Teiresias

Today, I am going to talk about Teiresias. I guess most of the readers out there must know already know who he is because he is famous in Greek story. For those, who do not know who he is, let me tell you who he is in simple. Teiresias is a wise, old, blind man who appears in the Oedipus tragedies of Sophocles. He is the one who told Oedipus that he is the murderer of his father. He has many stories for the cause of his blindness. The most wide accepted tradition was that at age seven the Gods blinded him, because he revealed certain things, men ought not to know. According to another tradition, he was blinded after he saw goddess Athena taking bath. Another story made Hera responsible for his blindness, when in a dispute between her and Zeus, he went against her. In order to compensate him, Zeus gave him a longer life (seven or nine times greater than the usual life of men) and the gift of prophecy. No matter which stories are true, he is still a blind, old man with the ability to prophecy. Now I’m going to say what I feel about Teiresias in the drama “Oedipus Rex”. When I read the drama, I seriously feel that Teiresias is a hypocrite man. He knows that he should not come to meet King Oedipus, knowing that King Oedipus will use any method to force him to tell him the murderer of King Laios, king before King Oedipus and yet he comes to meet Oedipus. He is a man honored above all others in the city of Thebes and he is also a messenger of God. With that kind of status, he can choose not to come to meet Oedipus. Besides, he said that “When it comes to speech, your own is neither temperate, Nor opportune. I wish to be more prudent.” He knows that it is not the right time to reveal the truth and he is willing to suffer to keep the truth. Yet he still create an opportunity to reveal the truth. How fake his action is. In conclusion, In the drama "Oedipus Rex", ancient people called Teiresias noble, wise man but in my eye, he is nothing but a hypocrite man which his foolish action causes the innocent King Oedipus who is a victim of fate to suffer even more.