►Greek Mythology: “The Sphinx and her Riddle”:

“Oedipus and the Sphinx” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1808).

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The Sphinx  (from the greek word Σφίγξ,  meaning “to squeeze”, “to tighten up”) was a female mythical creature with the body of a lion, the breast and head of a woman, eagle’s wings and, according to some, a serpent-headed tail.

According to Hesiod, the Sphinx was daughter of Orthus and Chimaera, born in the country of the Arimi (Theog. 326).

According to Sophocles, when King Laius of Thebes was murdered, by an unknown in a Phocian road, the king’s brother-in-law Creon came to power.

It was during his regency that the Sphinx came to  Thebes, as a punishment, sent by Hera, or, according to other accounts, by Hades, and  and gobbling up people

The Sphinx guarded the entrance to the Greek city of Thebes, and to have asked a…