File:Greco-Roman - Gem with Oedipus and the Sphinx - Walters 42465.jpg

Summary[edit]

Gem with Oedipus and the Sphinx   (  )
Artist	Anonymous (Greco-Roman)Unknown author
Title	Gem with Oedipus and the Sphinx
Description	English: The Sphinx (meaning "strangler") was a savage creature with the head of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of a bird, sent by Hera to plague the city of Thebes. Oedipus encountered her at the entrance to the city, where she allowed none to enter or leave until they had correctly answered her question: "What has one name and is four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed?" Oedipus was the first to be able to answer her riddle correctly with his cunning response of "man," who as an infant crawls, in the prime of life walks on two feet, and in old age carries a cane. The episode, likely part of a long oral tradition, is mentioned in Sophocles' "Oedipus the King" (ll. 469 ff.). In this gem, the winged sphinx with a lion's body and a large female head is seated on a high rock on the right. Oedipus faces the monster and raises his left hand to his mouth to address the Sphinx; he holds a sword in his right. He is nude except for sandals and a cloak tied around his neck.
Date	4th century BC date QS:P571,-350-00-00T00:00:00Z/7 (Hellenistic period era QS:P2348,Q428995 )
Medium	green and white agate, set in modern gold ring
Dimensions	Ring height: 1.3 cm (0.5 in); width: 1.1 cm (0.4 in); depth: 1.4 cm (0.5 in) dimensions QS:P2048,1.3U174728 dimensions QS:P2049,1.1U174728 dimensions QS:P5524,1.43U174728 ; Bezel height: 1.2 cm (0.4 in); width: 1 cm (0.3 in) dimensions QS:P2048,1.2U174728 dimensions QS:P2049,1U174728
Collection	Walters Art Museum    Native name Walters Art Museum Location Baltimore, United States of America Coordinates 39° 17′ 48″ N, 76° 36′ 58″ W   Established 1934  Website thewalters.org Authority file : Q210081 VIAF: 128918374 ISNI: 000000040373611X ULAN: 500279110 LCCN: no00096900 GND: 16029354-6 WorldCat institution QS:P195,Q210081
Accession number	42.465
Place of creation	Roman Empire
Object history	Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1913 [mode of acquisition unknown] 1931: bequeathed to Walters Art Museum by Henry Walters
Exhibition history	Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; San Diego Museum Of Art, San Diego; Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA), New York. 2009-2011.
Credit line	Acquired by Henry Walters, 1913
Source	Walters Art Museum: Home page  Info about artwork
Permission (Reusing this file)	This work is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. If you wish to use this content, you do not need to request permission as long as you follow any licensing requirements mentioned on this page. The Wikimedia Foundation has received an e-mail confirming that the copyright holder has approved publication under the terms mentioned on this page. This correspondence has been reviewed by a Volunteer Response Team (VRT) member and stored in our permission archive. The correspondence is available to trusted volunteers as ticket #2012021710000834. If you have questions about the archived correspondence, please use the VRT noticeboard. Ticket link: https://ticket.wikimedia.org/otrs/index.pl?Action=AgentTicketZoom&TicketNumber=2012021710000834 Find other files from the same ticket:

Licensing[edit]

This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the Walters Art Museum as part of a cooperation project. All artworks in the photographs are in public domain due to age. The photographs of two-dimensional objects are also in the public domain. Photographs of three-dimensional objects and all descriptions have been released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License. In the case of the text descriptions, copyright restrictions only apply to longer descriptions which cross the threshold of originality. العربيَّة | English | français | italiano | македонски | русский | sicilianu | +/−

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