Tiresias.A little information bout him.

Tiresias, the blind prophet is my favourite character in the play Oedipus Rex. This is due to his ability to accurately prophesize and his importance in the play (Referring to his dialogue with Oedipus). He is the one who foreshadowed Oedipus’s downfall. Therefore, in my opinion, he is the catalyst of the turning point in the plot of Oedipus Rex.
I have found out a few interesting stuff from the net bout Tiresias.
Tiresias is the son of a shepherd name Everes and the nymph Chariclo. Tiresias does not only appear in the play Oedipus Rex. He also made appearance in a number of other Greek plays, namely Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides and Homer’s The Odyssey. There are a few theories on his blinding and his power of foresight. The first is the blinding by Athena. It was an incident where he stumbled into her bathing naked. Since she could not undo her actions despite pleas by Tiresias’s mom, Athena granted Tiresias the gift of Augury. The second one is he was dragged into an argument between Zeus and Hera. The argument is about which sex would enjoy more pleasure in sex. He was asked to answer this as he had both the sexual experiences of man and woman during his seven year stint as a woman ( a curse by Hera). He answers revealed woman’s greatest secret which is "Of ten parts a man enjoys one only." Hera immediately struck Tiresias blind. (Hmmm.. women are overwhelmed by emotions since the time of Hera :-P) Zeus, unable to do anything to prevent it, granted Tiresias the power of foresight and a lifespan of seven lives. Besides this, it is interesting to state that Tiresias's background, fully male and then fully female, was important, both for his prophecy and his experiences. (Quote from Wikipedia) Also, prophecy was a gift given only to the priests and priestesses. It is also said that his prophecy was always enigmatic but never wrong. This is proven in his prophecy in Oedipus Rex regarding Oedipus’s fate and Homer’s Odyssey when his prophecy on the cattle of Helios came true and doomed all of Odysseus men.
Tiresias prophecy has been important in all the play he is involved in. This is due to his lines foreshadowing the storyline thus providing the audience/readers a sense of anticipation and wonder.
That’s all I have to write about Tiresias. I hope my readers enjoyed it. Personally I enjoyed writing it. In the near future I would spent my free time reading plays involving him and see how different is Tiresias in Oedipus and the other plays. Then I will write another blog regarding this matter. That’s some foreshadowing for you…