Tiresias was a blind，darkseeing prophet of Thebes．Hewas struck with blindness in his youth，because he had spied unwittingly on the goddess Athena．He was wandering in the woods one day when quite unexpectedly he saw anaked maiden bathing in a placid lake ．Little did he know that he had offended the virgin goddess．Taken unaware and scarlet with wrath，the goddess exclaimed that whoever had the boldness to steal a glance at her naked body was doomed to perpetual blindness．But when she learned later that the offence was unintentional ，it was too late for her to take back what she had said．Taking pity on the poor youth for the loss of his sight，she obtained from Zeus an exceptional long life for him，and from Apollo a divine power of prophecy．Besides，she provided him with a marvellous sharpness of ear，so that he could under stand the voices of all birds．And she filled his mind with mystic knowledge of things past and of things to come．In short shegave him quite an amount of her own wisdom．He was the firstto recognise and welcome Dionysus，god of feast and wine，on the The ban land．When the infant Heracles caught Hera's two serpents in its hands，it was Tiresias who cast the child's fortune and revealed the divine origin and destiny of the boy ．When Oedipus abused Tiresias as having had a hand in themurder of Laius，Tiresias had the fearless courage to tell thetruth that Oedipus was the murderer．Even in the lower world he continued to prophesy．There he helped Odysseus when the hero came to him for advice．Alive，he was highly respected byall；dead，he enjoyed the generous air and rosy light in the land of the Blest．
