Sphinx’s Family Tree

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Family

• Echidna(parent),Typhon(parent),Cerberus(sibling),Chimera(sibling),Colchian Dragon(sibling),Ladon(sibling),Lernaean Hydra(sibling),Nemean Lion(sibling),Orthrus(sibling)— Consort

  Typhon and Echidna produced a brood of monsters including Cerberus, the Chimera, the Lernaean Hydra, the Nemean Lion, the Sphinx, Orthrus, Ladon, and the Colchian Dragon — terrors that defined Greek heroic mythology.

• Chimera(parent),Orthrus(parent),Nemean Lion(sibling)— Consort

  Chimera, overcome by Orthrus, bore the Sphinx who plagued Thebes and the Nemean Lion that Heracles strangled as his first labor.

  ⚠ Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 3.5.8, 2.5.1) attributes the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion to Typhon and Echidna, while Hesiod (Theogony 326\u2013332) names Chimera and Orthrus as their parents.

• Echidna(parent),Orthrus(parent),Nemean Lion(sibling)— Consort

  Orthrus fathered the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion by his own mother Echidna, as told in Hesiod's Theogony.

  ⚠ This parentage is textually uncertain. The relevant passage in the Theogony (326-332) uses ambiguous pronouns, and scholars debate whether 'he' refers to Orthrus or Typhoeus. Many editors prefer Typhoeus as the father.

Enemy of

• Thebes

  The Sphinx terrorized Thebes from her perch on Mount Phicium, devouring all who failed her riddle and cutting off the city's roads. Her siege reduced Thebes to desperation until Oedipus solved the riddle.

Slain by

• Oedipus

  Oedipus answered the Sphinx's riddle — 'What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?' — causing the monster to hurl herself from the rock to her death.

Associated with

• Hera

  Hera sent the Sphinx to terrorize Thebes as punishment for the city's failure to atone for offenses against the gods. The Sphinx served as Hera's instrument of divine retribution against the Theban royal house.

  ⚠ The attribution of the Sphinx to Hera is found in scholiasts and later mythographers. Other sources name Ares or Dionysus as sender, or describe the Sphinx arriving from Ethiopia.

• Laius

  The Sphinx descended upon Thebes as divine punishment for Laius's abduction and violation of the young Chrysippus, an impiety that brought a monster's wrath upon his city and its people.

  ⚠ The connection between Laius's crime against Chrysippus and the Sphinx's arrival is found in scholiastic traditions and later sources; earlier accounts (Hesiod) do not specify the Sphinx's motivation.

• Muses

  According to some ancient sources, the Sphinx learned her famous riddle from the Muses. When Oedipus solved it, the Sphinx's power was broken and she destroyed herself.