"Sphinx A sphinx ( , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion. In Greek tradition, it has the head of a human, the haunches of a lion, and sometimes the wings of a bird. It is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such mythological stories, as they are killed and eaten by this ravenous monster. This deadly version of a sphinx appears in the myth and drama of Oedipus. Unlike the Greek sphinx, which was"
"describe the Sphinx preparing to pose her riddle, presumably to Oedipus in the confrontation in which Oedipus defeats her by answering the riddle correctly. A key fragment (541) is spoken by a servant of Laius, boasting of blinding Oedipus. This fragment is translated by Collard and Cropp as ""We pressed the son of Polybus to the ground, destroying his eyes and blinding him."" An illustration on a 2nd-century BCE Etruscan alabaster urn might depict this scene. The illustration shows Oedipus held down as described in the fragment, watched by a figure holding a scepter, presumably his brother-in-law and uncle and"
"for the Sphinx noted by Pierre Grimal's ""The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology"". The sphinx was the emblem of the ancient city-state of Chios, and appeared on seals and the obverse side of coins from the 6th century B.C. until the 3rd century CE. The Sphinx is said to have guarded the entrance to the Greek city of Thebes, asking a riddle to travellers to allow them passage. The exact riddle asked by the Sphinx was not specified by early tellers of the myth, and was not standardized as the one given below until late in Greek history. It was"
"a lion's body, a woman's head and the wings of an eagle (although, like most Egyptian sphinxes, the Great Sphinx has a man's head and no wings). The English word ""sphinx"" comes from the ancient Greek Σφίγξ ( ) apparently from the verb σφίγγω ( / ), after the Greek sphinx who strangled anyone who failed to answer her riddle. The name may alternatively be a linguistic corruption of the phonetically different ancient Egyptian word ""Ssp-anx"" (in Manuel de Codage). This name is given to royal statues of the Fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt (2575–2467 BC) and later in the"
"Phaedrus (Athenian) Phaedrus (), son of Pythocles, of the Myrrhinus deme (Greek: Φαῖδρος Πυθοκλέους Μυρρινούσιος, ""Phaĩdros Puthocléous Murrinoúsios""; c. 444 – 393 BC), was an ancient Athenian aristocrat associated with the inner-circle of the philosopher Socrates. He was indicted in the profanation of the Eleusinian mysteries in 415 during the Peloponnesian War, causing him to flee Athens. He is best remembered for his depiction in the dialogues of Plato. His philosophically erotic role in his eponymous dialogue and the ""Symposium"" inspired later authors, from the ancient comedic playwright Alexis to contemporary philosophers like Robert M. Pirsig and Martha Nussbaum. Phaedrus,"
"The answer are: night and day; a reflection in a mirror; double flute played by one person with ten fingers; smoke; pitch, used for caulking ships. The last of Greece's known literary non-Christian riddle-masters is the Emperor Julian. Literary riddles were also composed in Byzantium, from perhaps the tenth century with the work of John Geometres, into the fifteenth century, along with a neo-Byzantine revival in around the early eighteenth century. There was a particular peak around the long twelfth century: Christopher of Mytilene's ""στίχοι διάφοροι"" ('Various Verses') contain riddles, while John Mauropous, Michael Psellos, Basilios Megalomites, Theodore Prodromos, Eustathios"
"the first half of the prophecy. Oedipus continued his journey to Thebes and discovered that the city was being terrorized by the sphinx. Oedipus solved the sphinx's riddle, and the grateful city elected Oedipus as its new king. Oedipus accepted the throne and married Laius' widowed queen Jocasta, fulfilling the second half of the prophecy. Jocasta bore him four children: two girls, Antigone and Ismene, and two boys, Eteocles and Polynices. Differing versions exist concerning the latter part of Jocasta's life. In the version of Sophocles, when his city was struck by a plague, Oedipus learned that it was divine"
"continue on their journey. The riddle was: ""What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?"". Oedipus answered: ""Man: as an infant, he crawls on all fours; as an adult, he walks on two legs and; in old age, he uses a 'walking' stick"". Oedipus was the first to answer the riddle correctly and, having heard Oedipus' answer, the Sphinx allowed him to carry on forward. Queen Jocasta's brother, Creon, had announced that any man who could rid the city of the Sphinx would be made king of Thebes, and given the recently"
