Riddle of the Sphinx

BLM:90 WHM:90 SMN:90 THF:90 WAR:90 DRK:90 RNG:90 PLD:90

So the riddle of the Sphinx was solved yeah?  Well it wasn't solved well enough in my view.  Let me tell you a little bit about monsters and legends so that you KIDS understand what a monster is and how it relates to real life.  

A family is a group of people that work well together and do all things legal.  They trust each other and, if one goes missing, all the rest of the members stop what they're doing and go look for him.  Churches can be said to have families IF they have no secrets. 

If this hypothetical family break laws but keep secrets safe and if they work well together, and are good for society, if they are AN EFFECTIVE TEAM, they are considered a Unicorn.  There's magic there but it's unintelligible yet totally beneficial... and noone has died yet. 

See, and you thought watching LEGEND was a waste of time. 

If they are not good for society then that "family" is a monster.  And depending how many "members" are in the family, the monster could be HUGE.   Once it is revealed that this monster is abusing the public trust, it has to be identified and then if enough people are afraid of it... destroyed.  

One thing you can always say about a monster is that ONE MAN killing it has no chance.   Almost every time you hear about a monster, it is a thing the size of many men.  What a coincidence, yeah?  

So with Oedipus, like in the Bible, you have to figure out what the stories mean.  You read about one tale of a man who meets a huge monster (as I looked it up) at the entrance to Thebes and if he can solve it's riddle, he can pass.  

SPOILER ALERT: Im about to give you the solution to the Riddle of the Sphinx but it's much more fun if you figure it out for yourself so go read the story and stop for a moment and try to figure it out.  

Now the town wanted the monster dead and only Oedipus was able to solve the riddle and others who could not solve it were eaten.  To identify the monster you must understand how it works and to understand how it works, meaning what men are members of the group, you have to solve her riddle the right way.

The Sphinx is a monster with the head and breast of a woman, the claws and body of a lion, with the wings of a dragon. 

So the first test is to know what the monster is.  It has the parts of women, the strength and lethality of men, and the ability to fly above the law unscathed like a dragon.  

"What animal with one voice, has 4 legs, then 2 legs, then 3" 

That is the riddle but to solve it, you have to solve it correctly.  What solution will cause the monster to give up and die?  How did one man Oedipus know and explain this answer to the Sphinx.  The answer to the riddle is MAN.  We know this but why was the Sphinx overcome by this man and no other? 

Because, the MAN he talks about is one that as an infant controls himself with 4 legs, then as a child controls himself with 2 legs, and as an adult controls himself with 3 legs.  

See, this means he was unlike other men in that he could control his THREE legs, get it?  And, so exposed, impervious to the wiles of the female parts that controlled the third leg of all those men,  the "monster" of men agreed to disband or leave as monsters or gypsies often do... after their secret is out.