# Tiresias — The Odyssey character guide

> Tiresias in The Odyssey by Homer.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** King Tiresias

**First appearance:** 0011-book-x-aeolus-the-lestrigonians-and-circ

## Snapshot

The blind Theban prophet whose sightless eyes see further than any living man, and whom Ulysses must seek among the dead to learn the way home.

## Who they are

Tiresias belongs to the underworld, a seer who keeps his prophetic power even after death and whose counsel carries the weight of fate itself. Ulysses descends to the land of the dead precisely because no living source can tell him what lies ahead, and the prophet's warnings about the journey's cost give the wanderer knowledge he cannot afford to ignore. His presence turns the poem's middle movement into a meditation on what the living owe the dead, and on whether foreknowledge ever truly saves anyone.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_odyssey_se/characters/tiresias
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_odyssey_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_odyssey_se/characters