Tiresias

This paper analyzes the character of Tiresias in the Odyssey. It presents and discusses what the Odyssey recounts about the soothsayer. Then the fragmentary epic texts (shamanic poetry and Stesichorus included), together with the testimony of Attic tragedy and iconography, is analyzed in order to put the evidence of the Odyssey into greater perspective. Finally, this paper proposes some conclusions which pay special attention to the probable pre-Homeric life of Tiresias as the protagonist of shamanic poetry, and also to the way in which the Odyssey adapts the figure of the seer to its own narrative purposes. It is interesting to discover in the Homeric Tiresias the figure who mediates between different sagas, who can establish a link between the Trojan complex and the Theban one, possibly because of his shamanic potentialities. The possibility of linking this fact with the Pan-Hellenic cultural policy of the sponsors of the Odyssey should also be taken into account.

The cynic philosopher Menippus is a standard character in Lucian’s works. In Menippus or Necromancy, Lucian tells the story of the philosopher’s katabasis which he undertakes to consult the seer Tiresias about true wisdom and the best way to lead one’s life. Menippus has been unable to solve the question of the meaning of human life from the precepts of the different philosophical schools and the conduct of the philosophers themselves, who are often the butt of Lucian’s criticism. Menippus narrates this voyage after his return to Earth. The philosopher has not died but has become a ghostly apparition to men still alive. The message that he brings with him
from the world of the dead is none other than an exaltation of common sense and the value of humour as a universal pattern of behaviour for an authentic life. The aim of this chapter is to analyse some of the formal resources and themes that Lucian uses to achieve his goal through parody and, at the same time, to highlight his ability to create surprising narrative frameworks in which the contents of his writings always acquire a new perspective.

This paper analyses the theme of identity in Andrea Camilleri’s Conversazione su Tiresia by means of references to the ancient Greek hypotexts cited by the author. The first and final observations of the monologue, where Camilleri invites the public to identify him with Tiresias, suggest the importance of this theme to the understanding of the play. In particular, this motif is complicated and enriched by the connections between the Conversazione and the Odyssey as Camilleri plays with the possibility of being identified with Homer himself. The review of Hesiod’s and Callimachus’s different accounts about Tiresias’s blindness and of Lucian’s reports about the seer reveals Camilleri’s attempt to solve the apparent contradictions in the hypotexts. From this point of view, the analysis of these aspects also implies an evaluation of the cultural roots of Camilleri’s public by means of references to some of the terms through which contemporary culture receives and takes possession of ancient Greek literature.

This paper examines Yannis Ritsos’s rewriting of Sophocles’s Antigone in his dramatic monologue 'Ismene' (1972). Engaging postmodern feminist thought enables us to explore the way in which Ritsos exposes the circumstances of the production of femininity within the political rationalities of both the Greek military junta and Soviet totalitarianism. I focus more particularly on the theoretical perspective of Luce Irigaray and Judith Butler. Despite their different (or even rival) programmes, these thinkers emphasize the significance of mimesis and the theatre model respectively, in order to signal new ways to rethink (female) subjectivity. Borrowing on Sophocles’s conflictual universe in enacting two radically contradictory variations of “womanliness” (Ismene and Antigone), Ritsos puts forward the theatrical construction of (sexual) identity and raises significant issues which relate to the functioning of power. (In) between the world of appearances and the “real” one, this modern use of the theatre metaphor blurs the limits between truth and falsity of both gender categories and theatre itself. By presenting life as a form of performance and vice-versa, this paper argues, Ritsos dramatizes the committed writer’s inner crisis toward the quest of alternative configurations of identity – be it sexual, social, national, ideological, or aesthetic.