"fated to murder Polybus and marry Merope, so left for Thebes. On his way he met an older man and quarrelled, and Oedipus killed the stranger. Continuing on to Thebes, he found that the king of the city (Laius) had been recently killed, and that the city was at the mercy of the Sphinx. Oedipus answered the monster's riddle correctly, defeating it and winning the throne of the dead king – and the hand in marriage of the king's widow, and (unbeknownst to him) his mother Jocasta. Years later, to end a plague on Thebes, Oedipus searched to find who"
"the prophecy that the king had sought to avoid by exposing Oedipus at birth is fulfilled. Before arriving at Thebes, Oedipus encounters the Sphinx, a legendary beast with the head and breast of a woman, the body of a lioness, and the wings of an eagle. The Sphinx was sent to the road approaching Thebes as a punishment from the gods, and would strangle any traveler who failed to answer a certain riddle. The precise riddle asked by the Sphinx varied in early traditions, and is not stated in ""Oedipus Rex"", as the event precedes the play; but the most"
"Labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth ( ""labúrinthos"") was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the hero Theseus. Daedalus had so cunningly made the Labyrinth that he could barely escape it after he built it. Although early Cretan coins occasionally exhibit branching (multicursal) patterns, the single-path (unicursal) seven-course ""Classical"" design without branching or dead ends became associated with the Labyrinth on coins as early as 430 BC, and similar non-branching patterns became widely used as"
"widely-known version is, """"what is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?"""" Oedipus correctly guesses, """"man"""", who crawls on all fours as an infant, walks upright in maturity, and leans on a stick in old age. Bested by the prince, the Sphinx throws herself from a cliff, thereby ending the curse. Oedipus' reward for freeing Thebes from the Sphinx is its kingship, and the hand of the dowager queen, Jocasta; none then realize that Jocasta is Oedipus' true mother. Thus, unknown to all of the characters, the prophecy"
"a solution that is similar to the solution given by Hero of Alexandria several centuries later. Philo of Byzantium Philo of Byzantium (, ""Philōn ho Byzantios"", ca. 280 BC – ca. 220 BC), also known as Philo Mechanicus, was a Greek engineer, physicist and writer on mechanics, who lived during the latter half of the 3rd century BC. Although he was from Byzantium he lived most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt. He was probably younger than Ctesibius, though some place him a century earlier. Philo was the author of a large work, ""Mechanike syntaxis"" (Compendium of Mechanics), which contained"
"""Antigone"", written by Sophocles. In ""Oedipus Rex"", Creon is a brother of queen Jocasta, the wife of King Laius as well as Oedipus. Laius, a previous king of Thebes, had given the rule to Creon while he went to consult the oracle at Delphi. During Laius's absence, the Sphinx came to Thebes. When word came of Laius's death, Creon offered the throne of Thebes as well as the hand of his sister (and Laius' widow) Jocasta, to anyone who could free the city from the Sphinx. Oedipus answered the Sphinx's riddle and married Jocasta, unaware that she was his mother."
"the Sphinx, a monster with the head of a woman and the body of a winged lion, and the Nemean lion, killed by Heracles as his first labor. According to Hesiod, these two were the offspring of Echidna's son Orthrus and another ambiguous ""she"", read variously as the Chimera, Echidna herself, or even Ceto. In any case, the lyric poet Lasus of Hermione (6th century BC), has Echidna and Typhon as the parents of the Sphinx, while the playwright Euripides (5th century BC), has Echidna as her mother, without mentioning a father. While mentioning Cerberus and ""other monsters"" as being"
"Phoenix of Phoenicia In Greek mythology, Phoenix or Phoinix ( ""Phoinix"", ""gen"".: Φοίνικος) is the eponym of Phoenicia who together with his brothers were tasked to find their abducted sister Europa. Phoenix was a son of Agenor by either Telephassa, Argiope or Damno and brother of Cadmus, Cilix and Europa. He was believed to have fathered a number of children with different women. By Cassiopeia, Phoenix had a daughter Carme and three sons, Cilix, Phineus, and Doryclus, as well as a stepson Atymnius whose natural father was Zeus; by Alphesiboea, he had Adonis. He was also credited as the father"
"puzzling oracle forced Aegeus to visit Pittheus, king of Troezen, who was famous for his wisdom and skill at expounding oracles. Pittheus understood the prophecy and introduced Aegeus to his daughter, Aethra, when Aegeus was drunk. They lay with each other, and then in some versions, Aethra waded to the island of Sphairia (a.k.a. Calauria) and bedded Poseidon. When Aethra became pregnant, Aegeus decided to return to Athens. Before leaving, he buried his sandal, shield, and sword under a huge rock and told her that, when their son grew up, he should move the rock and bring the weapons to"
