Study Guide

Tiresias

Profile

You might easily mistake him for a crazy dude spouting gibberish on the corner, but Tiresias was totally legit. This old, blind man was a priest of Apollo and one of the most famous seers of all time. He could hear the future in the songs of birds (a little trick called augury), and he also received visions sent to him by the gods. Tiresias used his powers to advise seven generations of kings in his hometown of Thebes, though they had a tendency not to listen to what he had to say until it was too late. (We're looking at you, Oedipus and Creon.)

Even after Tiresias died by drinking from the poisoned water of Tilphussa, he had tons of power. Odysseus himself made a pit stop in the Underworld to get some travel advice from Tiresias, without which the O-man never would've made it home. Tiresias may have been a rough looking dude with a tendency to speak in cryptic riddles, but in the end, he was totally worth listening to.

Basic Information

Name	Tiresias
Nickname	The Blind Seer Mr. Know-It-All
Sex	Male (but spent seven years as a female)
Current city	Asphodel Fields on the outskirts of the Underworld

Work & Education

Occupation	Seer Priest of Apollo
Education	Apollo's School of Prophecy

Beliefs

Political views

It all seems so trivial when you know what's going to happen anyway.

Family & Friends (& Enemies)

Parents	Everes (Dad) Chariclo (Mom)
Children	Manto (who turned into a pretty awesome prophetess herself)
Friends	Apollo (a great god to serve)
Enemies	Hera (who struck me blind) Athena (who may also have struck me blind, unclear)

Relationships

Relationship status	Very single
Interested in	Nobody, really. I can see that it's just never going to work out.

Favorites

TV Shows	Twin Peaks True Blood Lost
Quotations	"The fact of having been born is a bad augury for immortality" – George Santayana "Take a little trip back with father Tiresias, Listen to the old one speak of all he has lived through. I have crossed between the poles; for me there's no mystery. Once a man, like the sea I raged, Once a woman, like the earth I gave. But there is in fact more earth than sea." – from "The Cinema Show" by Genesis "Blackbird singing in the dead of night, Take these sunken eyes and learn to see. All your life, You were only waiting for this moment to be free." – from "Blackbird" by the Beatles "My darkness has been filled with the light of intelligence, and behold, the outer day-lit world was stumbling and groping in social blindness" – Helen Keller "Rise up this mornin', Smiled with the risin' sun, Three little birds Pitch by my doorstep Singin' sweet songs Of melodies pure and true, Sayin', ('This is my message to you-ou-ou:') Singin': 'Don't worry 'bout a thing, 'Cause every little thing gonna be all right.'" – "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley (I actually only like this quote because it makes me laugh. Everything is definitely not going to be all right.)
Books	Orlando by Virginia Woolf (A great book about gender shifting.) "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot (I kind of narrate this, which may explain why it's so darn cryptic.) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman "Death, be not proud (Holy Sonnet 10)" by John Donne (Too true.) The Time Machine by H.G. Wells Oedipus the King by Sophocles Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad "When I Consider How My Light is Spent (On His Blindness)" by John Milton "Meditation at Lagunitas" by Robert Hass The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Music	Lights by Ellie Goulding (I may be an old blind seer, but I'm killer on the dance floor.) Blinded by the Light by Manfred Mann The Cinema Show by Genesis (I get a great shout out in the chorus of this song.) Back in Time by Pitbull Blackbird by The Beatles The Wind by the Zac Brown Band Karma Chameleon by Culture Club Three Little Birds by Bob Marley Cabin by the Sea by the Dirty Heads (I just like to chill to this.)
Movies	Winged Migration (You can a learn a lot from the birds.) The Matrix Transamerica Tiresia Hedwig and the Angry Inch The Miracle Worker (You go, Helen Keller.) The Birds Scent of a Woman Brave

Activities & Interests

Likes	Bird watching... well, better make that bird listening Fortune cookies The future Blind seers
Interests	Augury Astrology Fortune Telling
Groups	Seers Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund League of Prophets Bird Lovers

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