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Tiresias

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Blind prophet of Thebes gifted with extraordinary foresight and longevity. Transformed into a woman for seven years after striking mating serpents, he knew both male and female experience.

Detailed Definition
Tiresias was a Theban seer famed for his clairvoyance, blindness, and unique experience of living as both genders. He appears in numerous myths and literary works, including Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Poets invoke Tiresias as a symbol of prophetic insight, the unity of opposites, and the wisdom born of suffering and transformation.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Sophocles’ Antigone, Tiresias warns Creon: “You have kept from the gods below the child that is theirs”; In Oedipus Rex, he declares, “You are the pollution of this land”; T.S. Eliot names Tiresias the “most important personage” in “The Waste Land,” uniting all fragments; In “The Waste Land,” Tiresias observes: “I too awaited the expected guest”; Ovid’s Metamorphoses recounts how Juno blinded him but Jupiter gave him prophecy; In Seneca’s Oedipus, Tiresias summons spirits from the underworld to reveal truth.
Additional Notes
Tiresias, the blind prophet of Thebes, is unique for having lived as both man and woman, granting him dual insight. He appears in Sophocles, Euripides, and Ovid, but his most famous poetic role is in T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” where he unifies fragmented voices as “the most important personage.” His blindness symbolizes inner sight; his warnings (ignored by Oedipus, Creon) underscore tragic irony. Students should analyze how poets use him to explore gender fluidity, prophecy, and the limits of knowledge. Essential for understanding classical allusion, modernist fragmentation, and the seer archetype. Related concepts: oracle, liminality, intertextual anchor.
Other Meanings of “Tiresias”
Also Known As
Theban Seer Blind Prophet Oracle of Thebes Interpreter of Omens
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