What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?

Question

--
Question context:
--
8 Century BC Greece, in a small town called Delphi, there was an oracle at the sanctuary of Apollo. Its origins remain unknown but it was a site of pilgrimmage and worship. People would address the oracle with the toughest questions in life and ask for prophecies about the future.
Famously, Oedipus asked the oracle for help in his quest to answer the riddle of the Sphinx that had terrorized the people of Thebes, strangling all who passed by unable to answer its riddle: "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?". Oedipus' answer was: Man, as a baby man crawls on four legs; as an adult, two legs; when old, man uses a cane.
Is Yahoo tapping into the same source of the desire for answers to the mystery of our existence? Beyond Yahoo Answers, who would you normally ask the big questions to?
*
*
By AndrewE @ http://www.writerspace.net

Answer 1

It's amazing how so few people read the whole question.

Oedipus, the poor guy. He screwed himself over... Or was he screwed from the start?

This is a good example of a big question that has been wrestled with since the times of Sophocles, and one we still have no answer to today. We as human beings have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. We want to know everything. As it stands, we don't. The struggle, however, manifests itself in many ways. We see God(s) as an answer, where something tailor-made to fit the questions with the right answer. We see science, struggling through a process of empirical observation to derive knowledge in a repeatable fashion. We have art, literature and music, where the search expresses itself through all manner of manifestations which entice every one of the senses and stretch the imagination. And we also have philosophy, which can be expressed and explored in all of the forms above.

Philosophy is where we ask our big questions. Yahoo! Answers can get philosophical. You find people asking intelligent questions like this, and sometimes you get intelligent people answering. You explore and learn. You learn about different viewpoints from all over the world, even. When I have these same big questions, I most often use literature and philosophy to express my explorations of those. I ask big questions of my friends, as I'm intellectually prejudiced (in other words, I tend to only surround myself with people that I consider to be intelligent) and thus find answers of all kinds of totally different approaches that I enjoy quite thoroughly. I ask my parents and family, as I respect most of their opinions and viewpoints on complex matters. Who cares if we agree? As long as we understand that you can only come up with your own best answer to the unanswerable and keep an open mind, it doesn't matter!

The flaw with Yahoo! Answers is that I'm going to be buried underneath a flood of idiocy by the time I'm done with this.

Answer 2

As you have yourself answered your main Question, by explaining the Oracle of Delphi's story, all I have left to Answer are your two subsidiaries - in the last paragraph, of your 'added details' !
Q 1 : 'Is Yahoo tapping into the same source of the desire for answers to the mystery of our existence ?'
A 1 : In an ancient work of Indian literature, it is defined that the ideal learner is like the 'saaras' bird [a mythical swan] - which, upon being served with milk diluted with water, can separate and drink only the milk, leaving all the water behind !
...I find, that Yahoo! expects all of us to behave like the 'saaras' too !
Q 2 : 'Beyond Yahoo Answers, who would you normally ask the Big Questions to ?'
A 2 : Why, God, of course !
:-))

Answer 3

a person. in the morning of life a baby walks on all fours in the midday of life a perosn uses its 2 legs and in the evening of life a perosn uses a cane to lean on. thus the three legs

Answer 4

Well, since you answered the question, what is there left for us to do? Congratulate you on being so clever? Is this just a writing exercise? If so, this is not the appropriate place for it.

Answer 5

Man.

Answer 6

Any writer worth his salt would know how to spell pilgrimage. And don't patronize folk by answering your own questions!

Answer 7

A monkey

Answer 8

man

Answer 9

man

Answer 10

would i ask the big questions? Heck, I haven't even had posted any question :D