In various definitions, monsters and women appear as incomplete and imperfect beings whose anatomies reveal an unfinished work of nature. Based on this hypothesis, the present article analyzes the Sphinx in the Oedipus myth to inquire into the reasons for the supremacy of the hero over the monster. This supremacy supposes an abstract and universal idealization of man that is contradicted by each being in its concrete and singular existence.
Monster; woman; Sphinx; Édipo; Hegel