Tiresias
Proper noun
Meaning
Tiresias
(Greek mythology) A long-lived blind soothsayer who participated over seven generations in the legendary history of (the Greek city) Thebes, noted also for being transformed into a woman for seven years, so being symbolic of androgyny.
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Examples
After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes, struck them with her staff, and became a man once more.
An alternative and less commonly told story has it that Tiresias was blinded by Athena after he stumbled onto her bathing naked.
One day in the hills I found Tiresias the seer, blindly watching the flight of passing gulls.
When Amphitryon finally returned to Thebes, Alcmene told him that he had come the night before and slept with her; he learned from Tiresias what Zeus had done.
Guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew cross the ocean and reach a harbor at the western edge of the world, where Odysseus sacrifices to the dead and summons the spirit of the old prophet Tiresias to advise him.
He wishes to invoke and question the shade of Tiresias in particular; however, he is unable to summon the seer's spirit without the assistance of others.