what is it that walk 4 legs in the morning 2 in midday and 3 in the evening ?

Question

this question has been given to me at college in france for an exam more than 20 years ago and it is related to mythology .
I've gave this one to some people, well......they still trying to figure it out .

Answer 1

Man. This was the riddle of the Sphinx in the Oedipus myth.

Baby crawls = 4 legs
Man walks = 2 legs
Old man walks with cane = 3 legs

Answer 2

Human, like what everybody else said.
crawls on four legs in the morning (the beginning of life), walks on two in the day (middle of life), and walks on two, with a stick in the evening (the end of life)

There is another part to this one:
what is it that walk 4 legs in the morning 2 at midday, 3 in the evening, and none as the full moon rises?

This is when they are dead, because the ancients believed that the goddess of death stalked the land with particular care during the full moon. (hence the tales of werewolves and vampires etc. all occurring at the full moon.

Answer 3

MAN
he crawls on all 4's as a baby
walks on 2 legs as he's growing up
The 3rd leg is a cane/walking stick used to aid mobility when he get's old.
There was a single Sphinx in Greek mythology, a unique demon of destruction and bad luck, according to Hesiod a daughter of the Chimera and of Orthrus or, according to others, of Typhon and of Echidna— all of these chthonic figures. She was represented in vase-painting and bas-reliefs most often seated upright rather than recumbent, as a winged lion with a woman's head; or she was a woman with the paws, claws and breasts of a lion, a serpent's tail and eagle wings. Hera or Ares sent the Sphinx from her Ethiopian homeland (the Greeks remembered the Sphinx's foreign origin) to Thebes and, in Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus, asks all passersby history's most famous riddle: "Which creature in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" She strangled anyone unable to answer.

Answer 4

The Riddle of the Sphinx

In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat outside of Thebes and asked this riddle of all travelers who passed by. If the traveler failed to solve the riddle, then the Sphinx killed him/her. And if the traveler answered the riddle correctly, then the Sphinx would destroy herself. The riddle:

What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?

Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx destroyed herself.

The solution: A man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age.

Of course morning, noon, and night are metaphors for the times in a man's (person's) life. Such metaphors are common in riddles.There were two Thebes, apparently this Thebes was the one in Greece. And this Sphinx was apparently not the one at Giza, in Egypt.

Answer 5

Known as the Riddle of the Sphinx, the answer is man who, as a child (in the morning of his life) crawls on all fours, as a man (at midday in his life) walks upright on two legs and as an old man (in the evening of his life) walks with the aid of a cane.

Answer 6

The man naturally. Child in four paws in the morning, adult on the two legs at midday, old man with a stick in the evening

Answer 7

This is the riddle set to Oedipus by, I think , the Oracle at Delphi. The answer is Man. A baby crawls on all fours, then walks on two legs, then in old age uses a stick.

Answer 8

Oedipus answered this question from the Sphinx.
It is man.

We crawl on all fours in the morning of our lives.
We walk upright on two legs in the midday (adult) years.
We use a cane to walk on 3 legs in the evening (elderly) years.

It is a great puzzle. My high school students discuss it when we read Antigone in the 10th grade.

Answer 9

Old question, think I heard it on a Thundercats Cartoon. The answer is Human, or Man depending on who you are speaking to. Man begins life ( as a baby ) on all fours. In his prime walks on 2 legs. Then when he's old uses a cane to help him walk.

Answer 10

A human... it's lifetime is represented by a day... morning when you are a baby, midday when you are an adult, and evening when you are old.

a baby crawls on all foursthen learns to walk on two legs. Third legs is really a stick to help you walk.