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The Riddle of the Sphinx is a riddle taken from Greek mythology, which Oedipus solved.

The Sphinx was a monster with a woman’s head from the waist up, and a lion’s body from the waist down, who stood at the entrance to Thebes and asked any passerby to solve her riddle. Whoever did not manage to solve the riddle, the Sphinx would squeeze him to death… hence the name: sphigo (σφίγκω) = I tighten up.

The enigma of the Sphinx

According to the Oedipus myth, the riddle of the Sphinx is as follows:

“Which being in the morning stands on four, at noon stands on two, and at night stands on three?”

Oedipus saved the Thebans by answering her question correctly.

The second riddle of the Sphinx

 According to another tradition, the Sphinx also told a Second Riddle to Oedipus:

“There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and, in turn, the second gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?’

Oedipus answered her correctly too, making the Sphinx fall into the sea and break into a thousand pieces…

At a crossroads in Thebes, before meeting the sphinx, after an intense argument he kills King Laius, not knowing that he was his father, and after the monster’s victory he is proclaimed king of Thebes, by the temporary king of the city, Creon, and married Jocasta, widow of Laius, not knowing that his new wife was also his mother!

Solutions

The answer given by Oedipus to the first question is that this being is none other than man himself, who at the dawn of his life crawls on all fours, when he is an adult, he walks on his two legs, while at the end of his life he walks on three, since an old man who leans on a cane to help him walk…

The answer given by Oedipus to the second question is that the two sisters are nothing more than day and night, eternally alternating with each other.

In the photo below from the Acropolis Museum, the sphinx is depicted in marble.

A safe maker called Harry Houdini so he could unlock a safe he had built. Before accepting the challenge, he checked the safe and found that it could not be opened from the outside, it was tamper-proof. Nevertheless, he accepted and won the challenge… How did he do it?

Solution:

Houdini found that it was impregnable to anyone who attempted to open it from the outside, so he ordered that he be locked inside, who could easily open it because the inside was not as impregnable, but easy to open.

The above event did really happen!

The following drawing was drawn for the Athens Academy of Magicians, where I am a member…

the Academy’s website is: https://www.kristofer.gr/english/index.html

When Christopher Columbus returned from America, at the dinner given in his honor by Queen Isabella, it is said that someone at the table stated: “You have done nothing great, anyone could have made this voyage.” Then Columbus took a boiled egg and challenged the bystanders to try to stand the egg upright… no one succeeded. So, he showed them a very simple way to stand it up… a solution that was so simple, that since then, when there is a problem that seems very difficult, but its solution is very simple, we say that this problem is like Columbus’ egg. So, he turned to the one who insulted him in the first place and said: “Everyone could set the egg upright, but I thought of it first!!!”. What was his solution? Columbus simply hit the egg hard on the table, breaking it!

(Another version, according to the painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, the Italian architect Filippo Brunelleschi had designed a very heavy and large dome for Santa Maria del Fiore, a cathedral in Florence, Italy. As with Columbus, he used the same trick when asked to reveal the plans for the dome, because it would be “impossible” for a such construction and he refused to reveal them. When they all failed to stand the boiled egg upright, he broke it and set it on the marble, telling them that what you think is “impossible”, is very easy if you know the way. That’s how he got the assignment of the project…)

A magician managed to “magically” make a boiled egg stand upright without using Columbus’ solution… Read the answers to find out how:

1. The Magician had simply hidden a toothpick under the tablecloth, and touching the tablecloth, he would touch the boiled egg to it and the spectators were amazed and puzzled to see the egg standing upright!
2. The Magician already has the boiled egg ready to stand on the table without a tablecloth!
   Preparation: we pour some salt on the table and fix the egg on it. Then we blow the salt, and it seems to fix itself upright! The rest of the salt under the egg is not visible, so now we can invite the viewers to the room with the egg and the table and surprise them.

Palindromic text, is the inscription that is read the same from left to right as well as right to left. The best-known  Palindromic inscription is the following:

“ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ”

This inscription was originally written on the fountain of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople but no longer survives. It means to wash away your sins, not just your face. Today, some Greek monasteries have copied the inscription on their own fountain in their courtyard…

In ancient Greece, their writings used only capital letters and did not leave spaces between words. Thus, in some monasteries the above inscription is:

“ΝΙΨΟΝΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑΜΗΜΟΝΑΝΟΨΙΝ”

We do not know with certainty which of the two forms it was written in Hagia Sophia. Such inscriptions have been written by Byzantine, but also by Latin monks. The Romans have also written cancer inscriptions, such as this one:

“In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni”

It means: We enter the night and are consumed by fire (referring to insects that fall into the fire at night).

In Greece, during the period of the “Τριωδίο” (Triodio), about a month and a half before the Greek Easter, there is a custom for children and adults to dress up in various costumes. This custom is something like Halloween and is called “Απόκριες” (apocries). Also during the same period there is a custom in some regions of Greece, some men to dress up in monstrous costumes, bells and with fake phalluses in the middle and tease the women they meet. In some of them, the women are told to solve riddles like like the ones below to let them go on their way. The custom varies from region to region and it is very likely that it originates from ancient festivals in honor of the god Dionysus (and earlier it may have come from various gods of the angularity of the earth). The costumes with the phalluses may represent the satyrs, who were monstrous followers of the god.

I have added the solutions to avoid inappropriate comments in the process of solving them.

1. It’s something the Pope has, but doesn’t use. Your father has it but your mother uses it too. Something nuns don’t need. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s is big, while James Fox’s is rather small. What is it?  – their last names
2. I show it to you and you get scared, I put it inside you and it hurts, I take it off and it has spilled, and yet it has benefited you! What am I? – an injection
3. I put him dry in the hole and take it out wet! What am I? – a bucket and a well
4. I put it in stretched, I take it out wrinkled! What am I? – a sock

If you ever go to the Greek island of Samos, don’t forget to buy the Pythagorean cup from one of the many gift shops.

This cup was an invention of Pythagoras, so that the wine would not be drunk without measure at the conferences that the ancient Greeks made in 530 b.c.

If you want to see how it works and learn more, watch my youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm6lbI337lE