"Oedipus and the Sphinx Oedipus and the Sphinx is an 1864 oil on canvas painting by Gustave Moreau that was first exhibited at the French ""Salon"" of 1864 where it was an immediate success. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work was a fresh treatment of the established subject of the meeting between Oedipus and the Sphinx on the road to Delphi, notably portrayed at Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex. The painting depicts Oedipus meeting the Sphinx at the crossroads on his journey between Thebes and Delphi. Oedipus must answer the Sphinx's riddle correctly in order to"
"Oedipus Oedipus (, ; ""Oidípous"" meaning 'swollen foot') was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. The story of Oedipus is the subject of Sophocles' tragedy ""Oedipus Rex"", which was followed by ""Oedipus at Colonus"" and then ""Antigone"". Together, these plays make up Sophocles' three Theban plays. Oedipus represents two enduring themes of Greek myth and drama: the flawed nature of humanity and an individual's role in the course of"
"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"
"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"
"he thinks that the gods have set up a trap, and curses the gods. Just then, Laius arrives on a chariot with two traveling companions and demands the right of way from Oedipus, whom he insults and strikes. In self-defence, Oedipus kills Laius and his companions. When the storm breaks, Oedipus flees. The shepherd has witnessed these events. Scene Three: Outside Thebes, the Sphinx, a monster in the form of a winged lioness with a woman's head, harasses the Theban citizens, killing everyone who cannot answer her riddle. Oedipus offers to challenge her to save the city. The watchman tells"
"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"
"there was a second riddle: ""There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?"" The answer is ""day and night"" (both words—""ἡμέρα"" and ""νύξ"", respectively—are feminine in Ancient Greek). This second riddle is also found in a Gascon version of the myth and could be very ancient. Bested at last, the Sphinx then threw herself from her high rock and died. An alternative version tells that she devoured herself. In both cases, Oedipus can therefore be recognized as a ""liminal"" or threshold figure, helping effect"
"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"
"him he who defeats the Sphinx will become the King of Thebes and can marry the recently widowed queen, Jocasta. Oedipus wakes the Sphinx and answers its riddle successfully, which causes the Sphinx to collapse into death, but not before saying: ""The future will tell thee whether the dying Sphinx weeps in her defeat or laughs in her victory!"" Thebes and its citizens hail Oedipus as their liberator and new king, and offer him Jocasta in marriage. ""Act III"" Twenty years have passed and during that time, Thebes has enjoyed peace and prosperity with Oedipus as king. However, Thebes now"
"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"
"the man (who was his father, Laius, although neither knew at the time). He becomes the ruler of Thebes after solving the riddle of the sphinx and in the process, marries the widowed queen, his mother Jocasta. Thus the stage is set for horror. When the truth comes out, following from another true but confusing prophecy from Delphi, Jocasta commits suicide, Oedipus blinds himself and leaves Thebes. At the end of the play, order is restored. This restoration is seen when Creon, brother of Jocasta, becomes king, and also when Oedipus, before going off to exile, asks Creon to take"
"the year, which together have 360 days and 360 nights). The most famous example of this type is the Riddle of the Sphinx. This Estonian example shows the pattern: The riddle describes a crawling baby, a standing person, and an old person with a walking stick. This type includes riddles along the lines of this German example: The conceit here is that Two-legs is a person, Three-legs is a three-legged stool, Four-legs is a dog, and One-leg is a walking stick. An example of this type is given here in thirteenth-century Icelandic form: The cow has four udders, four legs,"
"plough. It was said that Erichthonius was lame of his feet and that he consequently invented the quadriga, or four-horse chariot, to get around more easily. He is said to have competed often as a chariot driver in games. Zeus was said to have been so impressed with his skill that he raised him to the heavens to become the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga) after his death. Erichthonius was succeeded by his son Pandion I. The snake is his symbol, and he is represented in the statue of Athena in the Parthenon as the snake hidden behind her shield."
