Tiresias was a blind, darkseeing prophet（先知） of Thebes. He was struck with blindness in his youth, because he had spied unwittingly on the goddess Athena. He was wandering in the woods one day when quite unexpectedly he saw anaked maiden1 bathing in a placid2 lake. Little did he know that he had offended the virgin3 goddess. Taken unaware4 and scarlet5 with wrath6（憤怒） , the goddess exclaimed that whoever had the boldness to steal a glance at her naked body was doomed7 to perpetual（永久的） blindness. But when she learned later that the offence was unintentional, it was too late for her to take back what she had said. Taking pity on the poor youth for the loss of his sight, she obtained from Zeus an exceptional long life for him, and from Apollo a divine（神圣的） power of prophecy. Besides, she provided him with a marvellous sharpness of ear, so that he could understand the voices of all birds. And she filled his mind with mystic knowledge of things past and of things to come. In short she gave him quite an amount of her own wisdom. He was the first to recognise and welcome Dionysus, god of feast and wine, on the The ban land. When the infant Heracles caught Hera's two serpents（巨蛇） in its hands, it was Tiresias who cast the child's fortune and revealed the divine origin and destiny of the boy. When Oedipus abused Tiresias as having had a hand in the murder of Laius, Tiresias had the fearless courage to tell the truth that Oedipus was the murderer. Even in the lower world he continued to prophesy8. There he helped Odysseus when the hero came to him for advice. Alive, he was highly respected by all；dead, he enjoyed the generous air and rosy9 light in the land of the Blest.

　　泰瑞西斯是位只能看見黑暗的底比斯先知。由于他年輕時(shí)不小心窺見了女神雅典娜，他的雙目失明。一天，他在森林里漫步時(shí)，意外地看見一位全身裸露的仙女正在平靜的湖水中沐浴。他不知道他已經(jīng)冒犯了這位貞潔的女神。因莫名其妙地被人看了個一清二楚，女神勃然大怒。她詛咒道：誰膽敢偷看她的玉體，誰就必將永遠(yuǎn)變瞎。但當(dāng)后來她得知泰瑞西斯并非有意冒犯她時(shí)，再想收回她的咒語已經(jīng)不可能了。出于憐憫，她從宙斯那里替這位貧窮的，喪失了視力的年輕人爭取到了長壽；又從阿波羅那里要來了神圣的預(yù)言本領(lǐng)；并且，她賦予他神奇敏銳的雙耳，這樣他就可以明白各種鳥語。此外，雅典娜給了他魔術(shù)般的本領(lǐng)，使他既知過去，也能預(yù)測未來?？偠灾顾麚碛辛怂陨碇腔壑械暮艽笠徊糠?。在底比斯，是泰瑞西斯第一個認(rèn)出了宴會神、也是酒神的狄俄尼索斯，并向他表示歡迎。當(dāng)海格克斯還是個嬰兒，用手抓起赫拉的兩條毒蛇時(shí)，也正是泰瑞西斯卜算出了這個孩子的未來并預(yù)示出他的出身及其命運(yùn)。當(dāng)奧狄浦斯指責(zé)泰瑞西斯參與謀殺了拉伊俄斯時(shí)，泰瑞西斯勇敢地講出了事實(shí)真相：奧狄浦斯才是兇手。即使到了地獄，他依然預(yù)測未來。在那兒，當(dāng)奧德修斯前去征求他的意見時(shí)，泰瑞西斯幫助了他?；钪臅r(shí)候，他受到人們的普遍敬重；死后，在不萊斯特這塊土地上，他享受著無比清新的空氣和玫瑰般絢麗多彩的陽光。