Oedipus And The Sphinx Wall Relief Plaque

When King Laius of Thebes learned from an oracle that he was destined to be killed by his own son, who would then marry his mother Jocasta, he decided that his newborn son could not be allowed to live. He ordered a servant to leave him to die on a lonely mountain. A passing shepherd found the infant and took him to Polybus, the king of Corinth. The queen, who had never had children of her own, was delighted that the gods had sent them a son. They named the boy Oedipus (swollen foot), and they loved him so much that they never told him he was adopted. Thus, when Oedipus heard an oracle proclaim that he would kill his own father and marry his mother, he decided to leave Corinth rather than bring harm to the parents he loved so much. As he wandered, he came to a crossroads, where a haughty man in a chariot ordered him off the road and threatened him with a whip. Oedipus, who was after all a prince, answered the man with equal arrogance. When the man tried to strike him, Oedipus pulled him from his chariot and killed him. Eventually Oedipus came to the gates of Thebes. Guarding the gates was a terrible monster with the body of a lion and the head and torso of a woman. She allowed no one to enter or leave the city without answering the riddle that she posed. If the traveler could not answer correctly, she would kill and devour him. As no one had yet come up with the right answer, the sphinx was well-fed, and the city of Thebes was effectively cut off from all trade and all contact with the world outside the city walls. When Oedipus reached the gates of the city, the creature posed her riddle: What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening? Oedipus solved the riddle, answering that man crawls on all fours in infancy, walks upright on two legs in adulthood, and uses a cane as a third leg in old age. The sphinx was so frustrated that Oedipus had answered her riddle that she threw herself from the city walls, and died. The Thebans were immensely grateful to Oedipus for having rid them of the monstrous sphinx.