Sphinx's Riddle

WAIT A SECOND

When Sphinx asked Oidipous, "What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed," he answered "man, for as a babe he is four-footed, going on four limbs; as an adult he is two-footed; and as an old man he gets besides a third support in a staff."

This is a myth, and so a mystery teaching; therefore, while Oidipous's answer is "correct," it also hides the true answer, which is man's greater life. The one voice is the soul, which reincarnates in many bodies; the four limbs is when the human soul is originally incarnated in beastly lives, living without virtue; the two limbs is when the human soul is as a "normal" human, living the civic virtues; and the three limbs is when the human soul is initiated (cf. Hesiod receiving a laurel-wood staff from the Mousoi and Teiresias receiving a cornel-wood staff from Athene), living the purificatory virtues. Prior to that, the soul isn't individuated (being a part of the undifferentiated group-soul); after that, it isn't strictly human (or, indeed, strictly individual anymore).

I Found Another Osiris

Hyginus, in his De Astronomia, tells us the myths associated with various constellations; in his discussion of the constellation Βοώτης Bootes "ox-driver," tells us the story of Ἰκάριος Ikarios. Evidently, Ikarios was just and pious and so Dionusos taught him how to grow grapes and make wine from them. Once he had mastered this, he loaded up his ox-cart with wine and went around giving wine to the shepherds of Attike. Becoming drunk, they supposed that he had given them poison, and so they killed him and buried his body under a tree. When he never came home, his daughter Ἠριγόνη Erigone "Becoming Spring" worried, and after Ikarios's dog, Μαῖρα Maira "Sparkling," who had traveled with him, came home howling and whining, her worry turned to grief. The dog led her to his master's body, and the poor girl hung herself on the tree under which he was buried, and the dog lied down and died with her. Dionusus, pitying the three unjust deaths, placed them among the stars as the constellations Bootes, Virgo "maiden," and the star Προκύων Prokuon "guide-dog" (woof woof).

This seems to me to be yet-another dim memory of the Osiris myth, with Ikarios being Osiris, Erigone being Isis, and Maira being the dogs who guided Isis to Anoubis (who, in turn, helped her find the pieces of Osiris), making it another argument in favor of my Upuat/Procyon theory.

I think it's interesting that Erigone (= Isis) is the daughter of Ikarios (= Osiris), rather than his wife; this bears similarities to Kore (= Osiris) being the daughter of Demeter (= Isis) or Danae (= Isis) being the daughter of Akrisios (= Seth) and the illicit lover of Proitos (= Osiris). I guess the Egyptians had a high opinion of romantic love, while the Greeks had a high opinion of filial love.