Tiresias was perhaps the most famous of all the ancient Greek seers. Son of Everes and Chariclo, he lived seven generations, from the days of Cadmus to the time of Oedipus and his sons. He was blinded by Athena or Hera for having seen the former naked or offended the latter goddess by siding with Zeus in a marital dispute.
However, his punishment came with subsequent rewards: the gifts of foresight and long life. Furthermore, Tiresias was the only one who retained his prophetic powers even in the underworld, where he was visited by Odysseus and gave him numerous important pieces of advice.
Who was Tiresias?
In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a well-known prophet of Apollo. He was the son of a shepherd named Everes and a nymph named Chariclo. He lived in Thebes and played an active role in several myths, one of which concerned the tragic events surrounding the kings of Thebes, including Laius and Oedipus. It is rumored that he lived for seven generations and finally died after the expedition of the Seven Against Thebes.
Family of Tiresias
Through his father, Everes, Teiresias was a descendant of Udaeus, one of the five men sown in Thebes (the Spartoi); Teiresias’ mother, on the other hand, was a nymph named Chariclo, a devoted servant of Athena. In fact, she was her favorite: at least according to a surviving account, the fifth hymn of Callimachus, Athena loved Chariclo “to distraction, loved her more than any other… and they were always together.”
Appearance
Tiresias is depicted in various ways in artistic representations. Some show him as a man, while others as a woman. In some, he still has his sight, while in others he is blind. Many show him using his prophetic abilities. Other artistic works show him slaying the snakes that led him to experience life as a member of the opposite sex.
Tiresias can be described as a wise-looking man who was unfortunately not taken seriously by many, despite having the true gift of prophecy. His physical description includes a long beard and lifeless eyes, representing his blindness. Although he could not see the literal world around him, he could see the future.
Origins
Tiresias is mentioned in several mythological works, including Homer’s The Odyssey. It is in this written work that his prophetic gifts are preserved in the Underworld and he is consulted by Odysseus. He is also mentioned by several other authors, including Pindar, Sophocles, Ovid, and Euripides.
Myths and legends
There are two main myths commonly associated with Tiresias. Both have to do with alterations to his physical being that would shape his prophetic future.
Hera’s punishment – Tiresias turned into a woman
When Tiresias was young, he came across two snakes mating on Mount Cyllene. For some reason, he struck the snakes and killed both or one, depending on the version of the myth. Hera punished him for his actions and turned him into a woman. While Tiresias was a woman, he served as a priestess for Hera. This duty lasted seven years, and he even married and had children.
After seven years, he came across another pair of snakes. Remembering the action that had caused his current fate, he left the snakes alone. This reversed the curse, and Tiresias became a man once again.
Athena’s Punishment – Tiresias’ Blindness
Tiresias was a blind prophet. However, he was not born blind. This came about when he stumbled upon the goddess Athena while she was bathing in a lake. He found himself unable to look away from her nakedness and was blinded by her as punishment. Tiresias’ mother begged the goddess to undo the curse, and after enough persuasion, Athena agreed. But when she tried to restore his sight, she was unable to do so. To make up for what she had done to Tiresias, she gave him the gift of prophecy. This would set his life on a new course.
There is an alternative story regarding the events that cause the prophet’s blindness. The second version says that Zeus and Hera were arguing about whether men or women experienced more pleasure during sex. Hera said it was the male, while Zeus said it was the female. They consulted Tiresias, as he had been both a man and a woman. Tiresias said that the answer was definitely the female. Hera was enraged and blinded him. Zeus, in an effort to thank him for his support, gave him the ability to see the future.
Tiresias in Thebes
Tiresias was from Thebes, the great Greek city. Many of his prophetic tales surround him and those around him in the great city. The first tale says that he appeared with Cadmus, who was the first king of Thebes and its founder, and warned King Pentheus about the denunciation of Dionysus as a god. Both Tiresias and Cadmus dressed as worshippers of Dionysus and went to the mountain to honor him.
In Oedipus Rex, the new king of Thebes, Oedipus, consults Tiresias about the investigation into the death of the previous king. When first summoned, Tiresias refused to give Oedipus a direct answer. Instead, he gave the king clues. He told him that the murderer was someone the king would rather not discover. Oedipus angered Tiresias by telling him that his hints were just a way of covering up the fact that he could not actually see the future. Oedipus threw Tiresias out of his palace, but eventually discovered the truth and realized that the prophet had been right.
Tiresias had another hand in the role of another king of Thebes. Oedipus finally left the city to be ruled by his sons. But they refused to share the throne, and eventually fought each other to the death. Megaeus approached Tiresias for help, but was told that what the city needed was the voluntary death of a Theban. Megaeus committed suicide to save the city of Thebes.
The Prophecies of Tiresias
Tiresias lived through seven different generations, and many of the great Thebans were blessed with the privilege of consulting him; unfortunately, not all of them believed him or took him seriously.
The First Prophecies of Tiresias – Narcissus and Amphitryon
It seems that Tiresias first became famous as a seer when he told Narcissus that he was destined to live a long life, so that he would not “come to know himself.” According to the story, Narcissus once saw his reflection in a spring and fell in love with himself, an event that led to his eventual demise. Tiresias’ prophecy was fulfilled. On the other hand, this is what all of Teiresias’ prophecies looked like: brief, enigmatic, accurate, and usually with a potentially redemptive stipulation.
Once Tiresias secured his reputation in the case of Narcissus, people from all over Greece began to visit him to find a solution to their problems. One of them was the utterly confused Amphitryon, whose wife Alcmene did not seem at all welcoming to him upon his return from the war against the Taphians; moreover, she insisted that he had in fact returned a day earlier and that they had already slept together the night before.
Amphitryon went to Tiresias to find out if Alcmene was lying to him, and the seer quickly cleared everything up: it was Zeus, disguised as him, who had slept with Alcmene the night before Amphitryon returned. Now, we don’t know if Amphitryon felt better after discovering the truth, but we do know that there was nothing he could do about it.
Tiresias’ late prophecies – Oedipus and Creon
If Oedipus had believed a little more in the words of Tiresias, he would have learned of his terrible deeds in a much less dramatic way. However, too angry to heed the old seer, he realizes too late that, although blind, Tiresias could see more than he could from the beginning; and that he himself, though sighted, had been blind for most of his life. The irony is complete when Oedipus gouges out his own eyes.
Having witnessed them, Creon, Oedipus’ successor to the throne of Thebes, should have learned a lesson or two from these events. Unfortunately, he did not, and decided to throw Antigone in prison despite Tiresias’ warnings that this could cause much pain and weeping in his house.
Creon recanted his decision after a while, but it was too late: when he released Antigone, she had already committed suicide, an act committed, in the brief period of time, by both his son (Antigone’s lover) and his wife.
The death of Tiresias
Apollo killed Tiresias with an arrow at Tilphussa, a stained spring. His soul immediately entered the first level of Hades. He was then visited by Odysseus, who advised him on how to continue his journey to Ithaca, for example, how to pass Charybdis and Scylla.
Symbolism
The prophet is often associated with snakes, as they were the ones who changed his future. He is also linked to his gift of prophecy and his long life. He is often portrayed with a staff, which symbolizes both his blindness and his power.
Culture
Although not the most famous figure in Greek mythology, Tiresias has had a profound impact on various pop culture productions and works of art.
He appears in The Waste Land, a poem by T.S. Eliot. He also lends his name to a choreographed ballet that premiered at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden in July 1951. Angela Carter’s novel The Passion of the New Eve was a modern parody of the myth surrounding the famous prophet. Another novel, Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, is similar in nature.
