42 HISTORICAL TALES.

inconsistency, punished the land of Thebes; afflicting
that hapless country with a terrible monster called
the Sphinx, which had the face of a woman, the
wings of a bird, and the body ofa lion. This
strangely made-up creature proposed a riddle to the
Thebans, whose solution they were forced to try and
give; and on every failure to give the correct answer
she seized and devoured the unhappy aspirant.
Cidipus arrived, in ignorance of the fact that he
was the son of the late king. He quickly solved
the riddle of the Sphinx, whereupon that monster
committed suicide, and he was made king. He
then married the queen,—not knowing that she was
his own mother.

This celebrated riddle of the Sphinx was not a
very difficult one. It was as follows: “A being
with four feet has two feet and three feet; but its
feet vary, and when it has most it is weakest.”

The answer, as given by Cidipus, was “ Man,” who

‘ First as a babe four-footed creeps on his way,

Then, when full age cometh on, and the burden of years

weighs full heavy,

Bending his shoulders and neck, as a third foot uscth his

staff.”?

When the truth became known—as truth was apt
to become known when too late in old stories—the
queen, Jocasta, mad with anguish, hanged herself,
and Cidipus, in wild despair, put out his eyes. The
gods who had led him blindly into crime, now handed
him over to punishment by the Furies,—the ancient
goddesses of vengeance, whose mission it was to
pursue the criminal with stinging whips.