Tiresias

American  

[tahy-ree-see-uhs] / taɪˈri si əs /

Or Teiresias

noun

Classical Mythology.

1. a blind prophet, usually said to have been blinded because he saw Athena bathing, and then to have been awarded the gift of prophecy as a consolation for his blindness.

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Tiresias British  

/ taɪˈriːsɪˌæs /

noun

1. Greek myth a blind soothsayer of Thebes, who revealed to Oedipus that the latter had murdered his father and married his mother

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Tiresias Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, the blind prophet who revealed the truth of the crimes of Oedipus. According to the Roman poet Ovid, Tiresias spent part of his life as a man and part of it as a woman, so he knew the act of love from both points of view. When asked by Jupiter and Juno who enjoyed sex more, he answered that women did. This answer so enraged Juno that she blinded Tiresias.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Tiresias

Sara Wheeler’s “Jan Morris” is a compassionate and comprehensive biography of the Tiresias of travel writers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

In a 2011 performance, the artist stood against an ice sculpture that depicted the body of Tiresias, a Greek mythological prophet who lived as both man and woman.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2022

In “The Oedipus Project,” Oedipus himself is revealed to be the cause, the “unholy contagion,” as the prophet Tiresias calls him — though his arrogance stalls him from drawing this conclusion.

From New York Times ● Jul. 15, 2020

According to Greek mythology, the prophet Tiresias was harassing a pair of mating snakes when Hera decided to transform him into a woman as “punishment.”

From Scientific American ● Mar. 4, 2020

Like Tiresias, I was first one thing and then the other.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides