Source Verification: Oedipus and the Sphinx
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
What is the story of Oedipus and the Sphinx?
Apollodorus tells it most fully. Hera sent the Sphinx to Thebes, where she posed a riddle and devoured every Theban who failed to solve it. After his own son Haemon died, Creon offered the kingdom and Laius's widow to whoever answered. Oedipus, a stranger from Corinth, solved it, the Sphinx threw herself from the citadel, and Oedipus married the queen without knowing she was his mother.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8
What does the Sphinx say to Oedipus?
No surviving tragedy stages the exchange, but Apollodorus records the riddle she put to the Thebans: what has one voice and yet becomes four-footed, two-footed and three-footed? Diodorus Siculus gives a shorter form, asking what is at once a biped, a triped and a quadruped. A longer verse version, attributed to Asclepiades and quoted by Athenaeus, adds that the creature is slowest when it walks on the most feet.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8; Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica 4.64.3
What is the correct answer to the Sphinx's riddle?
Man. Apollodorus gives Oedipus's reasoning: a person is four-footed as a baby, going on four limbs, two-footed as an adult, and in old age gains a third support in a staff. Diodorus Siculus explains it the same way, adding that the staff comes from the weakness of age. The riddle turns on a human life read as a single day's changing gait.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8; Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica 4.64.4
What is the role of Sphinx in the drama Oedipus Rex?
In Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus the Sphinx is already dead and appears only in memory. She explains why Laius's murder was never investigated: Creon says the riddling Sphinx made Thebes set aside obscure matters (130-131). Oedipus throws his victory at Teiresias as proof that the prophet failed where he succeeded (390-398). The closing lines recall him as the man who knew the famous riddle (1525), yet he could not read his own birth.
Source: Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 391-398
Why did the Sphinx come to Thebes?
The sources name different senders. Apollodorus says Hera sent her, but gives no reason. In Euripides's Phoenician Women the chorus says she was sent by Hades to plague the men of Thebes. Hesiod calls her Phix and says only that she was a destruction for the Cadmeans. Pausanias reports stories that make her a pirate raider or an illegitimate daughter of Laius guarding the throne.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8; Hesiod, Theogony 326-332; Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.26.2-9.26.3
Where Accounts Differ
- Hera or Hades sent the Sphinx
- Typhon or Orthus as the Sphinx's father
- wording of the riddle
- suicide, slaying or military defeat
- wit or divine help
- Creon's sister or daughter
- Who sent the Sphinx is disputed. Apollodorus (Library 3.5.8) says Hera sent her, without giving a reason. In Euripides's Phoenician Women (810) the chorus says she was sent by Hades. Hesiod (Theogony 326) names her only as Phix, a destruction for the Cadmeans, and says nothing of who sent her.
- Her parentage differs. Apollodorus (Library 3.5.8) makes her the daughter of Echidna and Typhon. Hesiod (Theogony 326-327) has her born to Orthus, and his Greek leaves open whether the mother is Echidna or the Chimera.
- The riddle's wording varies. Apollodorus (Library 3.5.8) gives the one-voice, four-, two- and three-footed form. Diodorus (4.64.3) has only biped, triped and quadruped. Athenaeus (Deipnosophists 10.456b) quotes a longer hexameter version from Asclepiades. Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus alludes to the riddle (393-398, 1525) but never states its text.
- Her death differs. Apollodorus (Library 3.5.8) has her throw herself from the citadel and Diodorus (4.64.4) down a precipice. The chorus of Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus (1197-1199) speaks of Oedipus as having destroyed her. Pausanias (9.26.2) reports a rationalized version in which she was a pirate leader whom Oedipus overwhelmed with an army.
- How Oedipus solved it is framed differently. In Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus the priest says he did it with a god's help (38), while Oedipus himself boasts he did it by wit alone, untaught by birds (396-398). Pausanias (9.26.4) records a version in which the riddle was a secret oracle that Oedipus had learned in a dream.
- Who offered the reward differs. Apollodorus (Library 3.5.8) and Euripides's Phoenician Women (45-50) name Creon, Jocasta's brother. Diodorus (4.64.1, 4.64.3) says only that a reward was offered, and calls Jocasta the daughter of Creon.
Sources
- Apollodorus, Library 3.5.7
- Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8
- Apollodorus, Library 3.5.9
- Hesiod, Theogony 326-332
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.26.2-9.26.4
- Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica 4.64.3-4.64.4
- Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 391-398
- Euripides, Phoenissae 45-50
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)