![]() ![]() We describe a challenging undertaking as a Herculean task, and speak of somebody who enjoys great success as having the Midas touch. What does Oedipus expect of the blind prophet Tiresias is a blind prophet or oracle that Oedipus hopes will reveal the murderer of. He also foresees that one day King Oedipus will be dressed in rags, blind, and wandering in exile. So we describe somebody’s weakness as their Achilles heel, or we talk about the dangers of opening up Pandora’s box. In Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, Tiresias is a blind prophet who accuses Oedipus of being King Laius’s murderer. The Greek myths are over two thousand years old – and perhaps, in their earliest forms, much older – and yet many stories from Greek mythology, and phrases derived from those stories, are part of our everyday speech. And it is quite ironic that he informs Oedipus of his future and Oedipus gouges his. Indeed, Eliot’s notes to The Waste Land state that what Tiresias ‘ sees’ (or foresees) forms the substance of the whole poem, raising the intriguing possibility that the ‘Unreal City’ Eliot depicts in that poem is a prophecy of the future as much as it a vision of contemporary (for 1922, anyway) London. Tiresias, the blind prophet, is the most obvious example of this theme. The part of the poem in which Tiresias appears features a typist and an estate agent’s clerk engaging in joyless sex, presumably a nod to the Hera-Zeus wager referenced above. It takes the blind prophet, Tiresias, to point out his ignorance and to plant the first seeds of doubt in Oedipuss mind. But he is blind to the truth about his own life. Eliot has Tiresias speak to us, in the third section of the poem, ‘The Fire Sermon’ (which we analyse here). Oedipuss vision and intelligence have made him a great king of Thebeshe solved the riddle of the Sphinx and revitalized the city. His knowledge, experiences, and abilities far surpassed those of ordinary mortals: Tiresias lived as both a man and a woman, spoke with the gods, and advised heroes such as Odysseuseven after death. When a plague falls on Thebes and the only way to rid the city of it is to find the previous kings killer, he calls upon a prophet named Teiresias, who. ![]() He that came seeing, blind shall he go An argument ensues between Oedipus and Teiresias, in which Teiresias. ‘Henceforth be blind, for thou hast seen too much,Īnd speak the truth that no man may believe.’Īnd in his 1922 poem The Waste Land, T. Tiresias, a famous blind prophet, played a central role in the mythology of Thebes. When Oedipus learns from the Oracle that the plague of Thebes will only be lifted once the murderer of Laius is caught. Oedipus exiles himself from his own kingdom because of the foreboding prophecy he is given from a blind prophet, Tiresias. You are the cursed polluter of this land. Remaining fixt on mine, till mine grew dark In anger yet one glittering foot disturb’dĪgainst the margin flowers a dreadful lightĬame from her golden hair, her golden helmĪnd from her virgin breast, and virgin eyes ![]()
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