Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King was an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles.

It is about a king called Laius. Ones, a prophecy told him that his son was going to kill him so he left his son in the forest. Shortly after, the king of Corinth rescue him and called him: Oedipus. The prophecy said that he was going to kill his father so he left Corinth without knowing he was adopted. During his trip he met with his father, the king Laius. He thought it was a robber so Oedipus killed him and the prophecy was fulfilled. He continued his journey, he found a sphinx. It ate all the people that didn´t know its riddle. Oedipus solved the riddle and the sphinx committed suicide. For this, he was rewarded by marrying the wife or the ancient king, his mother called Jocasta. They had children and also the lived happily until they discovered that Oedipus killed his father and married his wife. Jocasta committed a suicided and Oedipus ripped his eyes out and he was exiled.

It is a very interesting story, but the important thing is the riddle of the sphinx:

"What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening?"

Oedipus answered that was the man. This refers to the three stages of the life: the morning, the noon and the evening. That means that when we are children we walk on four legs, when we are adults we walk on two feet and when we are older we use a cane.

But there is another version of the story where the riddle was:

“What goes on two feet in the morning, four in the noon and three in the evening?”

The answer of this riddle was Oedipus, because at the beginning he was a normal man ( two feet), then when he killed his father and married his mother he reduced at the level of an animal (4 legs), at the end when he ripped his eyes out he needed to use a cane ( three legs).

I hope you like it !  Aitana Soria 2ºA