Sphinx

A monster which was usually represented as having the head and breast of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle.

The Sphinx was seated on a rock outside the city of Thebes and posed a riddle to travelers as they passed; if they answered incorrectly, she killed them.

When Oedipus correctly answered her riddle she killed herself thus lifting the curse from Thebes; the riddle which Oedipus correctly answered was briefly referred to by the poet Hesiod in Works of Days (line 533) and was presumably: What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening?; the answer is Man, that is, he crawls on all-fours as an infant, walks on two legs in his prime and walks with a cane in old age.

The Sphinx was referred to as Dog-Faced and the Claw-Foot Lady by Sophokles (Sophocles) in the play Oedipus Tyrannus; she was the offspring of the serpent, Ekhidna (Echidna) and the two-headed dog, Orthos; she was the sister of the Nemean Lion.

• Theogony, lines 324+