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Tiresias strikes two snakes with a stick, and is transformed into a woman by Hera. Engraving byJohann Ulrich Kraus c. 1690. Taken fromDie Verwandlungen des Ovidii (The Metamorphoses of Ovid).Pietro della Vecchia,Tiresias Transformed into a Woman, 17th century.
Eighteen allusions to mythic Tiresias, noted byLuc 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.[2]
OnMount Cyllene in thePeloponnese,[3][note 1] Tiresias came upon a pair of copulating snakes and hit them with his stick, which displeased goddessHera who punished Tiresias by transforming him into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of Hera, married, and had children, including his daughterManto who also possessed the gift of prophecy.[5] Afterwards, as told by Phlegon, god of prophecyApollo informed Tiresias: if she spots copulating snakes and similarly harms them, she will return to her previous form. After seven years as a woman,[note 2] Tiresias found mating snakes; depending on the myth, she either made sure to leave the snakes alone this time, or, according toHyginus and Phlegon, trampled them. In both outcomes, Tiresias was released from the sentence and changed back to a man.[note 3][4][6][3][7]
According toEustathius, 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 theMuses, until finallyAphrodite turned him into a woman again and then into a mouse.[8]
The mythographic compendiumBibliotheke, 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". WhilePherecydes andCallimachus' fifth hymn,The Baths of Pallas, provided a different story—"the youthful Tiresias" was blinded byAthena after he came to sate his thirst at the bubbling spring, where Athena and her favourite attendant, the nymphChariclo (mother of Tiresias) were enjoying a "cool plunge in the fair-flowing spring ofHippocrene onMount 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 ofaugury), and granted him a staff of cornel-wood, "wherewith he walked like those who see".[4][note 4] In the version retold byCallimachus, 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.[9][note 5]
On another account behind Tiresias' blindness and his gift,[note 6] he was drawn into an argument between goddessHera and her husbandZeus, 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 offoresight[note 7] and a lifespan of "seven ordinary lives".[4]
Like otheroracles, the circumstances in which Tiresias received his prophecies varied. Sometimes he would receive visions, listen for the songs of birds, or burn offerings or entrails, interpreting prophecies through pictures that appeared in the smoke.Pliny the Elder credited Tiresias with the invention ofaugury.[10] JournalistWilliam 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".[11][note 8]
InOvid'sMetamorphoses, Tiresias' "fame of prophecy was spread through all the cities ofAonia", and nymphLiriope was the first to request his prophecy, asking him about the future of her sonNarcissus. 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 andGreek tragedies concerning the legendary history ofThebes.
InEuripides'sThe Bacchae, Tiresias andCadmus, the founder and former king of Thebes, joinedthe ritual festivities ofDionysus in the mountains near Thebes. Cadmus' petulant young grandsonPentheus, 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.[12]
InSophocles'Oedipus Rex, the city of Thebes was struck by a plague of infertility, affecting crops, livestock, and the people. KingOedipus asserted that he would end the pestilence. He sentCreon, the brother of his consort, to the Oracle atDelphi, seeking guidance. When Creon returned, Oedipus learned that the tragic death of the previous kingLaius 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, andJocasta 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 nephewPolynices 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 theChorus, terrified, asked Creon to take Tiresias' advice to free Antigone and bury Polynices. Creon assented, leaving with a retinue of men.
