From dlupher@ups.edu Sat Feb 16 18:59:03 2002 Received: from mailscan6.cac.washington.edu (mailscan6.cac.washington.edu [140.142.33.14]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with SMTP id g1H2x25S034364 for ; Sat, 16 Feb 2002 18:59:02 -0800 Received: FROM mxu4.u.washington.edu BY mailscan6.cac.washington.edu ; Sat Feb 16 18:59:01 2002 -0800 Received: from mail.ups.edu (mail.ups.edu [192.124.98.111]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with ESMTP id g1H2x1AV016402 for ; Sat, 16 Feb 2002 18:59:01 -0800 Received: from [207.207.116.56] (wyatt1dhcp56.ups.edu [207.207.116.56]) by mail.ups.edu (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g1H2x0B31922 for ; Sat, 16 Feb 2002 18:59:01 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: dlupher@mail.ups.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <001801c1b754$4f6c0660$3904a5d8@computer> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2002 18:59:00 -0800 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: David Lupher Subject: Re: Seth Bernadete -- from today's NYTimes Diana Wright asks: >As a tangent to this theme, when do we first know of the riddle of the >sphinx, any riddle, and the one about the assorted legs? I'm not sure, but I think the earliest multi-legged version of the riddle we have is that of Asklepiades of Tragilus (4th cent. B.C.), from his "Tragodoumena." It's quoted by Athenaeus (10.456B), but can also be found in Jacoby, FGH 12. frag. 7a (Erster Teil, A, p. 169): "There a two-footed, four-footed, and three-footed thing on the earth which has a single voice, but alone of all things that move over the earth or through the air or across the sea it transforms its nature. But when it walks supported on the most feet the speed of its limbs is most feeble." The version offered by Ps.-Apollodorus is briefer and more familiar: "What is it that has one voice but becomes four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed?" George Pesely has noted that Oedipus' encounter with the Sphinx is not specifically attested before Aesch. Septem 772-77, but the Sphinx (or Phix) is mentioned as "Kadmeioisin olethron" at Hes. Theog. 326. David Lupher Classics Dept. Univ. of Puget Sound .