Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/144

 130 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY bore him a son, Lams pierced his feet, bound them together, and caused him to be exposed on the neigh- boring mountain Cithaeron, that thus by killing his child he might render impossible the fulfillment of the oracle. But the child was discovered by a shepherd, brought to king Polybus at Sicyon or Corinth, and by him named Oedipus ( 4 swollen-footed '). When the boy had grown up, being taunted about his parentage, he asked the oracle at Delphi to reveal to him his real origin, but received as answer only the ominous response, that he must become guilty of incest with his mother, and kill his father. In order to make the threat ineffec- tive, he did not return to Corinth; yet even before he had gone far from Delphi he met his father Laius at a fork in the road, and being provoked by him, killed him without being aware who he was. 169. Meanwhile Thebes had been visited with a severe scourge. The Sphinx ('throttler ? ), a monster, the upper part of whose body was a winged maiden, and the lower part that of a lion (probably, like the "nightmare," a creature born of "such stuff as dreams are made of," though afterwards it was thoroughly confused with the similarly formed Egyptian-Babylonian symbol of power and swiftness), dwelt upon a mountain in the vicinity of the city and submitted to passers-by this riddle : " What walks in the morning on four legs, at midday on two, and at evening on three ? " She had killed all that had not guessed it, among them, according to an older legend, Haemon, the son of Creon, who after the death of his brother-in-law Laius ruled in Thebes. Creon now offered as a reward to anybody freeing them from this scourge the hand of the queen and the sovereignty of Thebes.