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Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1780-1867. "Oedipus and the Sphinx" ("Oedipus Solves the Riddle of the Sphinx"), oil on canvas, 1808. Louvre, Paris, no. R.F. 218. Variants at National Gallery, London and Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.

The Sphinx inhabited a mountain west of Cadmeia (old Thebes) and tormented the Cadmeans until she met her match in Oedipus. For, he is the first to answer the riddle: "What has one voice and yet becomes four-footed, and two-footed, and three-footed?" In some versions his answering her riddle (e.g. Apollodorus Library 3.5.8) incites her to suicide. In others he kills her outright. Either way, defeating the Sphinx opens the way for Oedipus to become tyrannus at Thebes and the husband of Jocasta.

Largely unpopular until the 19th Century, the story of Oedipus here emphasizes a man's supreme accomplishment at the height of intellectual and physical splendor. Ingres celebrates the supreme humanity (or heroism) of Oedipus, especially apparent at the outset of his career.