Young Oedipus has just discovered from the Delphi Oracle that he will kill his father and murder his mother. Naturally upset, he determines not to return home and instead become a Mythic Greek Hero (like Perseus). On the road to Thebes, he is waylaid by a young, attractive "little robber girl" who attempts to rob him. It is The Sphinx! The one he's heard about. He wants to hear her riddle... There is no riddle, says she. She has only one question: "Your money or your life?" She's only dressed the way she is because her merchant victims (the ones who pay up and survive) exaggerate her traits. Her curly auburn hair led them to portray her with a lion's body. Her gymnastic and acrobatic movements made them think she can actually fly... hence, wings. She couldn't get a tail of a lion, so she's settle for a foxtail... Lighten up, it's just fashion. If these two kids didn't have such large and contradictory ambitions, it is quite obvious that they'd fall in love with each other. They certainly flirt a lot. Sorry to say there is a sad ending. But that's the fault of the myth. Not mine. Besides, if Oedipus is going to be greeted in Thebes as the conqueror of the Sphinx, what must be must be. Otherwise? No Sophocles' Oedipus Rex.