The Sphinx was so mortified at the solving of her riddle that she cast herself down from the rock and perished. Oedipus replied, "Man, who in childhood creeps on hands and knees, in manhood walks erect, and in old age with the aid of a staff." The Sphinx asked him, "What animal is that which in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" Oedipus was not daunted by these alarming accounts, but boldly advanced to the trial. Not one had yet succeeded in solving it, and all had been slain. It lay crouched on the top of a rock, and arrested all travellers who came that way, proposing to them a riddle, with the condition that those who could solve it should pass safe, but those who failed should be killed. It had the body of a lion, and the upper part of a woman. The city of Thebes was afflicted with a monster which infested the high-road. Ashliman's folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore, There Is No Difference between Youth and Old Age.The Seven Stages of Human Life (Talmud). The Story of Man and His Years (Romania, M.The Duration of Life (Germany, Jacob and Wilhelm.The Man, the Horse, the Ox, and the Dog (Aesop).Folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 173
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