Mortal · Character in Homer’s Odyssey
Tiresias
Blind seer among the dead
Clear-headed among the witless dead; lays out a whole life in minutes.
The Theban prophet whom Circè sends Odysseus to consult, the one shade who keeps his wits after death. In a few dozen lines he lays out the rest of the poem: Poseidon's anger, the Sun's cattle, the suitors in the hall, and a quiet death far inland at the end.
Bonds
- Tiresias warns Odysseus — foretells the wrath, the cattle, the suitors
- Tiresias dwells in Hades — keeps his mind among the shades
Appears in
- Book XI Visit of Odysseus to the Land of the Dead
Scenes
- The Underworld Errand — Book X. Odysseus must first consult seer Tiresias
- Circè’s Instructions — Book X. Circè details trench, libations, rites
- Departure for Erebus — Book X. Weeping crew boards beast-stocked ship
- Voyage and the Rite — Book XI. Odysseus reaches Ocean, summons the dead
- Tiresias’s Prophecy — Book XI. Tiresias warns of Poseidon, cattle, death
- The Blood-Rite Secret — Book XI. Odysseus asks how his mother will know him
- Reunion with Anticleia — Book XI. Anticleia reports on family, eludes embrace
- Theban and Pylian Queens — Book XI. Antiope, Alcmena, Megara, Epicaste, Chloris
- Achilles Among the Dead — Book XI. Achilles’s ghost speaks, Ajax lurks
- Sighting Thrinacia — Book XII. Odysseus urges crew past lowing herds
- Tiresias’s Final Task — Book XXIII. Odysseus foretells inland journey, peace
- Night of Shared Tales — Book XXIII. Penelope, Odysseus share their tales