What is that which has, at the same time, four feet, two feet, and three feet?
Perhaps it is the most famous riddle of Greek mythology. The fate of the city of Thebes rested on its answer.
Apollodorus recounts that the Sphinx learned it from the Muses. The enigmatic figure would trap a Theban each time the riddle remained unsolved.
The puzzle does not survive in a single form. Apollodorus provides a brief version. Athenaeus cites the hexameter version by Asclepiades of Tragilus. Another variant is included in the scholia on Euripides’ Phoenician Women.
Who solved the riddle? It was Oedipus. He answered that it is the human being: crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two feet as an adult, and, in old age, uses a staff.
Sources
-
Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8, trans. J. G. Frazer (Harvard University Press). URL: https://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg0548/tlg001/perseus-eng2/3.5.8-3.6.6