According toHyginus andStatius, during the reign ofEteocles, the son of Oedipus, the city of Thebes has been attacked bySeven against Thebes and laid siege to the city. Tiresias foretold that if anyone from theSpartoiperish freely as sacrifice toAres, Thebes would be freed from disaster. Creon's sonMenoeceus committed suicide by throwing himself from the walls, and Thebes ultimately emerged victorious.[13][4]
Tiresias died after drinking water from the tainted springTilphussa, where he was impaled by an arrow of Apollo.[14][15] As claimed byPausanias, the tomb of Tiresias was "ordinarily pointed out in the vicinity" of the Tilphusan Well nearThebes, Greece, while Pliny the Elder wrote that his burial site was located inMacedonia, marked with a monument.[10]
His shade descended to theAsphodel Meadows, the first level ofHades.Persephone allowed Tiresias to retain his powers of clairvoyance after death.[16]
After his death, the spirit of Tiresias was summoned from the underworld byOdysseus' 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 sacredlivestock of Helios on the island ofThrinacia 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.[17]
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 historianMarina 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; evenOdysseus' own mother cannot accomplish this, but must drink deep before her ghost can see her son for himself."[16]
As a seer, "Tiresias" was "a common title for soothsayers throughout Greek legendary history".[18] InGreek literature, Tiresias' pronouncements are always given in short maxims which are often cryptic (gnomic), but never wrong. Often when his name is attached to a mythic prophecy, it is introduced simply to supply a personality to the generic example of a seer, not by any inherent connection of Tiresias with the myth: thus it is Tiresias who tellsAmphitryon of Zeus and Alcmena and warns the mother ofNarcissus that the boy will thrive as long as he neverknows himself. This is his emblematic role intragedy. Like mostoracles, he is generally extremely reluctant to offer the whole of what he sees in his visions.[citation needed]
Tiresias is presented as a complexliminal figure, mediating between humankind and the gods, male and female, blind and seeing, present and future, this world and theUnderworld.[note 9]
The figure of Tiresias has been much invoked by fiction writers and poets. At the climax ofLucian of Samosata'sNecyomantia, Tiresias inHades is asked "what is the best way of life?" to which he responds, "the life of the ordinary guy: forget philosophers and their metaphysics."[20]
Tiresias appears in Dante'sInferno, in Canto XX, among the soothsayers in the Fourth Bolgia of the Eighth Circle, where augurs are punished by having their heads turned backwards; since they claimed to see the future in life, in the afterlife they are denied any forward vision.
"Tiresias" the poem byAlfred, Lord Tennyson, narrated by the persona Tiresias himself, incorporates the notion that his prophecies, though always true, are generally not believed.[24]
Tiresias is featured inT. S. Eliot's poemThe Waste Land (Section III, The Fire Sermon) and in a note Eliot states that Tiresias is "the most important personage in the poem, uniting all the rest."[25]
Tiresias appears in Three Cantos III (1917) and cantos I and 47 in the long poemThe Cantos byEzra Pound.[26][27]
"The Cinema Show", a song by the British progressive rock bandGenesis from the 1973 albumSelling England by the Pound refers to Tiresias's sex change experience: "I have crossed between the poles, for me there's no mystery. Once a man, like the sea I raged, once a woman, like the earth I gave".
"Castle Walls", a song by American progressive rock bandStyx on their 1977 albumThe Grand Illusion, makes reference to Tiresias in the refrain "Far beyond these castle walls; Where I thought I heard Tiresias say; Life is never what it seems; And every man must meet his destiny".
Carol Ann Duffy'sThe World's Wife includes the poem "from Mrs Tiresias" which narrates the experience of Tiresias's wife after his transformation.[33]
Tiresias appears inEpic: The Musical, a musical created by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, in which he lives in theunderworld and tellsOdysseus that he won’t come out of his journey unchanged. His main feature is in the song “No Longer You”.[34]
^At the account of Eustathius and Tzetzes, "it was by killing the female snake that Tiresias became a woman, and it was by afterwards killing the male snake that he was changed back into a man."
^abcdePseudo-Apollodorus (1921). "Chapter III, sections 6.7 and 7".Apollodorus in 2 Volumes. Translated byFrazer, James George. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd.
^Brockett, Oscar G.; Hildy, Franklin J. (2003).History of the Theatre. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. p. 439.ISBN978-0-205-35878-6.
^Banham, Martin (1998).The Cambridge Guide to Theatre (revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1043.
^Bermel, Albert (July 1974). "Apollinaire's Male Heroine".Twentieth Century Literature.20 (3):172–182.
^Pearsall, Cornelia (2007).Tennyson's Rapture: Transformation in the Victorian Dramatic Monologue. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 303–306.ISBN978-1-4356-3046-8.
Brisson, Luc (1976).Le mythe de Tirésias: essai d'analyse structurale—Structural analysis by a follower ofClaude Lévi-Strauss and a repertory of literary references and works of art in an iconographical supplement. (Leiden:Brill).
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