Tiresias In Oedipus The King

Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, is one of the most famous of the Greek plays we are still able to read. Though it retells an old story, even for the Greeks, it does it so well that the characters have life and are human rather than distant figures of myth. This applies to all of the characters, not just Oedipus for whom the play was named. Tiresias, for example, though he only appears for a short time in the play, is not just Apollo’s seer, but rather a man who has to cope with the fact that what he sees may not be welcome news. In Oedipus, the King, Tiresias is a fully developed character who knows and understands the truth, recognizes that it is his job to speak the truth, and feels that his status as a seer places him on equal footing with

He is saying that, no matter what, he is Apollo’s and he will do what the God commands of him. Also in his conversation with Oedipus, he tells the King “That’s your truth? Now hear mine” (421). This mention of truth reflects on what the Chor8us was saying, that Tiresias knows the truth because Apollo lets him see it. He feels it is his duty to tell the truth because he belongs to Apollo, who allows him to see it. The fact his truth is more valid than Oedipus’s truth is made clear because of how often the Chorus and other characters link him with the truth. The audience has been told that Tiresias knows the truth because the God tells him, which will make his truth immediately more believable than Oedipus’s.
Tiresias feels that, since he knows the truth, and because his life is watched over by Apollo, he is on an equal footing with Oedipus. He says to the King: “You may be king, but my right /to answer makes me your equal” (490-91). Because he can see the truth of things, he has a responsibility to answer questions, and therefore he can speak even to a King as an equal. His status as a seer, someone to whom Apollo

He is known for his truthfulness, and for the fact that he is a seer with whom Apollo speaks, but he does not always want to tell the truths he knows. He realizes that what he knows about Oedipus will cost both himself and Oedipus much, and therefore does all he can to avoid telling that truth. This conflict allows the audience to understand that, even though the play is the retelling of an old myth, the people in it are human, fully realized