Still they have a slim chance, provided that when they land on the island of Thrinacia he and his men don't eat the cattle of the sun god Helios. Quaking with anger at you still, still enragedīecause you blinded the Cyclops, his dear son. You will never escape the one who shakes the earth, The news isn't good:Ī sweet smooth journey home, renowned Odysseus,īut a god will make it hard for you-I know. Oedipus can see but is blind to what he did-and when he sees it he blinds himself.Īt this point in the Odyssey, Tiresias will tell its hero what lies ahead and what he must do if he is to make it home. The parallelism between the two is striking: Tiresias is blind but sees what is happening. The confrontation between the two is the focal point of Sophocles' great tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus. In the myth of Oedipus, Tiresias is summoned by that tyrant to explain the source of a mysterious plague ravaging Thebes, which was actually caused by the Oedipus himself who inadvertently killed his father and married his mother. (Important safety tip: if you are ever called upon to resolve a dispute between Olympian gods, decline the honor.) Zeus couldn't do anything about that but did give him foresight. (Zeus said women did and Hera vice versa.) When he basically answered that women get 9/10s of the pleasure, Hera struck him blind as punishment. Note: while El Cabrero is opposed to whacking snakes, let it be noted that it didn't take much to tick Hera off.Īfter changing back into a man, he was called upon by Zeus and Hera to settle an argument over whether males or females enjoyed sex the most. To recap, the goddess Circe tells Odysseus that if he wants to make it home after years of fighting at Troy and wandering the seas, he has to visit the underworld to consults with the shade of the seer Tiresias, who is one of the most fascinating figures of Greek mythology.Ī prophet of the city of Thebes, he had the distinction of spending several years as a woman as punishment from Hera for whacking a pair of copulating snakes with a stick. Right now were on his voyage to the land of the dead. If this is your fist visit, please click on earlier posts. The theme here lately is the Odyssey of Homer, along with links and comments about current events. The shade of Tiresias appears to Odysseus after the latter offers a sacrifice.
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