Historiae Romanorum

The Sphinx

The Sphinx was an offspring of Echidna and Typhaon (according to Hesiod, Echidna and Orthos).  The Sphinx had the head of a woman and the body of a lion.  When Creon was the regent of Thebes for the first time, she was sent down to plague the city.  She would fly down from the mountains north of Thebes, and ask riddle of the young Theban men.  When they could not answer, she would eat them.  After the death of his own son, Creon offered the kingdom and the hand of his sister Jocasta in marriage to the man who could answer the riddle.  A young wanderer named Oedipus answered the riddle correctly.  In shock, the Sphinx flung herself from the walls of the citadel and died (she had wings?).

Source(s):

1. Apollodorus.  Bibliotece.

2. Hesiod.  Theogeny.

3. Sophocles.  Oedipus Tyrannus.

This page was last updated on July 21, 2004.