Teiresias is a soothsayer or prophet of Greece and was born in Thebes. Teiresias is a famous charcter because he appears in many stories and Greek tragedies concerning the legendary history of Thebes. The stories include Oedipus Rex, Odyssey, Seven Against Thebes, Antigone and Epigoni. Teiresias is a blind prophet and there are different reasons from different traditions that talk about the reason of his blindness: God blinded him because Teiresias at age seven revealed certain things which men ought not to know, he saw goddess Athena taking a bath and thus the goddess threw water at his eyes and blinded him and he was blinded by goddess Hera during Hera’s argument with Zeus. Teiresias was on Zeus side and this causes Hera’s anger and blinded him.
Although Teiresias was blind, he was given the gift of prophecy by God. He can be said as a person who is blind at the physical but have sight in the internal self. In different stories, the prophecy said by Teiresias came true. For instance, in Oedipus Rex, Teiresias revealed to Oedipus that Oedipus was King LaŃ—os, his father’s murderer. Oedipus denied it with anger and quarreled with Teiresias. After some time, it was revealed that indeed he was the murderer. In Seven Against Thebes, Teiresias told Eteocles and Creon that Thebes could only win the war if they sacrifice Menoeceus to the war god Ares. Menoeceus was the son of Creon. Creon refused, but Menoeceus heard of seer's prophecy, sacrificed himself on Ares' altar. Finally, Thebes was saved in the war.
Teiresias is seen as a great prophet because he can prophesy incidents that will happen in the future and has become many people’s references in different tragedy stories which involve death. Teiresias was given the gift of prophecy since young because he has many encounters with different Gods according to different traditional believes. He is an extraordinary person because he is a messenger and mouth piece of God to the people in the nation.
1 comment:
Yes, the origins of Teiresias or the story of the cause of his blindness certainly is fascinating. It is pretty much called as a “belief”, but do you ever wonder if such a person exists? The things that had happened to him such as the sex change, the event where he turn into a woman, seems impossible to modern sciences. I was just wondering about that. Could such a person like Teiresias walk and breathe back then. Exist, I mean. Did Teiresias actually live, just like a normal person perhaps with some talent, then over the years the tale about his feats is exaggerated as it is being hand down from generation to generation? Then, the tales about him become the version of what we/people know today.
Well, come to think of it…that could be possible : )you think?
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