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Tiresias, a MythSource painting
Greek

Tiresias

01Identity

Tiresias in Greek tradition

Tiresias is a seer in Ovid's Metamorphoses who receives knowledge of the future after losing his sight. His unusual experience makes him the judge of a dispute between Jupiter and Juno: he has lived as both a man and a woman. Two encounters with mating serpents bring about those changes, with seven years between them. When the gods ask which sex experiences greater pleasure in love, Tiresias agrees with Jupiter. Juno punishes his answer by making him blind. Jupiter cannot reverse another deity's act, so he compensates Tiresias with foreknowledge instead. The gift does not restore his sight. It gives him a different kind of knowledge, arising from the same divine quarrel that caused his blindness.

SourceThe Metamorphoses of Ovid, Tiresias and the Gift of Prophecy, printed p. 100

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The quick answers

02The myths

The myths of Tiresias

1 myth, with sources recorded for each.

Tiresias and the Gift of Prophecy

Jupiter and Juno disputed which sex received greater pleasure in love. They called on Tiresias because he had experienced life as both a man and a woman. In a green wood, he had struck two serpents while they were joined and changed from a man into a woman. He lived in that form for seven autumns. In the eighth year he saw the same serpents again and struck them a second time. His former sex returned.

The gods chose Tiresias to judge their dispute. He agreed with Jupiter that women received the greater share of pleasure. Juno was angry and took away his sight. Jupiter could not undo the act of another god, so he gave Tiresias knowledge of the future in place of his sight.

Tiresias and the Gift of Prophecy, a MythSource painting of the scene

1 source· checked 2026-10-01

  1. 1The Metamorphoses of OvidT1

Also mentioned in

Stories elsewhere on MythSource that mention Tiresias, each on that figure’s page.