What I Have Discovered About Tiresias

What I Have Discovered About Tiresias.

In fact, his prophecy led to the tragedy of Oedipus. It was said that Tiresias lived for seven generations and that he was once turned into a woman for killing the female of two mating snakes; upon thereafter killing the male, he reverted to male. According to one legend, he was blinded by Hera for arguing, on the basis of his unique experience, that women derive greater pleasure from sex than men do; his gift of prophecy was a compensatory gesture from Zeus.

In classical mythology, the blind prophet who revealed the truth of the crimes of Oedipus. In Greek mythology, Tiresias (also transliterated as Teiresias) was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo; Tiresias participated in fully seven generations at Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus himself.

In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Oedipus, the king of Thebes, calls upon Tiresias to aid in the investigation of the killing of the previous king Laius. At first, Tiresias refuses to give a direct answer and instead hints that the killer is someone Oedipus really does not wish to find. However, after being provoked to anger by Oedipus' accusation first that he has no foresight and then that Tiresias had had a hand in the murder, he reveals that in fact it was Oedipus himself who had (unwittingly) committed the crime. Outraged, Oedipus throws him out of the palace, but then afterwards realises the truth.

Oedipus had handed over the rule of Thebes to his sons Eteocles and Polynices but Eteocles refused to share the throne with his brother. Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes recounts the story of the war which followed. In it, Eteocles and Polynices kill each other, and Megareus kills himself because of Tiresias' prophecy that a voluntary death from a Theban would save the city.

Tiresias also appears in Sophocles' Antigone. Creon, now king of Thebes, refuses to allow Polynices to be buried. His niece, Antigone, defies the order and is caught; Creon decrees that she is to be buried alive. The gods express their disapproval of Creon's decision through Tiresias. However, Antigone has already hanged herself rather than be buried alive. When Creon arrives at the tomb where she is to be interred, his son, Haemon who was betrothed to Antigone, attacks Creon and then kills himself. When Creon's wife, Eurydice, is informed of her son and Antigone's deaths, she too takes her own life.

All in all, Tiresias has a great influence in the rule of country, Thebes as he has a prophecy. Whatever he said will be listened and will been made as guidance for the King whenever they want to make important decision. In other words, the success and failure of Thebes is on Tiresias’s hand.

References:1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiresias

2) www.answers.com/Tiresias