Throughout Inferno, Dante utilizes human-fathomable language to depict the otherworldly unknowable, building upon previous theological-literary tradition. The real world is inherently linked to the afterlife through earthly semiotics. The reader, guided primarily by Dante and secondarily by Virgil, is not asked to suspend disbelief since the immediate reader was expected to already believe (or that they should believe) that these netherworldly realms exist. Dante’s task as a writer of Hell visions is to evoke tempered sympathetic emotions that act as deterrents to aberrant, sinful behavior. However, the characterizations of previously-human souls being reprimanded in various circles of Hell complicate Dante’s mission. Their past misdeeds are often explained, but only to a degree. Even more troubling is that, in lieu of epic tradition, history and mythology are often intertwined. Consider the case of Manto, a seer whose soul has been relegated to the Fourth Pouch of the Eighth Circle in Hell; this is where diviners’ voices are silenced and their heads turned so that they are always facing backward, never forward – a supposedly just punishment for attempting to know the unknowable through magical means. Like most punishments in the poem, Dante the narrator laments this and implies that the reader (“(God grant you benefit of this book)”) ought to treat these souls with some compassion and simultaneously acknowledge this as a moral warning (Inf. 20.19). This passage’s description of Manto places the contemporary reader in a position in which she or he must face the text’s deconstruction of the human fathomable (e.g., Manto in a historical, human context) versus the problematic nature of why Manto is being punished (beyond the fact that she has practiced divination) – and why there is another Manto in Purgatorio. The vague description of potential misdeeds undermines Dante’s objective of evoking the reader’s sympathy via allegorically-based moral warning leaves the reader to wonder at the precise nature of Manto’s sin. Manto’s punishment also calls into question the monstrous nature of the crafty woman. Manto’s reprimand in Canto XX can be read in the context that she lacks the virtues of the dutiful daughter, which are exhibited by the Manto in Purgatorio. Herein, Dante is able to differentiate his use of the allegorical, poetic-prophet voice from prophetic divination. Dante, unlike the Manto of Canto XX, is not seeking to change divine will. Rather, Dante Alighieri is writing an epic that teaches lessons on morality and what happens when humans decide to counter divine (and, therefore, morally “right”) will.

El parlamento que Atena le dirige a Cariclo en el himno quinto de Calímaco es considerado como una consolatio en la bibliografía. La cuestión que plantea este artículo es la siguiente: ¿es ese discurso un eslabón más en la historia de la consolación poética o está, por el contrario, escrito ya a la luz de la consolatio filosófica y retórica que surge en Grecia en el S. V a.C.? Del análisis del texto se deduce la plausibilidad de la segunda hipótesis; según el autor, Calímaco recurre a motivos consolatorios con una intención irónica que impregna igualmente el conjunto del himno.

Resumen: A partir de las variantes del mito de Tiresias, que se toma como objeto de estudio y como pretexto, se estudian características determinantes de la empatía. La empatía descansa sobre una cierta idea de continuidad del sujeto en el tiempo y a la vez de intercambialidad, antes que de mímesis, que constituye su condición de posibilidad. A la vez, la imposibilidad de empatizar puede tener fundamentos ontológicos como la singularísima esencia de cada individuo pero sobre todo la intimidad que se pretende invulnerable-para proteger dicha singularidad-por lo cual hay una fluctuación entre el reconocimiento y el rechazo de "ponerse en el lugar del otro", para no "invadir su intimidad". El mito de Tiresias muestra ese carácter al tener contenidos sexuales que dan cuenta de su adquisición del poder adivinatorio: ve lo que no puede o debe ver, a raíz de lo cual es castigado y, luego, recompensado. Esa especie de dialéctica castigo-compensación construye el experimento sobre el cual se basa el artículo, dado que Tiresias sufre diversas transformaciones por ver lo que no debe y a la vez, esa es la condición para dilucidar la apuesta entre Hera y Zeus sobre qué género goza más el sexo. Su respuesta conduce al castigo, y luego a la compensación, con el poder adivinatorio. Es particularmente interesante si dicho análisis se lleva además al problema ético y político de la pasividad del sujeto con el cual se empatiza o se busca empatizar. Abstract: From the variants of Tiresias's myth, which is taken as an object of study and as a pretext, this paper focuses on the determinant characteristics of empathy. Empathy rests on a certain idea of continuity of the subject in time and, simultaneously, of exchange, rather than mimesis, which constitutes its condition of possibility. At the same time, the impossibility of empathizing can have ontological foundations, such as the very unique essence of each individual or the allegedly invulnerable intimacy, which serves to protect that uniqueness. There is, so, a fluctuation between the recognition and the refusal to "put oneself in the place of the other", so as not to "invade his privacy". This feature is present in Tiresias's myth as it has sexual contents that account for his acquisition of divinatory power: he sees what he cannot or should not see. As a consequence, he is punished and then rewarded. That kind of punishment-compensation dialectic builds the experiment on which the article is based, since Tiresias undergoes various transformations due to the fact that he has seen what he should not have. At the same time, this is the condition to elucidate the bet between Hera and Zeus on which gender enjoys sex the most.

