CREATURES OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY – SPHINX

 

There was a dreadful union between the giant immortal Typhon

And the black fearful eyed Echidne, half serpent, half woman

The Sphinx was the bizarre result of this most Unnatural union

And it had the body of a lion and the upper parts of a woman

She also had the wings of an eagle as well as the tail of a serpent

And guarding the entrance to Thebes was how Her time was spent

Any traveler who wanted to enter Thebes had to first get past her

And to do that She would ask them a riddle that they had to figure

If the travelers were able to figure out the riddle, they had to try

They would pass safely by and she would by her own hand die

But if they were unable to figure out the riddle, they were given

They would not pass safely by and she would devour them then

Then One day on the road to Thebes the Sphinx met with Oedipus

And the Sphinx duly set him her complex riddle, which went thus

'So, what creature walks on four in the morning on two by day

And on three in the evening?' you must answer to pass by this way

Oedipus thought for a while, and then said the answer was known

'It is a man. When he’s a baby, he crawls on four, When full grown

He walks on two, and when he is an old man, he leans on a staff.'

With that said she let out a terrible scream like an hysterical laugh

Then the Sphinx threw herself to her death from atop the Acropolis

And wise Oedipus was then granted entrance to Thebes forthwith