"power. King Laius of Thebes hears of a prophecy that his infant son will one day kill him. He pierces Oedipus' feet and leaves him out to die, but a shepherd finds him and carries him away. Years later, Oedipus, not knowing he was adopted, leaves home in fear of the same prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Laius journeys out to seek a solution to the Sphinx's mysterious riddle. As prophesied, Oedipus and Laius cross paths, but they do not recognize each other. A fight ensues, and Oedipus kills Laius and most of his"
"up to receive him and his arms and his horses and chariot – has been variously assigned to ""Epigoni"", ""Eriphyle"", ""Alcmaeon"" or to ""Amphiaraus"". Epigoni (play) The Epigoni (, ""Epigonoi"", ""progeny"") is an ancient Greek tragedy written by the Greek playwright Sophocles in the 5th century BC and based on Greek mythology. According to myth, Polynices and six allies (the seven against Thebes) attacked Thebes because Polynices' brother, Eteocles, refused to give up the throne as promised. All but one (Adrastus) of the seven would-be conquerors were killed. Their children swore vengeance and attacked Thebes. This was called the war"
"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"
"Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus (; ""Kerberos"" ), often called the ""hound of Hades"", is a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. Cerberus was the offspring of the monsters Echidna and Typhon, and usually is described as having three heads, a serpent for a tail, and snakes protruding from parts of his body. Cerberus is primarily known for his capture by Heracles, one of Heracles' twelve labours. Descriptions of Cerberus vary, including the number of his heads. Cerberus was usually three-headed, though not always. Cerberus had several multi-headed relatives. His father"
"defeated the Sphinx, earning for himself the newly vacant throne of Thebes and marriage to Thebes' newly widowed queen Jocasta. Periboea arrived in Thebes in a chariot that Oedipus had sent her as a gift, which had belonged to the previous king Laius and which Laius was riding when he was killed. Laius' servants would have recognized the chariot, thus realizing that Oedipus was the killer of Laius, and blind him as punishment for the deed. Creon might have been involved in the blinding. As yet, it would not have been revealed that Oedipus was the biological son of Laius,"
"one variation, and playwrights and poets had some freedom to choose or even innovate for dramatic effect. In Moira Buffini's modernisation of the story, ""Welcome to Thebes"", Creon's widow Eurydice is portrayed as President of Thebes following his death. Seamus Heaney's (2004) ""The Burial at Thebes"" includes a note from the writer comparing Creon's actions to those of the Bush administration. Creon Creon (; Ancient Greek: Κρέων ""Kreōn"" means ""ruler""), is a figure in Greek mythology best known as the ruler of Thebes in the legend of Oedipus. He had four sons and three daughters with his wife, Eurydice (sometimes"
"relieve him temporarily while Hercules adjusted his cloak. Atlas agreed, but Hercules reneged and walked away with the Apples. According to an alternative version, Hercules slew Ladon, the dragon-like guardian of the Apples, instead. Eurystheus was furious that Hercules had accomplished something that Eurystheus thought could not possibly be done. The twelfth and final labour was the capture of Cerberus, the 3-headed hound that was guardian of the gates of the underworld. To prepare for his descent into the underworld Hercules went to Eleusis (or Athens) to be initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries. He entered the underworld, and Hermes and"
"fit of madness and became a nightingale. After the deaths of Amphion and Zethus, Laius returned to Thebes and became king. Compare with Castor and Polydeuces (the Dioscuri) of Greece, and with Romulus and Remus of Rome. Plato, ""Gorgias"", 485e. Amphion and Zethus Amphion () and Zethus (, ""Zēthos"") were, in ancient Greek mythology, the twin sons of Zeus (or Theobus) by Antiope. They are important characters in one of the two founding myths of the city of Thebes, because they constructed the city's walls. Amphion and Zethus were the sons of Antiope, who fled in shame to Sicyon after"
"borrowing the poetry of Hesiod: ""What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?"" Due to the popularity of Sophocles's ""Antigone"" (c. 442 BC), the ending (lines 1005–78) of ""Seven against Thebes"" was added some fifty years after Aeschylus' death. Whereas the play (and the trilogy of which it is the last play) was meant to end with somber mourning for the dead brothers, the spurious ending features a herald announcing the prohibition against burying Polyneices, and Antigone's declaration that she will defy that edict. Oedipus was a figure who was also used in"
"A particularly gruesome detail from the battle, in which Tydeus gnawed on the living brain of Melanippos in the course of the siege, also appears, in a sculpted terracotta relief from a temple at Pyrgi, ca. 470–460 BC. The Seven Against Thebes were Allies: The defenders of Thebes included See also Epigoni, the mythic theme of the Second War of Thebes Of the other two plays that made up the trilogy that included ""Seven Against Thebes"", ""Laius"" and ""Oedipus"", and of its satyr play ""The Sphinx"", few fragments have survived. The only fragment definitively assigned to ""Oedipus"" is a line"
