Sphinx
mythological figure · 4 works · 4 mentions · 5 anchored passages
also in the atlas: Sphinx the animal
the Sphinx · maiden with crooked talons · renowned riddle · the murderous monster · the winged creature
in the texts
Orations
Mythical riddling monster near Thebes, reinterpreted here as an emblem of ignorance and the demand for self-knowledge.
Have you not heard that the Sphinx bade him know himself, that he is a man?
The others, then, perceive their own folly somewhat more, but Oedipus, having thought himself the wisest and to have escaped the Sphinx, and having persuaded the other Thebans of this, perished most wretchedly.
Phoenissae
Winged, riddling monster who preyed on Thebes's youths until Oedipus solved her riddle; recalled by the Chorus as the origin of the house's doom and by Antigone in her lament.
and striking down his sons by his curses, he handed them over to loathsome strife, through blood, the wretched man.
At last came Oedipus, the man of sorrow, sent from Delphi to this land of Thebes, a joy to us then, but afterwards a cause of grief;
She destroyed the house of Oedipus, root and branch, when his shrewdness solved the Sphinx’s unsolvable song and killed that savage singer.
Theogony
A deadly monster born to Echidna and Orthus that destroys the Cadmeans (Thebans).
but Echidna was subject in love to Orthus and brought forth the deadly Sphinx which destroyed the Cadmeans, and the Nemean lion, which Hera, the good wife of Zeus, brought up and made to haunt the hills of Nemea, a plague to men.
Oedipus Tyrannus
The riddling monster whose defeat made Oedipus Thebes' savior and king.
Residents of our native Thebes, behold, this is Oedipus, who knew the renowned riddle, and was a most mighty man.
For he, O Zeus, shot his shaft with peerless skill, and won the prize of an all-prosperous fortune, having slain the maiden with crooked talons, who sang darkly.