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The Sphinx is significant to 'Oedipus Rex' as the meansby which subsequent Theban King Oedipus gets into Thebes. The Sphinx guards all entries to and exits from the city. No one goes anywhere without answering the Sphinx's riddle. Until Oedipus, no one has the answer. No answer, no life is the Sphinx's motto.
But Oedipus knows that man is the living being that walks on fours in the morning, on twos in the afternoon, and on threes in the evening of life. So the Sphinx ends up dead at the bottom of the nearby cliff. At the same time, the people of Thebes are delivered from fear and taxes.
With entry into Thebes, Oedipus is a hero. He's offered the Theban throne and Thebes' widowed queen Jocasta. These two consequences of Oedipus' entry into the city are necessary to the second fulfilling of his direly predicted fate. Specifically, it was predicted that he'd kill his own father and marry his own mother. He already killed an older man in a street brawl over a right-of-way. Unbeknownst to Oedipus, the stranger was his father, now deceased Theban King Laius. To seal his fate, Oedipus has to marry his own mother, who is Laius' grieving widow Jocasta.
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Who solved the Sphinx's riddle in 'Oedipus Rex'?
Oedipus solved the Sphinx's riddle in the play Oedipus Rex ("Oedipus the King"). He alone understood that a people-killing Sphinx would pose an apparently unanswerable riddle about people.
How did Oedipus bring the city of Thebes fortune in the book Oedipus Rex?
by answering the riddle of the sphinx and saving Thebes from the rule of the sphinx.
What happens to the Sphinx when Oedipus solves the riddle in 'Oedipus Rex'?
Suicide is what happens to the Sphinx when Oedipus solves the riddle in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).Specifically, the Sphinx demands upon pain of death the answer to an impossible riddle. Oedipus figures out the answer and thereby deprives the Sphinx of her food supply. In despair, she throws herself over a nearby cliff.
What is Oedipus famous for in 'Oedipus Rex'?
Defeating the Sphinx is what Oedipus is famous for in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).Specifically, the monstrous Sphinx camps outside the city of Thebes. She kills and eats all Thebans who cannot answer her seemingly unanswerable riddle. But Oedipus knows the answer and beats the Sphinx at her own game.
What is the source of Oedipus' greatness in 'Oedipus Rex'?
Defeat of the Sphinx is the source of Oedipus' greatness in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).Specifically, the monstrous Sphinx asks Thebes a seemingly unanswerable riddle. She eats all Thebans who cannot give her the correct answer. But Oedipus figures out the answer and puts an end to the Sphinx before she puts an end to all Thebans.
