Oedipus and the Sphinx

Reproduction print of Oedipus and the Sphinx by Ingres. The story of Oedipus and the Sphinx, a winged monster with the body of a lion and the head of a woman, is used by Freud to demonstrate his psychoanalytic theories. Oedipus was the tragic hero of Greek myth who killed his father and married his mother. In this story, to rescue the people of Thebes from the terror of the Sphinx's rule, Oedipus had to answer its riddle, which he did.

This framed image, a reproduction of Ingres' work, hangs on the wall of Freud's study.