teiresias

Teiresias played a major role in ‘Oedipus the Rex’ by Sophocles. In fact, this character emerged in most ancient Greek theatre. Teiresias was a famous blind seer of Greece. He was born at Thebes. He was the son of Eueres and Chariclo, descendant of Udaeus of Sparti.
There are numerous versions of how he became blind and how he gained the second sight or prophetic gifts. The most wide accepted tradition was that at age seven the Gods blinded him, because the Gods feared that Teiresias would see too much that the Gods wished to keep conceal since he was born with the gift of foretelling. So the gods took his eyesight, depriving the seer of physical vision.
According to another tradition, in the poem Bath of Pallas by Callimachus, he was blinded after he saw goddess Athena taking bath by accident. Athena immediately struck Teiresias blind, by threw water in his eyes without thinking. His mother, Chariclo, after the event, was upset and begged the goddess to restore her son's sight, but Athena was unable to do this and instead gave him a staff, which made him, walk like having vision. Athena also gave him other several gifts. According to Apollodorus, Teiresias was given the ability to understand the speech of birds. He was also awarded an unnaturally long life, which spanned over 7 generations (he lived in the time of Cadmus to the time of Epigoni). And after his death, he would still have the ability to retain his memory and his second sight, when he will reside in the Underworld.
Another story made Hera responsible for his blindness. Zeus and Hera were having an argument over who has the most pleasure in a sexual intercourse, a man or a woman. Zeus teased Hera, by saying that the woman had more pleasure than a man did. Hera had the opposite view. To prove their point, they went to see Teiresias, who had sex as a man and a woman. According to Hesiod and Ovid, Teiresias had lived his live as a woman for seven years.
This is regarding of the story when the young Teiresias was out in the country, at the foot of Mount Cithaeron. He came upon two snakes mating. With his staff, he killed the female snake, which caused him to transform into a young woman. Then he came upon the same snakes and was transformed back into a man. Thus, Hera and Zeus taught that Teiresias was the right person to judge their disagreement. Teiresias told them that a woman had more pleasure during intercourse than a man. Comparing to a scale of ten, woman enjoy sex nine out of ten, compare that of man with one out ten. When Hera lost the argument, she had also her temper, so she was swift with her punishment. Hera struck Teiresias blind.
Above all, Teiresias was a very important role in ancient Greek theatre. It is actually a new input for me to know that this character was not only appear in ‘Oedipus’, but in many plays. I look forward to search any other famous characters to know their interesting history, which somehow contribute to the plot of the play.