La profecía de Tiresias anuncia el viaje de Odiseo hacia el interior del continente con la finalidad de congraciarse con Poseidón. Este hecho ocurre en el lugar donde el héroe astuto encuentra un pueblo que ignora el mar. Tucídides y Heródoto describen los pueblos de Etolia, Epiro y Tesprotia como diferentes al resto de la Hélade, puesto que hablan una lengua semibárbara y tienen poco o nulo conocimiento de navegación, coincidiendo así con las características predichas por el adivino tebano. Asimismo, otros testimonios escritos relatan tradiciones locales sobre la presencia de Ulises por estas tierras, la que permite a etolios, epirotas y tesprotos ser incluidos entre las poblaciones citadas en el Ciclo Épico Troyano, insertándose de esta forma en la memoria colectiva de los griegos y retrotrayendo sus orígenes al pasado mítico homérico.

Resumen: Según Hom. Od. 10.492-495, el alma de Tiresias obtuvo de Perséfone el privilegio de conservar su νόος y sus φρένες en el Hades. Como en dos laminillas de oro se atribuye a los guardianes del agua de Memoria la posesión de φρένες, es posible que la idea tenga su base en el pasaje de la Odisea, entre otros. De hecho, varios elementos del episodio (asociación entre memoria, verdad y bebida; prohibición de acercarse al líquido, sangre o agua; posición destacada entre los muertos) parecen haber sido empleados para el texto de dichas laminillas, aunque reorganizados con otro sentido diferente. Palabras clave: Nekyia, Hades, dicción formular, laminillas de oro, cultos mistéricos.
Abstract:
According to Hom. Od. 10.492-495, the soul of Tiresias gained the privilege of keeping his νόος and his φρένες in Hades from Persephone. Since in two gold tablets the guardians of the water of Memory are attributed the possession of φρένες, it is possible that the idea is based on the Odyssean passage, among others. In fact, several elements in the episode (association between memory, truth and drinking; prohibition of approaching to the liquid, blood or water; prominent position among the dead) seem to have been employed for the text of those tablets, but rearranged with a different sense.

La profecía de Tiresias anuncia a Odiseo un viaje tierra adentro  que debe cumplir con tal de que encuentre un viajante que confunda su remo con un bieldo, siendo este hecho  el  hito  que  marque  el  lugar  dondeOdiseo  debe  aplacar  a  Poseidón  con  una “trittía” o una “suovetaurilia”.Sobre  este  viaje  hay  pocos  rastros  en  la  literatura  griega  antigua,  pero  los comentaristas medievales, que consultaron obras actualmente perdidas, nos aportan una información muy importante a través de los escolios, reflexionando sobre el significado de palabras que habían sido escritas muchos siglos antes y citando autores hoy perdidos.

