Teiresias

Teiresias (or Tiresias; Τειρεσίας) was the famous blind seer from Thebes. Teiresias was the son of Everes and the nymph Chariclo. On his father's side, Teiresias was the descendant of Udaeus, one of the original Sparti.

There are a couple of versions of how he became blind and how he gained the second sight or prophetic gifts.

According to one version, Teiresias was born with the gift of foretelling. The gods feared that Teiresias would see too much that the gods wished to keep concealed. So the gods took his eyesight, depriving the seer of physical vision.

According to the poem Bath of Pallas by Callimachus, the young Teiresias happened to see Athena bathing by accident. Athena immediately struck Teiresias blind, without thinking. This upset Chariclo, who happened to be Athena's favourite companion. To compensate Teiresias' loss of sight, Athena gave him several gifts.

Athena gave him second sight (the gift of prophecy) and, according to Apollodorus, the ability to understand the speech of birds. He was also awarded an unnaturally long life, which spanned over 7 generations (he lived in the time of Cadmus to the time of the Epigoni). And after his death, he would still have the ability to retain his memory and his second sight, when he would reside in the Underworld.

According to the more popular version by Hesiod and Ovid, the young Teiresias was out in the country at the foot of Mount Cithaeron when he came upon two snakes mating. With his staff, he killed the female snake, which caused him to transform into a young woman. For seven years, he lived his life as a woman. Then he came upon the same snakes and was transformed back into a man.

Zeus and Hera were having an argument over who has the most pleasure in sexual intercourse, a man or a woman. Zeus teased Hera by saying that the woman had more pleasure than a man did. Hera had the opposite view.

To prove their point, they went to see Teiresias, who had sex as a man and a woman. Teiresias told them that a woman had more pleasure during intercourse than a man. Comparing to a scale of ten, woman enjoy sex nine out of ten, compare that of man with one out ten.

When she lost the argument, she had also her temper, so she was swift with her punishment. Hera struck Teiresias blind. Zeus, taking pity on the young blind man, gave Teiresias the gift of second sight and extended his life, longer than most mortals (seven generations from the time of Cadmus to that of the Epigoni).

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During the reign of Pentheus, Cadmus and Teiresias believed that Dionysus, Cadmus' other grandson, was a god and joined in the Dionysiac revelry. Teiresias warned Pentheus of the consequences of opposing the young god. Pentheus ignored his dire warning, resulting in his mother and aunts tearing him apart. (See Pentheus, Children of Cadmus and Dionysus)

Teiresias cleared up the confusion of how Alcmene lost her virginity to Zeus, who was in her husband's form (Amphitryton) and became pregnant with Heracles.

It was during the reign of Oedipus that he revealed that the king had murdered his own father and committed incest by marrying his mother. See Oedipus.

In the war against Argos, Teiresias told Eteocles and Creon that Thebes could only win the war if they sacrificed Menoeceus to the war god Ares. Menoeceus was the son of Creon. Creon refused, but Menoeceus heard of the seer's prophecy and sacrificed himself on Ares' altar, to save Thebes. See Seven Against Thebes.

In Thebes' second war against Argos, when Thebes fell to the sons of seven Argive leaders, Teiresias died while fleeing from the city. See the Epigoni.

According to another source, Teiresias fled to Colophon, a city in Asia Minor, where he died. According to the Nostoi (the "Returns") from the Epic Cycle, after the Trojan War, two Lapith leaders, Polypoetes and Leonteus, along with the seer Calchas, migrated to Colophon and buried Teiresias' body.

Even in death, Teiresias retained his memory and his gift of prophecy. In Homer's Odyssey, at the advice of Circe, Odysseus had to enter the Underworld and speak to the blind seer, Teiresias.

Teiresias told Odysseus why Poseidon persecuted him, and told him how to appease the sea god. Teiresias warned the hero not to eat the Cattle of the sun god Helius on the island of Thrinacia, if he wished to return home. Teiresias also foretold Odysseus' death.

See the Odyssey.

Teiresias had a daughter named Manto who was also a gifted seeress. By the Argive Alcmeon, son of the warrior-seer Amphiaraus, she bore Amphilochus. She had another son named Mopsus, whose father was either Rhacius or the god Apollo.