Teiresias /teirisiəs/ also spelled as Tiresias /tairisiəs/ is a renowned figure in Greek mythology who is
known to have gained blind prophecy accidently.
Once Tiresias happened to see a pair
of snakes copulating (mating) on his way to Mount Cyllene. Young
and wayward Tiresias hit upon a mischief and he hit one of the snakes
with a stone resulting the death of female snake. The male snake
cursed him and immediately;
he got transformed into a woman
and spent three hundred years as a passionate woman (some sources claim that he remained a woman for seven ordinary lives and some others seven years only, see the following refence from Metamorphoses 3.316-338).
He saw two serpents intertwined in the green wood… / Raised his staff and struck them apart— / Instantly, became a woman. Seven winters passed / Before he saw the snakes again and reversed the curse.”
One day, by chance, he (woman) came across with another couple of
snakes mating on the way, hit them with a stick and killed the male
snake this time. The female snake cursed him and;
He reverted back to his male form. And for next three hundred years, he lived as a hunky man.
Later on, Zeus (Father of all gods & goddesses) and Hera (Mother of all gods & goddesses) once got quarreled over a disputed point;
‘If the pleasures of love delight the gods so much,’
Asked Zeus, ‘then tell us, Tiresias, does woman
Or man find more delight in that sweet act?’
‘Woman,’ Tiresias answered. ‘Ten times more.’
— Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.316-338 (paraphrased)
Finally, they decided to call for
Tiresias because he had lived as both a man and a woman for an unexpected span of time and had a lot of experience. Teiresias’
answer dazzled Hera;
"Of ten parts, a man enjoys one only; but a woman enjoys the full ten parts in her heart." (Essentially, women experience ten times more pleasure).
She got enraged for having exposed a deep ‘secret’ of women. She cursed him and stuck him blind forever. Zeus could not reverse Hera's curse. However, he compensated Teiresias by granting him the gift of prophesy and extended his life for next seven generations. He also granted him the ability to understand the language of birds and a golden staff (stick) to guide him through his blindness.
He is blind since then and possesses a unique power of prophesy. He has played a role of vital significance in:
Ancient Greek Literature
Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus Rex’, ‘Antigone’ and
‘Oedipus at Colonus’ (5th century BCE)
Euripides' The Bacchae (5th century BCE)
Homer's Odyssey (8th century BCE, Book 11)
Apollodorus' Bibliotheca (2nd century CE)
Roman Literature
Seneca's Oedipus (1st century CE)
Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book 3, 8 CE)
Modernist & Contemporary
Literature
T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922)
A.S. Byatt's Possession (1990)
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