As I was reading one of the greatest plays of Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, I came across with the character called Teiresias. When Dr.Edwin explained briefly regarding the characteristics to us, I was enticed to find more about Teiresias. Teiresias was born in Thebes, Greece to Eueres and Chariclo. They were said to be the descendents of Udaeus of Sparti. Teiresias is blind according to myth. There are many reasons or stories regarding to his blindness. There was one which says that the Greek gods blinded him at the age of seven because he revealed certain facts and knowledge that men are not supposed to know.
According to another myth, it is said that Teiresias was blinded by the Goddess Athena after he saw her taking a bath. Athena threw water into his eyes and therefore blinded him. His mother pleaded with her to get back Teiresias’s eye sight, but Athena was unable to do so. So, instead of eyesight, Athena gave him a staff which gave him the gift of walking with vision. He also got the gift of prophecy as well as understanding the language of birds as compensation.
Another tradition says that one day, while Teiresias was having a walk one day, he came across snakes mating, and he killed the female snake with his staff. Since then, he was transformed into a woman. Myth says that he was a famous prostitute during those seven years. After those seven years, he again came across snakes mating and this time around he managed to kill the male snake with his staff. Thus, he was turned into a male once more.One day, Zeus and Hera were having an argument about which sex enjoys intercourse most. Zeus said it was the women who enjoyed more while Hera says men enjoyed more. To settle their disagreement, they called upon Teiresias since he had the weird experience of being both man and woman. He agreed with Zeus claiming that woman enjoyed much more pleasure from sexual intercourse. Therefore, Hera was extremely mad at Teiresias for having said so. She turned him blind. This was another version of how Teiresias got blind. Zeus gave him the gift of inner sight which is wisdom and the ability to see the future and also extended his life span to seven generations.
Basically, these are the different versions of myths regarding Teiresias. It indirectly aroused my interest in reading this play.
Hype krish…
ReplyDeleteFrom reading your blog, I realize that Teiresias was a man that makes us wonder who he was. Even though he was blind, there were lots of controversies happen to this guy regarding to his blindness. I keep on wonder who was Teiresias at the first place. Is he a good man or a bad man? One the myth that you mention in your blog said that he was blind because he saw one of the famous Goddess Athena took her bath. In my opinion he was one unlucky man because when Goddess Athena saw him, she quickly splash water into his eyes that has caused him to be blind. From your blog also knew that Goddess Athena has given him the staff so that he could walk with the vision. Different myth told me different thing about the reason how Teiresias on how he become blind. What a funny and mysterious plus some unlucky guy in this world. One thing for sure and I agree with you was that the character Teiresias itself was very interesting and make me enjoyed learning this play..