"him and he would be rather afraid of taking on all responsibility for the country alone. <poem> Creon. My mind, retaining reason, ne’er could act The villain’s part. I was not born to love such thoughts myself…. (Act I, p. 11)</poem> In Dryden/Lee's adaptation, the main characters are designed differently. According to Brunkhorst, Oedipus is presented as the ideal ruler of a country. Right upon his introduction, Oedipus returns from a battle between Thebes and Argos as the successful victor. The monarch has already managed to rescue the Thebans twice: not only did he manage to solve the Sphinx's riddle,"
"a chariot driven by his birth-father, King Laius. They fought over who had the right to go first and Oedipus killed Laius when the charioteer tried to run him over. The only witness of the king's death was a slave who fled from a caravan of slaves also traveling on the road at the time. Continuing his journey to Thebes, Oedipus encountered a Sphinx, who would stop all travelers to Thebes and ask them a riddle. If the travelers were unable to answer her correctly, they would be killed and eaten; if they were successful, they would be free to"
"to Plutarch, Plato gave the problem to Eudoxus and Archytas and Menaechmus, who solved the problem using mechanical means, earning a rebuke from Plato for not solving the problem using pure geometry (Plut., ""Quaestiones convivales"" VIII.ii, 718ef). This may be why the problem is referred to in the 350s BC by the author of the pseudo-Platonic ""Sisyphus"" (388e) as still unsolved. However another version of the story (attributed to Eratosthenes by Eutocius of Ascalon) says that all three found solutions but they were too abstract to be of practical value. A significant development in finding a solution to the problem"
"to circulate in Egypt. However, these tales do not involve riddles as such. These Egyptian stories, probably via lost Greek material, seem to have been an inspiration for the account of a wisdom-contest between Pharaoh Amasis II and the king of Ethiopia, in which the sage Bias of Priene helps the Pharaoh by solving the riddles, in Plutarch's first- or second-century AD ""Convivium Septem Sapientium"". At least one of Plutarch's sources was probably shared by the ""Aesop Romance"", which originated around the fourth century BC (chs 102-8, 111–23). The ""Aesop Romance"" also drew on similar stories of wisdom contests in"
"explain the obvious and he seldom admits his own assumptions [2] . A misconception of Theodosius is that he wrote s commentary on the chapter of Theudas and Skeptical Cahpters [3]. This was not the Theodosius of Bithynia but rather a sceptic philosopher of the second century AD with the same name who wrote both works [4]. By Boris A. Rosenfeld By Boris A. Rosenfeld By Boris A. Rosenfeld Paul Kunitzsch, Richard Lorch Paul Kunitzsch, Richard Lorch Theodosius of Bithynia Theodosius of Bithynia (; c. 160 BC – c. 100 BC) was a Greek astronomer and mathematician who wrote the"
"The Riddle of the Sphinx (Inside No. 9) ""The Riddle of the Sphinx"" is the third episode of the third series of the British dark comedy anthology television programme ""Inside No. 9"". It first aired, on BBC Two, on 28 February 2017. The episode was written by the programme's creators, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, and directed by Guillem Morales. ""The Riddle of the Sphinx"", which is set in Cambridge, stars Alexandra Roach as Nina, a young woman seeking answers to the ""Varsity"" cryptic crossword, Pemberton as Professor Nigel Squires, who pseudonymously sets the crossword using the name ""Sphinx"", and"
"The crossword featured in ""The Riddle of the Sphinx"" was set by Pemberton, and was published in ""The Guardian"" on the day the episode aired, credited to ""Sphinx"". This crossword contains multiple ninas—hidden messages or words. Along with many of the crossword's answers, one nina is integral to the episode's plot. A second was introduced accidentally, and then incorporated into the episode. A third nina is an ""Inside No. 9"" in-joke. Influences for ""The Riddle of the Sphinx"", which emphasises gothicism over comedy, include Anthony Shaffer's 1970 play ""Sleuth"", the work of Anton Chekhov, and the 1989 film ""The Cook,"
"for them. Phidias Phidias or Pheidias (; , ""Pheidias""; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the statues of the goddess Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, namely the ""Athena Parthenos"" inside the Parthenon, and the ""Athena Promachos"", a colossal bronze which stood between it and the Propylaea, a monumental gateway that served as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. Phidias was the son of Charmides of Athens. The ancients believed that his masters were Hegias and"
