Editing Tiresias (section)

==In the arts==
* The figure of Tiresias has been much invoked by fiction writers and poets. At the climax of [[Lucian of Samosata]]'s ''Necyomantia'', Tiresias in [[Hades]] is asked "what is the best way of life?" to which he responds, "the life of the ordinary guy: forget philosophers and their metaphysics."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Branham |first1=R. B. |year=1989 |title=The Wisdom of Lucian's Tiresias |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=109 |pages=159–60 |doi=10.2307/632040 |jstor=632040|s2cid=163139952 }}</ref>
* Tiresias appears in Dante's [[Inferno (Dante)|''Inferno'']], in Canto XX, among the soothsayers in the Fourth Bolgia of the Eighth Circle, where augurs are punished by having their heads turned backwards; since they claimed to see the future in life, in the afterlife they are denied any forward vision.
* ''[[The Breasts of Tiresias]]'' ({{langx|fr|Les mamelles de Tirésias}}) is a [[Surrealism|surrealist]] play by [[Guillaume Apollinaire]] written in [[1903 in literature#New drama|1903]]. The play received its first production in a revised version in [[1917 in literature#New drama|1917]].<ref>Brockett and Hildy (2003, 439).</ref> In his preface to the play, the poet invented the word "[[surrealism]]" to describe his new style of [[drama]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Banham|first=Martin|date=1998|title=The Cambridge Guide to Theatre|publisher=Cambridge University Press|edition=revised|page=1043}}</ref> The French composer [[Francis Poulenc]] wrote an [[Les mamelles de Tirésias|opera with the same name]] based on Apollinaire's 1917 play. It was first performed at the [[Opéra-Comique]] in 1947.<ref>Albert Bermel, "Apollinaire's Male Heroine" ''Twentieth Century Literature'' '''20'''.3 (July 1974), pp. 172&ndash;182 .</ref>
* "Tiresias" the poem by [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]], narrated by the persona Tiresias himself, incorporates the notion that his prophecies, though always true, are generally not believed.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Tennyson's Rapture: Transformation in the Victorian Dramatic Monologue |last=Pearsall|first=Cornelia| publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007|isbn=9781435630468 |location=Oxford|pages=303–306}}</ref>
* Tiresias is featured in [[T. S. Eliot]]'s poem ''[[The Waste Land]]'' (Section III, The Fire Sermon) and in a note Eliot states that Tiresias is "the most important personage in the poem, uniting all the rest."<ref name="Bloom2007">{{cite book|author=Harold Bloom|title=T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tMHfQmqxEL0C&pg=PA182|year=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-7910-9307-8|page=182}}</ref>
* Tiresias appears in Three Cantos III (1917) and cantos I and 47 in the long poem ''The Cantos'' by [[Ezra Pound]].<ref name="Moody2007">{{cite book|author=A. David Moody|title=Ezra Pound: Poet: I: The Young Genius 1885-1920|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d3XhiCV8jqIC&pg=PA315|date=11 October 2007|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-921557-7|page=315}}</ref><ref name="Terrell1980">{{cite book|author=Carroll Franklin Terrell|title=A Companion to the Cantos of Ezra Pound|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8uEqOrAnat0C&pg=PA184|year=1980|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-03687-1|pages=1, 2, 184}}</ref>
* [[Virginia Woolf]]'s ''[[Orlando: A Biography|Orlando]]'' is a modernist novel that uses major events in Tiresias' life.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://modernism.coursepress.yale.edu/orlando/|title=Orlando – Modernism Lab|website=yale.edu|access-date=31 January 2019|archive-date=22 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622000605/https://modernism.coursepress.yale.edu/orlando/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>''Androgyny in Modern Literature'', Tracey Hargreaves, 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7SWBDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA91 p. 91].</ref><ref>''Museum Skepticism: A History of the Display of Art in Public Galleries'', David Carrier, 2006, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VIBoW6dDZgIC&pg=PA4 p. 4].</ref>
* ''[[Tiresias (ballet)|Tiresias]]'' is a ballet choreographed by [[Frederick Ashton]] to music by [[Constant Lambert]] first performed at the [[Royal Opera House|Royal Opera House Covent Garden]], London, on 9 July 1951.<ref name="Bland">Alexander Bland, ''The Royal Ballet: The First Fifty Years''. London: Threshold Books, 1981, p286.</ref>
* "[[The Cinema Show]]", a song by the British progressive rock band [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]] from the 1973 album ''[[Selling England by the Pound]]'' refers to Tiresias's sex change experience: "I have crossed between the poles, for me there's no mystery. Once a man, like the sea I raged, once a woman, like the earth I gave".
* "Castle Walls", a song by American progressive rock band [[Styx (band)|Styx]] on their 1977 album ''[[The Grand Illusion]]'', makes reference to Tiresias in the refrain "Far beyond these castle walls; Where I thought I heard Tiresias say; Life is never what it seems; And every man must meet his destiny".
* ''[[Tiresia]]'', a [[2003 in film|2003]] [[cinema of France|French film]] directed by [[Bertrand Bonello]] uses the legend of Tiresias to tell the story of a modern [[transgender]] person.<ref>{{cite web | title = BBC - Movies - review - Tiresia | publisher = BBC | last = Dawson | first = Tom | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/07/05/tiresia_2005_review.shtml | access-date = 14 October 2017}}</ref>
* [[Carol Ann Duffy]]'s ''[[The World's Wife]]'' includes the poem "''from'' Mrs Tiresias" which narrates the experience of Tiresias's wife after his transformation.<ref>{{cite web |title=The World's Wife: From Mrs Tiresias - Carol Ann Duffy @ SWF 2013 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l2lSLo17Ao |website=YouTube | date=9 November 2013 |access-date=24 January 2023}}</ref>