View example sentences, synonyms and word forms for Tiresias.
Tiresias
Tiresias meaning
A long-lived blind soothsayer who participated over seven generations in the legendary history of (the Greek city) Thebes, noted also for being transformed into a woman for seven years, so being symbolic of androgyny.
Synonyms of Tiresias
Example sentences (8)
In one version of the Tiresias myth, Tiresias stumbled upon Athena bathing, and he was struck blind by her to ensure he would never again see what man was not intended to see.
Tiresias offends Juno by agreeing with Jove, and she strikes him blind on the spot (Jove lessens the blow by giving Tiresias the gift of foresight, and a long life).
After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes, struck them with her staff, and became a man once more.
An alternative and less commonly told story has it that Tiresias was blinded by Athena after he stumbled onto her bathing naked.
Guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew cross the ocean and reach a harbor at the western edge of the world, where Odysseus sacrifices to the dead and summons the spirit of the old prophet Tiresias to advise him.
He wishes to invoke and question the shade of Tiresias in particular; however, he is unable to summon the seer's spirit without the assistance of others.
Odysseus then summoned the spirit of the prophet Tiresias for advice on how to appease Poseidon upon his return home.
When Amphitryon finally returned to Thebes, Alcmene told him that he had come the night before and slept with her; he learned from Tiresias what Zeus had done.