3-002-547 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1864. The Sphinx, a mythical creature-part lion, part woman-grimaces in horror as Oedipus solves her riddle: "What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed?" Oedipus replies, "Man, for as a babe he is four-footed, as an adult he is two-footed, and as an old man he gets a third support, a cane," and the Sphinx hurls herself onto the rocks below, which are strewn with the bones of her victims.