Welcome to my latest blog post. If I remember correctly, last week I discussed how the ancient Greeks and Romans thought that the physically disabled and deformed could counteract the effects of the Evil Eye. However, it was not only deformed people that were believed to have special capabilities. This week, I will be writing about the concept of blind prophets and how their blindness somehow enhanced their prophetic powers.
What are Prophets and Oracles?
I think I should start by explaining what a prophet was in the world of the Greeks and Romans. They worked in a similar way to oracles. As I have mentioned before, the gods played a significant role in the daily lives of ordinary people. However, how were regular folk supposed to know what the gods wanted when they were far away on Mount Olympus? Luckily, there were a select group of humans who could interpret what the gods said, so that mere mortals could understand. Perhaps the most famous of these was the Pythia, better known as the Oracle of Delphi. She was the high priestess of the temple of Apollo and interpreted the gods meaning. The fact that she was the high priestess was apt as shall become clear in a minute.
You see, in order to connect with Apollo, she had to enter a trance like state. To achieve this, she reportedly drank from the holy spring and chewed on laurel leaves. The fact that laurel leaves are poisonous may explain what happened next. In this poison induced trance, she would answer the pilgrim’s question. It is probable that what she said was unintelligible, leaving pilgrims perplexed, or forcing temple priests to convey what she said. Prophets were similar, but they possessed knowledge of the future, rather than just relaying a message from the gods.
Why Were the Best Prophets Blind?
In mythology, there were quite a few prophets who were blind. From what I have read on the subject, blind prophets were a balancing act. In some cases, the gods blinded prophets because they were too accurate in their predictions and mankind was learning too much. Conversely, someone could be compensated with the gift of prophecy if they had lost their sight. In most cases it was the gods (usually quarrelling among themselves) that did both the taking and the giving. I know that what I am discussing occurs in myth, but it gives an interesting insight into common beliefs surrounding blindness. It seems as though people could not comprehend that a person could have one sense less. They must therefore have enhanced capabilities elsewhere. For the Greeks and Romans this resulted in eyesight being replaced by foresight. Even today it is believed that the other senses of blind people are heightened. To push it even further, if you believed the world of comic books, being blind can make you a superhero! It seems that vision is deemed so essential, that there simply must be some form of compensation.
Tiresias
Tiresias is perhaps the best example of a blind prophet from antiquity. He appears in many stories of Greek myth and is probably best known for his role in the story of Oedipus. I will come back to that tale shortly, but first I will try and explain a bit more about who Tiresias was. I mistakenly said he a moment ago. You see, one day Tiresias came across snakes mating and struck them killing one or both of them, depending on which version you read. This angered the goddess Hera who turned him into a woman as punishment. As a woman, Tiresias was married and had children. After 7 years, Hera turned her back into a man.
It is important to note that at this point in his life, Tiresias still had his sight. In one version of his story, he only became blind after a later encounter with Hera. Zeus and Hera were having an argument related to gender. I think it’s safest to leave it at that. Anyway, as Tiresias had lived as both a man and a woman, he was best placed to resolve the dispute. He sided with Zeus, leading Hera to blind him as punishment. Although there was nothing Zeus could do about the blinding, he granted Tiresias a long life and the power of prophecy. Tiresias was said to have lived for seven generations and even maintained his powers in the underworld after death to help Odysseus complete his journey in Homer’s Odyssey (shown above).
Another version of how he went blind and received his powers was that he stumbled across the goddess Athena bathing and could not look away. She therefore blinded him as punishment. However, she eventually took pity on him after his mother pleaded for the punishment to be undone. Even Athena could not undo what she had done, so granted him his powers instead.
I mentioned the story of Oedipus earlier. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, I will let you know how Tiresias fits into it. Oedipus became king of Thebes after marrying Jocasta, the queen. The new king Oedipus set out to discover what happened to the previous king. He consulted Tiresias who informed him that he really does not want to know what happened to Jocasta’s former husband. Emphasis being on the really. Oedipus did not listen to the wise old man and continued his investigation. This ultimately led to Oedipus being blinded as punishment. Ah! The circle of life!
As you can see, being blind in the Greco-Roman world was linked to prophetic abilities. This could be both a gift and a curse.
To keep up to date with my latest blog posts, you can like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter. You can find them by clicking the relevant icons in the sidebar.
Next week I will investigate the beliefs surrounding disability and its causes in the Medieval Period.
The Wheelchair Historian
Further Reading
Encyclopedia.com, ‘Tiresias’, Updated: Feb 8 2021 https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/classical-literature-mythology-and-folklore/folklore-and-mythology/tiresias Accessed: 22nd January 2021.
Gartziou-Tatti, Ariadni, ‘Blindness as punishment’ in Menelaos Christopoulos, Efimia Karakantza, Olga Levaniouk (eds.) Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion (Lexington Books, 2010).
Jrank.org, ‘Prophecy: Greece And Rome’, https://science.jrank.org/pages/10883/Prophecy-Greece-Rome.html Accessed: 22nd January 2021.
Prof. Geller, ‘Tiresias’, Last Updated: November 10, 2016 https://mythology.net/greek/mortals/tiresias/ Accessed: 22nd January 2021.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, ‘Tiresias’, February 06, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tiresias Accessed: January 11, 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment