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Arts & Communication The riddle of the sphinx revisited

and the sphinx. Yet, unlike in the Greek myth, where Of all the episodes in his myth, Oedipus’ victory
Oedipus and the sphinx are adversaries, Khnopff depicts over the sphinx was by far the most frequently depicted
them in an intimate caress. The work leaves the spectator in antique art. During the heyday of Athenian self-
in a state of bewilderment. What are we to make of it? assuredness, following the defeat of the Persian Empire
in 480 BC, the theme served to depict the superiority
The weirdness of Caresses is not without precedents, 1(p16)
though. In the second half of the 19 century, Symbolist of Greek intelligence and civilization. The earliest
th
remnant depiction of the scene (Figure 2), painted around
artists, such as Gustave Moreau and Félicien Rops, that time, offers the standard format of the encounter,
experimented with the theme. Whereas since antiquity, the with Oedipus and the Sphinx facing each other frontally.
encounter between Oedipus and the sphinx had symbolized Almuth-Barbara Renger 1(p16) states that: It is through this
the victory of man’s clarity and intelligence over the frontality that Oedipus determines his position with regard
mysteries of nature, 1(p16) in the hands of the Symbolist, the to the inhuman and the superhuman. Thus, using his
theme prioritizes mystery and darkness. 2(p[166]]-[173]]) In this gifts of understanding, he alights on the riddle’s solution,
paper, I reread Caresses in the light of a new sphinx’s riddle: “man.”… As in Sophocles, the hero generally confronts the
What does it mean to live in our current Anthropocene Sphinx solely “with the power of his mind” (γνώμῃ).…
condition – defined by climate change, the omnipresence The Athens of the fifth century was preoccupied with this
of technology, and a paralysis of moral imagination? very idea: That is, with the development of an intelligence
The encounter between Oedipus and the sphinx is part of independent of old, mythic conceptions of might and
a larger myth. Oedipus is born as the son of Laius and Jocasta, impotence.
the king and queen of Thebes. When the oracle tells them By the power of thought, man hoped to confront
that their son will kill his father and bed his mother, they uncanny, inhuman, and threatening forces – face up to
pierce the baby’s feet and abandon him in the wilderness to them and ultimately overcome them.
die. However, the baby is saved by a shepherd and adopted
by the king and queen of Corinth, who raise him as their
son. They name him Oedipus, or “Swollen Foot,” after the
wounds with which he was found. As a grown man, Oedipus
consults the oracle, who repeats the same prophecy. Believing
that the Corinthian royal couple is his biological parents and
hoping to outsmart his fate, Oedipus flees Corinth. During
his travels, at a crossroads, he is treated disdainfully by an
old man in a chariot. Infuriated, Oedipus kills the man Figure 1. The painting Caresses by Fernand Khnopff in 1896. Reprinted
with his staff, unaware that the old man is Laius, the king with permission from The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.
of Thebes and his biological father. When he approaches Copyright © 1986 The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.
the city of Thebes, Oedipus encounters a sphinx, a half-
divine monster who kills all passers-by unless they solve her
riddle: “What being has four, two, and three feet?” No one
has solved it before, but Oedipus immediately realizes that
the answer is “the human being”: As a baby, it crawls on all
fours; later on, it walks on two legs; and in old age, it needs
a walking stick. The sphinx kills herself, and the grateful
Thebans offer Oedipus the recently vacated throne and the
hand of their recently widowed queen, Jokaste. Unaware
that she is his mother, Oedipus marries her. King Oedipus’
reign is popular, but eventually, Thebes is struck by bubonic
plague. The oracle says that it is a message from the gods,
who are vexed, because Laius’ murderer still lives among
the Thebans. Considering himself a great solver of riddles,
Oedipus vows to find the culprit. When finally he discovers
that he is the cause of the plague and that everything he has
done has unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy, Oedipus stabs Figure 2. An antique artifact depicting Oedipus being questioned by the
Sphinx. Reprinted with permission from the Vatican Museum. Copyright
his eyes out and goes into exile as a beggar for the rest of © Governorate of the Vatican City State-Directorate of the Vatican
his life. Museum.

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 2 doi: 10.36922/ac.5868