Chapter Ten - Sphinx

The Sphinx was a monster with the head of a woman, the wings of a griffin, and the body of a lion.  She stopped passers-by that were on their way to Thebes and gave them a riddle to solve.  If the unlucky person answered incorrectly, they died.  Oedipus was asked, "What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?"  He told the Sphinx that a human crawls on four legs as an infant, walks on two legs in the prime of life and hobbles with a cane in old age.  When the Sphinx heard the correct answer, she ran off and killed herself.  The people of Thebes were very glad of this and made Oedipus their king.

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