TiReSiAs

For me Tiresias myths is very interesting after I have found out who is Tiresias actually is. Before this I thought that he is an ordinary fortune teller who has no significance in the story. As time goes by, I learn that he is a famous blind prophet who has been gifted the ability to foresight the future or in a way warned the tragic hero about his doom. There are many tales about individual prophecies of Tiresias: he predicted the manner of Narcissus' death; he tried to warn Oedipus of the rashness of that king's inquiries about his parents; he predicted that the sacrifice of Menoeceus, son of Creon, would permit the forces of Eteocles to repulse the army of the Seven Against Thebes. Tiresias eventually died from drinking from the spring Tilphussa, but even after death his shade was able to offer valuable prophecy to the hero Odysseus.
It is rather interesting to know that Tiresias is actually a normal human being who incidentally came upon two great serpents copulating; he struck them with his staff, and was thereupon transformed into a woman. Seven years later, she/he passed by the same place and came upon the same two serpents copulating; she/he struck them again with the staff and was turned back into a man. It means that he has the opportunity to be in both sexes!WOW!I think it was a good opportunity as I myself keep wondering whether being a woman or a man is more pleasurable not only in term of sex but in term of living in this world...;-P. Furthermore, due to his speciality of experience in being in both sexes, Zeus and Hera consulted him as Zeus claimed that woman get more pleasure in the sex and vice versa with Hera. Tiresias sided with Zeus and due to that Hera got angry and struck Tiresias blind. Since Zeus could not undo the act of another deity, he gave Tiresias the gift of prophecy in compensation. Another account says that Tiresias accidentally saw Athena naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, thus rendering him blind. When Tiresias' mother Chariclo asked Athena to restore her son's sight, the goddess could not undo her own action but gave him the gift of prophecy as compensation.
All in all, Tiresias plays an important roles in Greek plays!