Tiresias

Tiresias is a figure in Greek mythology, renowned as a blind prophet of Thebes whose judgments and oracles appear in several classical tragedies and later traditions. He is often considered the most famous Theban seer and a custodian of hidden knowledge.

According to myth, Tiresias was transformed into a woman for seven years after striking two snakes while walking in the woods; living as a woman, he learned about love and reproduction, before being transformed back into a man. The gender-shifting narrative is commonly cited to explain his dual perspective on male and female experience.

Blinded by Hera (in some versions for revealing divine secrets), Tiresias was nonetheless granted the gift of prophecy by Zeus as compensation, and he is given great longevity. This combination—blindness, prophetic power, and long life—contributes to his authority as an oracle.

In literature, Tiresias is a key figure in the Theban plays of Sophocles, providing crucial testimony to Oedipus about his origins and the truth that leads to his downfall. He also appears in other works such as Euripides' Phoenician Women, and is referenced in various odes and mythic cycles, reinforcing themes of fate and pious restraint.

Today, Tiresias is invoked as a symbol of prophetic wisdom and the paradoxes of gender, blind insight, and the limits of human power against divine will.