Riddles of the Sphinx

Riddles of the Sphinx is part of the Ancient Greek Heroes series: a collection of original poetry celebrating the heroes and heroines of the myths, stories and legends that came to form the bedrock of the Ancient Greek pantheon. The ancient Greek sphinx was a female monster with the head of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. The sphinx had been sent by Ares to prey on travelers to Thebes: which she did in a rather unique and memorable fashion. The sphinx asked every traveler she met a riddle. If they were unable to answer, the sphinx devoured them. The difficulty of the riddle ensured that the sphinx was well supplied with fresh provisions for a long time, and the numbers of travelers to Thebes dwindled. One day the intrepid Oedipus approached Thebes to be met by the sphinx and asked her riddle. Much to her chagrin, Oedipus answered correctly: whereupon she destroyed herself. But what, exactly, was the riddle of the sphinx? The top contender is a variation of the following: "What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?" But in other versions of the story, the sphinx asks a different riddle, or even multiple riddles. Without pretending to adjudicate between different story variants, this collection includes the top three riddles that I uncovered in my background reading. Any or all of them may have been asked of Oedipus. Read on to discover all of the Riddles of the Sphinx!