"directed at Merope – but there is no hint of that). Freud reasoned that the ancient Greek audience, which heard the story told or saw the plays based on it, did know that Oedipus was actually killing his father and marrying his mother; the story being continually told and played therefore reflected a preoccupation with the theme. The term oedipism is used in medicine for serious self-inflicted eye injury, an extremely rare form of severe self-harm. Oedipus Oedipus (, ; ""Oidípous"" meaning 'swollen foot') was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled"
"and were chased by Diomedes and his men. Heracles was not aware that the horses, called Podargos (the swift), Lampon (the shining), Xanthos (the yellow) and Deinos (the terrible), were kept tethered to a bronze manger because they were wild; their madness being attributed to an unnatural diet of human flesh. Some versions say that they expelled fire when they breathed. They were man-eating and uncontrollable, and Heracles left his favoured companion, Abderus, in charge of them while he fought Diomedes, and found out that the boy was eaten. In revenge, Heracles fed Diomedes to his own horses, then founded"
"lock of crimson hair. His daughter, Scylla, fell in love with Minos and proved it by cutting the crimson hair off her father's head. Nisus died and Megara fell to Crete. Minos spurned Scylla for disobeying her father. She was changed into a shearer bird, relentlessly pursued by her father, who was a falcon. Minos searched for Daedalus by traveling from city to city asking a riddle; he presented a spiral seashell and asked for it to be strung all the way through. When he reached Camicus, Sicily, King Cocalus, knowing Daedalus would be able to solve the riddle, fetched"
"poet Virgil. In Hesiod's ""Theogony"", Zeus releases three cyclopes from the dark pit of Tartarus. They provide Zeus' thunderbolt, Hades' ""helmet of darkness"", and Poseidon's trident, and the gods use these weapons to defeat the Titans. In an episode of Homer's ""Odyssey"", the hero Odysseus encounters the cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and Thoosa, who lives with his fellow cyclopes in a distant country. The connection between the two groups has been debated in antiquity and by modern scholars. It is upon Homer's account that Euripides and Virgil based their accounts of the mythical creatures. The ancient Greek geographer"
"overcome by Heracles in one of his labours. Orthrus In Greek mythology, Orthrus (, ""Orthros"") or Orthus (, ""Orthos"") was, according to the mythographer Apollodorus, a two-headed dog who guarded Geryon's cattle and was killed by Heracles. He was the offspring of the monsters Echidna and Typhon, and the brother of Cerberus, who was also a multi-headed guard dog. His name is given as either ""Orthrus"" (""Ὄρθρος"") or ""Orthus"" (""Ὄρθος""). For example, Hesiod, the oldest source, calls the hound ""Orthus"", while Apollodorus calls him ""Orthrus"". According to Hesiod, Orthrus was the father of the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion, though"
"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"
"Cadmus In Greek mythology, Cadmus (; ""Kadmos""), was the founder and first king of Thebes. Cadmus was the first Greek hero and, alongside Perseus and Bellerophon, the greatest hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. Initially a Phoenician prince, son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa, he was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores of Phoenicia by Zeus. Cadmus founded the Greek city of Thebes, the acropolis of which"
"challenges any of the Phaeacians save Laodamas. Laodamas and Halius are the best dancers among the Phaeacians. The name Laodamas also refers to three minor characters associated with the Trojan War: Laodamas Laodamas (; Ancient Greek: Λᾱοδάμᾱς, ""Lāodámās"", literally ""tamer of the people"") refers to five different people in Greek mythology. Laodamas, son of Eteocles, inherited Thebes from his father. In one version of the myth (different from the one recounted in Sophocles' ""Antigone""), he was responsible for the deaths of his aunts Antigone and Ismene, whom he prosecuted for having buried Polynices. They sought refuge in the temple of"
"Seven Against Thebes Seven Against Thebes (, ""Hepta epi Thēbas""; ) is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the Oedipodea. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia. The trilogy's first two plays, ""Laius"" and ""Oedipus"", as well as the satyr play ""Sphinx"", are no longer extant. When Oedipus, King of Thebes, realized he had married his own mother and had two"
"Orthrus In Greek mythology, Orthrus (, ""Orthros"") or Orthus (, ""Orthos"") was, according to the mythographer Apollodorus, a two-headed dog who guarded Geryon's cattle and was killed by Heracles. He was the offspring of the monsters Echidna and Typhon, and the brother of Cerberus, who was also a multi-headed guard dog. His name is given as either ""Orthrus"" (""Ὄρθρος"") or ""Orthus"" (""Ὄρθος""). For example, Hesiod, the oldest source, calls the hound ""Orthus"", while Apollodorus calls him ""Orthrus"". According to Hesiod, Orthrus was the father of the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion, though who Hesiod meant as the mother, whether Echidna,"