Sphinx

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In Canto XXXIII of the Purgatorio Dante, speaking through the voice of his beloved father figure, compares his own enigmatic speech to that of Themis and the Sphinx, figures from classical mythology famous for their oracles and riddles. According to the authorized note to verse 48, the expression 'men ti persuade' indicates precisely what appears unpersuasive because, in the manner of Themis and the Sphinx, it darkens the intellect. The note to verse 49 clarifies that within the riddle posed by the Sphinx is inserted the reference to the 'facts as solvers,' and explains that it was Oedipus, son of Laius, who solved the Sphinx's riddle, thereby forcing her to death, according to the myth narrated by Ovid in the Metamorphoses (VII 759 ff.) and by Statius in the Thebaid (I 66-7). The Sphinx thus appears only as a rhetorical term of comparison and not as a figure placed in any specific location of Dante's journey.