Meanings
alternative Teiresias
- Greekhuman sciencesA long-lived blind soothsayer who participated over seven generations in the legendary history of (the Greek city) Thebes, noted also for being transformed into a woman for seven years, so being symbolic of androgyny.
The myth associated with how Tiresias became a hermaphrodite reveals much about relations between the sexes.
2004, Leonard Shlain, Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution, page 2551 more example
[…]somewhere a ship's radio was blaring out the latest jazz-hit to reach Alexandria: Old Tiresias / No one half so breezy as, / Half so free and easy as / Old Tiresias.
1958, Lawrence Durrell, Balthazar, page 35
Origin
- Ancient GreekΤειρεσίας
- EnglishTiresias
Borrowed from Ancient Greek Τειρεσίας (Teiresías).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek Τειρεσίας
- Τειρεσίας (Teiresías)A long-lived blind soothsayer
Catalan Tirèsias, Tirèsies
- TirèsiasA long-lived blind soothsayer
- TirèsiesA long-lived blind soothsayer
French Tirésias
- TirésiasA long-lived blind soothsayer
Spanish Tiresias
- TiresiasA long-lived blind soothsayer
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
Tiresias. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tiresias
“Tiresias.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tiresias. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Tiresias,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tiresias.
Source: Tiresias on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.