Eighteen allusions to mythic Tiresias, noted by
Luc Brisson, fall into three groups: the first recounts Tiresias' sex-change episode and later his encounter with Zeus and Hera; the second group recounts his blinding by Athena; the third, all but lost, seems to have recounted the misadventures of Tiresias.
Sex-change On
Mount Cyllene in the
Peloponnese, According to
Eustathius, Tiresias was originally a woman who promised Apollo her favours in exchange for musical lessons, only to reject him afterwards. She was turned by Apollo into a man, then again a woman under unclear circumstances, then a man by the offended Hera, then into a woman by Zeus. She became a man once again after an encounter with the
Muses, until finally
Aphrodite turned him into a woman again and then into a mouse.
Blindness and gift of prophecy The mythographic compendium
Bibliotheke, lists different stories about the possible cause of Tiresias' blindness. One legend says he was "blinded by the gods because he revealed their secrets to men". While
Pherecydes and
Callimachus' fifth hymn,
The Baths of Pallas, provided a different story—"the youthful Tiresias" was blinded by
Athena after he came to sate his thirst at the bubbling spring, where Athena and her favourite attendant, the nymph
Chariclo (mother of Tiresias) were enjoying a "cool plunge in the fair-flowing spring of
Hippocrene on
Mount Helicon". Pherecydes, in particular, finishes the story with Tiresias' mother Chariclo begging Athena to undo the curse, but she "could not do so". Instead, Athena "cleansed his ears", giving him the ability to understand birdsong (gift of
augury), and granted him a staff of cornel-wood, "wherewith he walked like those who see". In the version retold by
Callimachus, Athena cried out in anger at the sight of Tiresias, and his eyes were "quenched in darkness". After Chariclo "reproached the goddess with blinding her son, Athena explained that she had not done so, but that the laws of the gods inflicted the penalty of blindness on anyone who beheld an immortal without his or her consent." To give Tiresias solace in his grief, Athena "promised to bestow on him the gifts of prophecy and divination, long life, and after death the retention of his mental powers undimmed" by the underworld. On another account behind Tiresias' blindness and his gift, he was drawn into an argument between goddess
Hera and her husband
Zeus, arguing whether "the pleasures of love are felt more by women or by men", with Hera taking the side of men, Zeus putting himself in opposition, and Tiresias making the final judgement as someone who had experienced both pleasures. Tiresias said, "Of ten parts a man enjoys one only; But a woman enjoys the full ten parts in her heart". Hera struck him blind, but Zeus, in recompense, gave Tiresias the gift of
foresight and a lifespan of "seven ordinary lives". Journalist
William Godwin highlighted the communications with the dead as his most valuable way to tell a prophecy, constraining the dead "to appear and answer his inquiries".
Other myths In
Ovid's
Metamorphoses, Tiresias' "fame of prophecy was spread through all the cities of
Aonia", and nymph
Liriope was the first to request his prophecy, asking him about the future of her son
Narcissus. Tiresias predicted that the boy would live a long life only if he never "came to know himself". Tiresias has been a recurring character in stories and
Greek tragedies concerning the legendary history of
Thebes. • In
Euripides's
The Bacchae, Tiresias and
Cadmus, the founder and former king of Thebes, joined
the ritual festivities of
Dionysus in the mountains near Thebes. Cadmus' petulant young grandson
Pentheus, the current king, observed the scene, disgusted to find the two old men in festival dress, he scolded them and ordered his soldiers to arrest anyone engaging in Dionysian worship. • In
Sophocles'
Oedipus Rex, the city of Thebes was struck by a plague of infertility, affecting crops, livestock, and the people. King
Oedipus asserted that he would end the pestilence. He sent
Creon, the brother of his consort, to the Oracle at
Delphi, seeking guidance. When Creon returned, Oedipus learned that the tragic death of the previous king
Laius brought the plague, and his murder must be brought to justice to save the city. Creon also suggested that they try to find Tiresias, who was widely respected. Oedipus sent for Tiresias, and Tiresias admitted to knowing the answers to Oedipus' questions, but he refused to speak, instead telling Oedipus to abandon his search. Angered by the seer's reply, Oedipus accused him of complicity in Laius' murder, which offended Tiresias. Tiresias revealed to the king that "you yourself are the criminal you seek". Oedipus did not understand how this could be, and supposed that Creon must have paid Tiresias to accuse him. The two argued vehemently, and
Jocasta entered and tried to calm Oedipus by telling him the story of her first-born son and his supposed death. Oedipus became nervous as he realized that he may have murdered Laius and so brought about the plague. The prophet left. • In Sophocles'
Antigone, Creon, now king of Thebes, refused to allow the burial of Creon's nephew
Polynices and decreed to bury alive his niece,
Antigone, for defying the order. Tiresias warned him that Polynices should be urgently buried because the gods were displeased, refusing to accept any sacrifices or prayers from Thebes. However, Creon accused Tiresias of being corrupt. Tiresias responded that Creon would lose "a son of [his] own loins" for the crimes of leaving Polynices unburied and putting Antigone into the earth. Tiresias also prophesied that all of Greece would despise Creon and that the sacrificial offerings of Thebes would not be accepted by the gods. The leader of the
Chorus, terrified, asked Creon to take Tiresias' advice to free Antigone and bury Polynices. Creon assented, leaving with a retinue of men. • According to
Hyginus and
Statius, during the reign of
Eteocles, the son of Oedipus, the city of Thebes has been attacked by
Seven against Thebes and laid siege to the city. Tiresias foretold that if anyone from the
Spartoi perish freely as sacrifice to
Ares, Thebes would be freed from disaster. Creon's son
Menoeceus committed suicide by throwing himself from the walls, and Thebes ultimately emerged victorious. As claimed by
Pausanias, the tomb of Tiresias was "ordinarily pointed out in the vicinity" of the Tilphusan Well near
Thebes, Greece, while Pliny the Elder wrote that his burial site was located in
Macedonia, marked with a monument. After his death, the spirit of Tiresias was summoned from the underworld by
Odysseus' sacrificial offering of a black sheep. Tiresias told Odysseus that he could return home if he was able to stay himself and his crew from eating the sacred
livestock of Helios on the island of
Thrinacia and that failure to do so would result in the loss of his ship and his entire crew. Odysseus' men, however, did not follow the advice and were killed by Zeus' thunderbolts during a storm. The souls inhabiting the underworld were usually required to drink the blood to become conscious again, but Tiresias was able to see Odysseus without drinking the blood. According to historian
Marina Warner, it meant Tiresias remained sentient even in death—"he comes up to Odysseus and recognizes him and calls him by name before he has drunk the black blood of the sacrifice; even
Odysseus' own mother cannot accomplish this, but must drink deep before her ghost can see her son for herself." ==Analysis==