accounts. In one she was a pirate who put in at Anthedon with a fleet, seized the mountain and raided from it until Oedipus came from Corinth with a larger army and overcame her. In the other she was an illegitimate daughter of Laius who knew the oracle given to Cadmus and tricked her half-brothers, who came to claim the throne, by demanding that they, if truly sons of Laius, should know it; those who could not answer she put to death, until Oedipus, who had learned the oracle in a dream, arrived (Description of Greece 9.26.2–4).

The Death of the Sphinx

When Oedipus gave the answer, the Sphinx threw herself from the citadel, according to Apollodorus (Library 3.5.8). Oedipus then became king of Thebes and unknowingly married his mother Jocasta, by whom he had Polynices, Eteocles, Ismene and Antigone.

Sphinx Sources

The main sources are Hesiod’s Theogony (326–327), Apollodorus’ Library (3.5.8), Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus (130–131), Euripides’ Phoenician Women (45–50, 1504–1507), Diodorus Siculus (4.64.3–4), Herodotus (2.175), Pausanias (1.24.5, 5.11.2, 9.26.2–4) and Hyginus’ Fabulae (67).

See Also: Oedipus, Thebes, Echidna, Orthrus, Typhon, Jocasta, Creon, Laius, Muses