Cet article vise à repenser les liens qui unissent la théorie et la pratique à l’envers de la rhétorique de non-contradiction qu’est celle de la supposée crise, ou du supposé déclin, dans ce cas précis de la théorie. Il s’agit de proposer une réflexion qui refuse de s’arrimer selon une logique duale entre théorie et pratique, en prenant au sérieux la définition donnée par Diderot et d’Alembert de la littérature, soit la connaissance ou le savoir en général, sans rester engoncé dans l’idée de déclin, c’est-à-dire en considérant le déclin dans ses aspects matériels et historiques mais en ne lui supposant pas d’essence qui le rendrait inévitable, pour plutôt reconnaître son caractère aléatoire. En considérant la littérature en tant que terme chapeau pour le savoir, soit la littérature en tant que ce qui transcende les disciplines, l’article réfléchira aux liens entre la résistance propre à la théorie et à un point aveugle de l’institutionnalisation sécularisée des disciplines littéraires, à savoir l’impossibilité réelle d’évacuer toutes les formes de transcendance que présupposent à la fois le préfixe trans- et l’étymologie de théorie, qui du latin theoria dit « la spéculation, la recherche spéculative », et du grec θεωρια, « observer, contempler » (CNRTL, Théorie). Pour ce faire, le présent article débutera par un approfondissement des conséquences de la rhétorique du déclin, pour ensuite proposer une lecture des figures que sont celles de Tirésias et de Socrate, étant toutes deux des figures exemplaires de deux rapports au savoir tout à fait distincts, celui de la divination et celui de la dialectique philosophique.

(Please note, a full downloadable copy of this article is available via the publisher in the attached link.)
"Dante’s Divine Comedy was one of the most influential texts in late medieval Italian society. This article seeks to open a window into how late medieval Italians understood gender, sex and sexuality, by analyzing their understanding and use of the term ‘hermaphrodite’ in commentaries to Purgatorio 26, and to Inferno 20. The commentary tradition on Dante’s Comedy reveals to be not only a wonderful archive recording the existence of ‘queer’ medieval individuals via the anecdotes provided by commentators, but also a valuable documentation of the prejudices, beliefs and opinions medieval Italians had on non-normative sexual behaviours and physicalities. Early commentaries seem to chaotically conflate distinctions of sex, gender and sexuality, attributing to hermaphroditism anatomical features, gender bending and outrageous sexual behaviour, including incest and bestiality. By referring to some scientific, theological and literary works available to the early commentators, however, the article shows that these seemingly peculiar interpretations were not arbitrary, but were rather the outcome of a different thought process, based on a different epistemological vocabulary and on different cultural references - a thought process which made these commentaries arrive at categories alien to us, but not without their own kind of reasoning behind them."

Ovid’s brief Tiresias episode in the third book of his Metamorphoses (Met. 3.316-38) represents one of the most eloquent examples of Ovidian self-representation and contamination between his elegiac, epic and exilic corpora. Tiresias’ chauvinistic statement on the nature of women’s sexual pleasure constitutes the first point of connection between the Theban seer and the praeceptor of the Ars Amatoria. Additionally, as it has already been noted for the Actaeon story that precedes the Tiresias episode (which is explicitly paralleled by Ovid himself to his own fate in Tristia 2.103-8), Met. 3.316-38 also features what anachronistically sound like unmistakable echoes of the obsessive language and themes displayed throughout the Tristia. Such resonances, coupled with similarities between Tiresias and the praeceptor amoris, invite us to read Tiresias’ undeserved punishment at the hands of Juno as a double of Ovid’s own punishment for writing the Ars, a recognition which may also shed further light on Livia’s involvement in the verdict on Ovid’s exile.

Abstract: The paper proposes the concept of eroticon in order to better define the unique nature of love fiction. Unlike other forms of prose, erotic or amorous fiction uses the impact of visual poetics in order to describe the love situation. The demonstration first states the presence of a reccurent scene (the scene of the two lovers contemplating each other from a window), and then develops a detailed analysis of the scene in Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart. With arguments from narratology, reading-response theories and theories of fictional worlds, the paper investigates the potential of amorous fiction in visual communication.