The Riddle of The Sphinx

http://www.ajdrake.com/teachers/teaching/guides/psychoanalysis/freud_on_death_drive.htm
Freud immediately distances himself from the Sphinx riddle of metaphysics and religion: "what is the purpose of life?" Instead, he proposes to take for his standard the more practical question, "[what do] men themselves show by their behaviour to be the purpose and intention of their lives[?]" (25) In a way, Freud as psychoanalyst depicts himself as something of a utilitarian and a scientist--he will dismiss all grand commentary on still grander intellectual narratives, preferring rather to take his clues from mundane phenomena like child development and the actual, occasionally pathological, behavior of adults and groups.

http://www.jimloy.com/puzz/sphinx0.htm

The Riddle of the Sphinx

© Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat outside of Thebes and asked this riddle of all travelers who passed by. If the traveler failed to solve the riddle, then the Sphinx killed him/her. And if the traveler answered the riddle correctly, then the Sphinx would destroy herself. The riddle:

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

Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx destroyed herself.

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The solution: A man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age.
Of course morning, noon, and night are metaphors for the times in a man's (person's) life. Such metaphors are common in riddles. There were two Thebes, apparently this Thebes was the one in Greece. And this Sphinx was apparently not the one at Giza, in Egypt.