tiresias

Honestly, I did not know what Tiresias is. Worse, I never heard about it until the day I learn EDU 3217. Thank you to Dr Edwin as because of him, I at least get to know what is actually Tiresias.

What is actually Tiresias? My first thought is that he is might be something that important or influnce in the Christianity. Well, from what have I found in the internet, through the address; http://library.thinkquest.org/26264/inhabitants/demons/site106.html

Tiresias is a blind yet one of the most famous soothsayers of his time. He plays a role in the Oedipal drama as well as the events happening to the family of Thebes. He predicts the campaign of The Seven Against Thebes and that Thebes would obtain victory if King Creon’s Menoeceus is sacrificed. When he is a young boy he comes upon two mating snakes on a mountain. Tiresias pesters them by wounding them and separating them and is thus punished by being turned into a woman. Seven years later the same event occurs and Tiresias is turned into a man again. One day Zeus and Hera are fighting about Zeus’ infidelity. Hera also claims the male species enjoys sex more than women. They call for Tiresias since he has been both sexes. Tiresias reveals that women’s enjoyment of sex reaches level nine out of ten while men only reach the first. Hera is furious with Tiresias for revealing the secrets of a woman and blinds him in rage. Zeus consoles him by granting him the gift of prophecy and a life span seven times that of an of an ordinary mortal. Tiresias dies when he drinks from a lake that turns out to be frozen and leaves behind the prophetess Manto. Even though he is dead, Tiresias is able to advise Odysseus when the latter comes to the Underworld on his way home to Ithaca.

In the play Antigone, I can see that Tiresias do play an important role as he some kind like a reminder or prophet for Creon. However, in the play, Creon ignored him as Creon thinks that he is more powerful than Tiresias. Lastly, Creon is the one that has lost the things that he loves most due to the stubbornness in him. Here, we can see the importance of Tiresias in Creon’s life and may be someone that can be a reminder to us in our life.