Sphinx Myth In The Grey King
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The excerpt from The Grey King, by Susan Cooper could be considered a modern retelling of the Sphinx myth because Will is a modern hero version of Oedipus and in the stories they both have to solve a riddle in order to get what they want. In the first passage, Oedipus and the Sphinx, adapted by Alice Denbrough, the Sphinx states that the hero may not enter Thebes “without first answering my riddle.” The same thing happens to Will, another hero in a story, when the three hooded figures tell the boy he has to “answer the three riddles as the law demands,” in order to get the harp that will help him on his journey. Amazingly, both main characters were able to guess the riddles right, and both were rewarded, with Oedipus having entrance to Thebes,