"Symphosius Symphosius (sometimes, in older scholarship and less properly, Symposius) was the author of the ""Aenigmata"", an influential collection of 100 Latin riddles, probably from the late antique period. They have been transmitted along with their solutions. Nothing more is known of Symphosius's life than what can be gleaned from the riddles themselves: even his name is clearly 'a joking pseudonym, meaning “party boy” or the like'. Proposed dates of composition have ranged from the third century to the sixth. The prevailing view today is that they were probably composed in the late fourth or early fifth century. A range"
"Symphosius Symphosius (sometimes, in older scholarship and less properly, Symposius) was the author of the ""Aenigmata"", an influential collection of 100 Latin riddles, probably from the late antique period. They have been transmitted along with their solutions. Nothing more is known of Symphosius's life than what can be gleaned from the riddles themselves: even his name is clearly 'a joking pseudonym, meaning “party boy” or the like'. Proposed dates of composition have ranged from the third century to the sixth. The prevailing view today is that they were probably composed in the late fourth or early fifth century. A range"
"From Atlantis to the Sphinx From Atlantis to the Sphinx is a work of non-fiction by British author, Colin Wilson, with the subheading ""Recovering the Lost Wisdom of the Ancient World"". Wilson proposes in the text that the Great Sphinx of Giza was constructed by a technologically advanced people ""nearly 10,000 years before Egyptologists have hypothesized"" by the same people who provided plans for the construction of the pyramids of Egypt, Central and South America. The book explores the connection between astronomy and mythology, arguing that ancient man used ""Lunar knowledge"" (intuition) as opposed to modern man's ""Solar knowledge"" (logic)"
"sent out by Agenor to find her, but the search was unsuccessful. Phoenix eventually settled in a country in Asia which he named Phoenicia after himself. Phoenix of Phoenicia In Greek mythology, Phoenix or Phoinix ( ""Phoinix"", ""gen"".: Φοίνικος) is the eponym of Phoenicia who together with his brothers were tasked to find their abducted sister Europa. Phoenix was a son of Agenor by either Telephassa, Argiope or Damno and brother of Cadmus, Cilix and Europa. He was believed to have fathered a number of children with different women. By Cassiopeia, Phoenix had a daughter Carme and three sons, Cilix,"
"kills Hera, ending all Greek plant life, and makes his way to the Labyrinth to find Pandora. The imprisoned architect Daedalus tells Kratos to unite the Labyrinth. Completing this task, Kratos fights his way through the aerial puzzle and rescues Pandora, who tells him to break the Chain of Balance so the Labyrinth can be raised, and she can reach her box. Neutralizing the three judges and breaking the chain, Kratos raises the Labyrinth, and Pandora tries to enter the Flame of Olympus. Zeus intervenes and fights Kratos; after a brief battle, Pandora sacrifices herself and quenches the flame, despite"
"and emotion. This was one of the few areas in his life in which he allowed the personal and the political to mix. In 1963, Seferis was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature ""for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture."" Seferis was the first Greek to receive the prize (followed later by Odysseas Elytis, who became a Nobel laureate in 1979). But in his acceptance speech, Seferis chose rather to emphasise his own humanist philosophy, concluding: ""When on his way to Thebes Oedipus encountered the Sphinx, his answer to its riddle"
"the labyrinth); Perseus, the hero who killed Medusa ( with the gift of magic objects and weapons); Heracles is probably the best known Greek hero; Achilles; the riddling Sphinx; Odysseus; Ajax; Jason (of the Argonauts); Female sorcerers as well Circe, Calypso and goddess Hecate; Daedalus and Icarus. The figures of Chinese dragons were influential on the modern fantasy use of the dragon, tempering the greedy, thoroughly evil, even diabolical Western dragon; many modern fantasy dragons are humane and wise. Chinese traditions have been particularly influential in the vein of fantasy known as Chinoiserie, including such writers as Ernest Bramah and"
"Menaechmus Menaechmus (, 380–320 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician and geometer born in Alopeconnesus in the Thracian Chersonese, who was known for his friendship with the renowned philosopher Plato and for his apparent discovery of conic sections and his solution to the then-long-standing problem of doubling the cube using the parabola and hyperbola. Menaechmus is remembered by mathematicians for his discovery of the conic sections and his solution to the problem of doubling the cube. Menaechmus likely discovered the conic sections, that is, the ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola, as a by-product of his search for the solution"