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Pythia-delphi

Pythia was an Delphic oracle

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Origin[]

Tiresias was the son of Everes and Chariclo. Tiersias belonged  to the ancient family of Udaeus at Thebes. He was since his seventh year of birth due to the the fact that he apparently saw Athena bathing. It is said that he was blinded because of the water sprinkling on his face Tiresias was a blind prophet who was visited in the underworld by Odysseus.

Myths[]

  Tiresias was blind from his seventh year of birth, but lived to a very old age. The cause of his blindness was due to him being revealed to men things which, according to the will of the gods, they should not know, or that he had seen Athena while she was bathing, on which occasion the goddess is said to have blinded him, by sprinkling water into his face. Chariclo prayed to Athena to restore his sight to him, but as the goddess was unable to do this, she conferred upon him the power to understand the voices of the birds, and gave him a staff, with the help of which he could walk as safely as if he had his eyesight

  Another myth that accounts for his blindness in the following manner. Once, when on Mount Cythaeron (others say Cyllene)  Tiresias saw a male and a female serpent together he struck at them with his staff and killed the female serpent,after the serpent passed away he  metamorphosed into a woman. Seven years later he again saw two serpents. tried  killing the male,he was successful and he again became a man. It was for this reason that Zeus and Hera, when they were disputing as to whether a man or a woman had more pleasures, referred the matter to Teiresias, who could judge of both since he had been both a man and a women, and declared in favour of the of Zeus that women had more enjoyments. Hera, enraged at the answer and then blinded him, but Zeus gave him the power of prophecy, and granted him a life which was to last for seven or nine generations.

Family[]

Tiresias was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo. He participated fully in seven generations at thebes. He began as the advisor of Cadmus. Later became the oracle of Apollo. When Hera  transormed Tiresias into a woman he became the priestess of hera, married and had children. One of their children was Manto who also had the gift of prophecy.

Description[]

"Oracle" is used to describe either a prophet inspired by spiritual forces, or to describe a particular prophesy. In ancient Greece, the oracle was a place where these divinely-inspired prophesies of the future were passed down to mortals. Oracles were women chosen by the gods through which divine advice would be spoken through them. They were not perfect and gave false information on occasions, but they were still a central part of the Greek and Roman religions.



Interesting facts[]

Oracle also means the priest who hears the message, and the message itself.

The greeks considered death as a necessary evil and therefore immortality was not anviable asset. they however required information on their future life on earth, for this they turned to the oracle.

Every oracle had a distinct method of divination. Motion of objects in the spring , movement of birds, rustle of leaves, interpreted, etc, were considered valid indicators for divination.

The oracle of Delphi was the most important shrine in greece at the time.

Powers []

Oracles have the power to give divine advice to people. Oracles were inspired by spritual forces. They were also able to interpret messages through bones, they also held great political power. Also they had outstanding credibility and were rarely doubted.

Work cited[]

"Pythia." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythia

"Circe - Greek Mythology Link." Circe - Greek Mythology Link. N.p., Feb.-Mar. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2013.

http://www.maicar.com/GML/Circe.html

"Delphi Greek." Delphi History. N.p., Apr.-May 2012. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.

http://www.in2greece.com/english/places/historical/mainland/delphi.htm

"Circe." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Dec. 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circe

"TIRESIAS." , Greek Mythology Index. N.p., 28 Dec. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2013.

http://www.mythindex.com/greek-mythology/T/Teiresias.html

"Tiresias." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 June 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiresias

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