Sphinx

, a monster which had the head and breasts of a woman, the body of a dog, the tail of a serpent, the wings of a bird, the paws of a lion, and a human voice. It sprang from the union of Orthos with the Chimæra, or of Typhon with Echidna. The Sphinx had been sent into the neighbourhood of Thebes by Juno, who wished to punish the family of Cadmus, which she persecuted with immortal hatred, and it laid this part of Bœotia under continual alarms by proposing enigmas, and devouring the inhabitants if unable to explain them. In the midst of their consternation the The bans were told by the oracle, that the Sphinx would destroy herself as soon as one of the enigmas she proposed was explained. In this enigma she wished to know what animal walked on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening. Upon this, Creon king of Thebes promised his crown and his sister Jocasta in marriage to him who could deliver his country from the monster by a succe ful explanation of the enigma. It was at last happily explained by Œdip us, who observed that man walked on his hands and feet when young, or in the morning of life, at the noon of life he walked erect, and in the evening of his days he supported his infirmities upon a stick. See: Œdip us . The Sphinx no sooner heard this explanation than she dashed her head against a rock, and immediately expired. Some mythologists wish to unriddle the fabulous traditions about the Sphinx, by the supposition that one of the daughters of Cadmus, or Laius, infested the country of Thebes by her continual depredations, because she had been refused a part of her father’s po e ions. The lion’s paw expre ed, as they observe, her cruelty, the body of the dog her lasciviousne , her enigmas the snares she laid for strangers and travellers, and her wings the despatch she used in her expeditions. Plutarch. — Hesiod , Theogony , li. 326 .— Hyginus , fable 68.— Apollo dor us , bk. 3 , ch. 5 .— Diodorus , bk. 4 .— Ovid , Ibis , li. 378 .— Strabo , bk. 9 .— Sophocles , Œdip us Tyrannus .