Before the gate into Thebes stood a strange, powerful creature who stopped those passing with a riddle. She was the Sphinx, and would ask: "What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?"

No one could guess the riddle. Until at last Oedipus passed by. The heroic young wanderer answered: "Man."

Hearing this, the Sphinx flung herself into the air. Some say she fell from her high rock and died;