In 1906, on the day of the fiftieth anniversary of Freud's disciples and closest friends of the founder of psychoanalysis gave him a commemorative medal made by the sculptor Carlo Maria Shortterm. On one side of the medal was the profile of the great teacher. On the other – Oedipus, solving the riddle of the Sphinx. The depicted scene was crowned in Greek written line from the tragedy of Sophocles "King Oedipus": "and riddles and a powerful king." It is said that when Freud read A line from the tragedy of Sophocles when handing him a commemorative medal, he turned pale and was very excited. Learning that the idea of the inscription on the medal belonged to p. Federn, he told his students his long dream. According to his own admission, while studying at the University of Vienna, he often walked in the courtyard, looking at the busts of famous professors, located in the gallery, framing the courtyard, and dreamed someday in the future to see his bust, which would be inscribed exactly the words that he read on the medallion.

Subsequently, the dream of the young Freud came true. In 1921, the sculptor Koenigsberger created a bust of the founder of psychoanalysis. There was a corresponding line from the Sophocles drama on this bust. On February 4, 1955, a solemn ceremony was held to install Freud's bust in the gallery of the courtyard of the University of Vienna. The commemorative medal given to Freud had a deep meaning. She represented the great achievement of the founder of psychoanalysis, who, like Oedipus, was able to solve the riddle of the Sphinx. According to ancient Greek mythology, all passing by her Sphinx asked to solve one puzzle: who walks in the morning on four legs, in the afternoon for two, and in the evening – three? Someone who could not give the correct answer, waiting for a sad fate. The Sphinx ruthlessly dealt with them.
For a long time, no one could give the right answer. Finally, there was one person who did this-Oedipus, who said that it was a person. It is a man in childhood crawling on all fours, in adulthood walks on two legs, and in old age rests on a staff. The commemorative medal was a kind of symbol that captured the feat of Freud, who was able to understand what a person is. It was about the Oedipal complex, which was an important starting point for Freud's understanding of man, because, according to his views, this complex is the basis of the emergence of neuroses, religion, morality and culture.