Tiresias

 June 17th. 

Ok, so when I made the Apollo post, I did want to put most of the Greek stuff there, but...well, they just had so much, and this story is really freaking hilarious. 

So, there are a lot of different versions of things, but I'll tell you the version I know and you'll probably see others elsewhere. As far as Greek Mythology goes, if there is only one version of the story, it's probably made up recently. Or at least that's what it seems like to me. 

The origin story of Tiresias starts with a naive, young, probably brain-damaged but don't quote me on that, man going frolicking in the woods. He cam across a pair of snakes mating and, in a fit of rage, for some reason, he decided to kill them.

This enraged Hera, who turned him into a woman. 

He then spent 7 years living as a woman. During this time, he possibly became a prostitute, possibly became a consort to a king, and possibly bore two children. That's where a lot of the debate comes in. 

After 7 years as a woman, he went into the woods again and found two snakes mating, again, and killed them...again. So Hera cursed him to be male again. 

Seriously. Idiot. 

After he'd been turned male again, Zeus and Hera had an argument about who enjoys sex more, each saying the other gender. (I'm not sure if it's an ego thing, that we're giving the other more pleasure, or justifying the other asking for sex all the time, or what, but they had an argument and we'll leave that insanity to them.) To settle this argument, they summoned one person who has had sex as both male and female. (Though, apparently Zeus turned himself into a woman to have sex once, so...) Tiresias, being an absolute idiot still, actually answered. He said that women get more pleasure, which goes against what Hera thought. So, she cursed him to be blind. 

Zeus, being unable to remove the curse but wanting to compensate him for his time and siding with Zeus, gave him a gift of foresight, prophecy, to make up for it. And according to some, he also gave Tiresias longevity to live as long as 7 generations. 

That's how Tiresias became the Blind Prophet that popped up in all sorts of stories, like Oedipus, who got a really bad wrap. He didn't mean to sleep with his mother, and when he found out he had, he clawed his eyes out. He found out because he asked Tiresias to tell him who had killed the previous king, and found out that he'd done it and the previous king was his father. 

But that's a different story. 

So, Tiresias was male and female and male again, and an idiot at least to some degree. 

And that was ok. 

Which leads me to this. Again. Can people stop being idiots about things like this? What's it matter to you what sex a person is or was born as or has chosen to be on any given day? Sheesh. 

Seeya later. 

Sources:

Olympioi-- Tiresias

Study.Com-- Tiresias

Mythopedia-- Tiresias

Encyclopedia Britannica- Tiresias

Also, I have some Greek Mythology books, but I'd suggest one called 'Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes'. It has a very irreverent take on several myths from a variety of pantheons.