Footnotes: Tiresias
1. Nothing is known of Everes, though his name is mentioned by several authors including Callimachus (The Baths of Pallas 106), Apollodorus (Library 3.6.7), and Hyginus (Fabulae 75). Apollodorus further mentions that Tiresias' grandfather was Udeus, one of the sown men. Although it is not explicitly stated that Udeus was Everes' father, it is an assumption that can be safely made given that one of the Spartes could hardly be the father of a nymph such as Chariclo. Return
2. The author Apollodorus, states that Tiresias encountered the pair of mating snakes on Mt. Cyllene, which is in the Peloponnese and a considerable distance from the city of Thebes in Boeotia (Library 3.6.7). This is also the location given by the Roman author Hyginus (Fabulae 75). One possible explanation for this could be the similarity of the Greek words for 'Spartan' and 'Sown-man', which is a word used to describe Udeus, Tiresias' grandfather. By this association it may have become a convention for mythographers to place Tiresias in the Peloponnese prior to his becoming a seer and living in Thebes. However other authors such as Tzetzes (Scholia on Lycophron 683) state the location as Mount Cithaeron in Boeotia, which would be more logical placement assuming that Udeus was a sown-man rather than a Spartan. Return
3. Apollodorus tells us that Tiresias wounded the snakes with his staff (Library 3.6.7). The Roman poet Ovid agrees, using the Latin phrase 'baculi violaverat ictu' = 'he had commited violence upon (them) with a strike of his stick' (Metamorphoses 3.314). The imagery created by driving a stick between two snakes and separating them is that of the cadeceus, though such recognition hardly helps to explain the symbolism of such an action.
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4. The transformation of Tiresias into a woman upon striking the snake may be at least partially explained by the snake's dual role as both a masculine and feminine symbol. As Joseph Campbell points out, the snake while obviously a phallic symbol is also a vaginal symbol, such as when it swallows another snake (The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology page 10). Return
5. The fact that Tiresias names his daughter 'Manto' (from the Greek 'μαντις' = 'seer') is clearly meant as an association with Tiresias' mantic powers that he will pass on to his offspring. The fact that sequentially the gaining of said abilities occurs after the birth of his daughter should be regarded as a minor anachronism. Return
6. Accounts differ in regards to the division of enjoyment that men and women derive from sexual intercourse. Apollodorus divides the pleasure of sex into ten parts saying that men enjoy one part, while women enjoy nine, but then he proceeds to quote an excerpt from the lost Melampodia stating that men enjoy one part, while women enjoy all ten parts. Regardless of the mathematical confusion, it is clear that women derive significantly more sexual pleasure from intercourse than do men (Library 3.6.7).
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7. There is another version of the story of how Tiresias received his mantic powers, which closely resembles the myth of Actaeon. In this version, told by both Apollodorus (Library 3.6.7) and the poet Callimachus (The Baths of Pallas 57-133), Tiresias stumbled upon the goddess Athena bathing and was blinded in accordance with the 'laws of Cronus'. Tiresias' mother Chariclo, a friend of Athena, begged mercy for her son and Athena granted Tiresias the ability to interpret bird signs and a staff that he could use to walk as if he were sighted. Although these two stories differ greatly, they both involve Tiresias incurring the anger of a goddess and suffering blindness as a consequence. Return
