What has Four legs at the Morning,
Two in the afternoon,
And three in the evening?

Here's Anthony Burgess' take on the riddle as it relates to Oedipus:
He acknowleges that the riddle is easy- but states that perhaps that is the point.

He states that it is significant that the riddle is posed by a sphinx- half man, half beast- a symbol of incest which is also a prominent theme in Sophocles.

He writes:

"The riddle may stand for the intriguingly easy but inexplicably forbidden [act of incest] (boy-child and girl-child in bed together, love-play, punishment) or for the knot which holds natural or social order together, untied at our peril though so tempting to untie."

Posted by amadeus on 2004-12-23 20:33:27