Had Teiresias Learnt His Lesson?

“The truth sustains me.”

“There is power in truth.”

In previous post, I have discussed about the moral of the stories regarding the cause of Teiresias’ blindness and also analyzed his flaws. For this post, we will see whether Teiresias had learnt his lesson, especially in his imprudence of speech, and became wiser.

Teiresias has appeared in lots of Greek plays as the soothsayer. However, since Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is the only Greek play I have read, I will analyse the characteristics of Teiresias only in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.

The first impression I had about Teiresias in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex was he is a wise old seer. His wisdom is shown in a scene, where he was speaking to the mighty king, Oedipus. Instead of telling the truth that Oedipus the King is the defilement whom he seek and the murderer who killed King Laius (his own father), Teiresias chooses to keep his silence. Oedipus begs him to reveal the truth – “To your native country. Do not refuse to speak.” (Line 108) However, Teiresias replies, “When it comes to speech, your own is neither temperate nor opportune. I wish to be more prudent.” (Line 109 to Line 110)

• Note: The word “opportune” is implying that it is not the right time to reveal the truth. As for the term “prudent”, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines it as “sensible and careful when you make judgments and decisions; avoiding unnecessary risk.”

Besides, even Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has also compared his prudence in speech with other Greek plays, “Like most oracles, he is generally extremely reluctant to offer the whole of what he sees in his visions.” Apparently, Teiresias had learnt his lesson and will only reveal the truth or part of the truth when the right time has come. Thus, Teiresias is often used in Greek plays to create suspense.

Nevertheless, in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, King Oedipus has managed to provoke him to tell the truth. Teiresias is quoted saying to Oedipus in front of his citizen, “You yourself are the pollution of this country.” (Line 135) That is as direct as calling a spade a spade!

Now, I’m wondering again. Teiresias had learnt his lesson, hadn’t he? Or had he?

The Moral of the Stories

The stories about the cause of Teiresias’ blindness provide valuable lesson to us. The moral of the stories is to see, hear and speak wisely, or you will need to face the consequences. I wouldn’t say “See no evil; hear no evil; say no evil”, for he spoke only the truth.

According to one of the myths, Teiresias’ was blinded by Athena after seeing her bathing. Another myth recounts how Teiresias came upon a pair of copulating snakes and stared at them for hours until they attacked him. He killed (or some say “wounded”) the female snake in self-defense and was punished to be a woman for seven years. Both stories teach us that we should have the courtesy to look away, when we come upon obscene or unsightly scene.

Another moral lesson that I have learnt in Teiresias’ blindness is to speak with wisdom. In other words, we should think before we say. One of the myths claims that Teiresias was blinded by the gods for revealing their secrets to immortal men. Another myth recounts how Teiresias was blinded by Hera (Zeus’ wife) for giving the unaccepted answer. Hence, both stories advice us that we should know what to speak, how to speak and who to speak to, based on the context – to whom we are speaking to and in what circumstances. The virtue of wise speech has been highly extolled since the olden days. Confucius had once penned, “Make sure words touch wisdom tooth on the way out of your mouth.” Similarly, Ann Landers also supported the importance of producing wise speech by saying, “The trouble with speaking too fast is you may say something you haven’t thought of yet.” Even the old Malay proverb has stressed on this, “Kerana mulut, badan binasa.”

In conclusion, Teiresias unwise actions had caused him trouble, and his imprudence in speech made it double. See not what should not be seen and speak not what should not be spoken. Somehow, it is rather strange to relate the term “unwise” to an old seer, whose wisdom was well-known. As the saying goes, “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” Teiresias is a mere human being after all. Wisdom, unlike knowledge, can only be gained through experience, who is the cruelest teacher of all.

“The road to wisdom?
Well, it is plain
And simple to express.
Err,
And err,
And err again.
But less,
And less,
And less. “

Anonymous

The Blind Man Who Gives Sight

Teiresias, or also transliterated as “Tiresias”, often appears in Greek mythology and dramas. In brief, he was a blind prophet from Thebes, who was famous for the skill of soothsaying. Nonetheless, how many of us really know who he was? Where did he come from? Why was he blind? Was his soothsaying skill inborn? Or a gift from God? Or developed through training? Most of these questions will be answered once we get to know the stories behind his blindness.

To begin with, Teiresias was the son of the shepherd, Everes and the nymph, Chariclo. Well, this will easily explain his background and there is no other source that contradicts with the statement. Nonetheless, the story about the rest of his life is a mess, as there are different myths about the cause of his blindness.

According to Luc Brisson, eighteen allusions to mythic Tiresias were found and they were categorized into three groups. The first group recounts Teiresias’ blindness in two episodes – Tiresias' sex-change and his encounter with Zeus and Hera. The second group accuses Athena for blinding him. Lastly, stories that fall into the third group recount the misadventures of Tiresias, but all of them are now nowhere to be found.

Practically, most of the sources have only identified three versions of the story regarding the cause of Teiresias’ blindness. In order to tell more about Teiresias without creating more confusion, I will only concentrate on these three versions.

The first version of the story says that Teiresias was blinded by the gods for disclosing their secrets to mortal men. Another version says that he was blinded when he was young, after he had seen Athena take a bath. Teiresias’ mother, Chariclo, who was Athena’s favourite nymph, begged her to undo her curse and restore his sight. Unfortunately, Athena could not do so. Instead, she cleansed Teiresias’ ears and gave him the gift of augury, which is the ability to understand bird language. Kind Athena also gave Tiresias a staff made of cornel-wood, so that he could walk with the help of the staff. The second version of the story could be found in Pherecydes Callimachus' poem "The Bathing of Pallas".

The last version of the story regarding the cause of Teiresias’ blindness can be told in two episodes – Tiresias' sex-change and his encounter with Zeus and Hera. This myth claims that Tiresias was once out on a walk on Mount Cyllene in the Peloponnese. When he came upon a pair of copulating snakes, he sat there watching them mating for hours. However, the snakes sensed his presence and attacked him, as they would not want to be disturbed. As self-defense, he killed the female snake. At the same moment he killed her, he turned into a woman. Being a woman, Tiresias became a prostitute of great fame. Some sources claim that he became a priestess of Hera, married and had children. After seven years, the episode with the snake was repeated. This time, Tiresias killed the male snake, which turned him back into a man. Hence, Teiresias was also famous for being transformed into a woman for seven years, besides his soothsaying skill.

In the second episode, Zeus and his wife, Hera were having an argument about who has more pleasure in sex. Is it the man (as Hera claimed) or the woman (as Zeus claimed)? Knowing Teiresias had experienced both, they ask him to judge. Tiresias told them that, "Of ten parts a man enjoys one only, but a woman enjoys the full ten parts in her heart." (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.7). This statement anger Hera, who instantly blinded him. Unable to stop her, Zeus bestowed Tiresias the gift of foresight (wisdom and the ability to see the future), which explains how Teiresias gained the power of a seer. Zeus also extended Teiresias’ lifespan to seven generations. This explains how Tiresias was able to live at Thebes for seven generations as a sought-after soothsayer, starting as the advisor to Cadmus.

Now, story time is over. The questions about the cause of Teiresias’ blindness and his foresight may be answered, but the mysteries remain unsolved as there are too many versions of story taken from different sources. This makes me wondering whether Teiresias is a myth in a myth after all? Anyway, there is one thing I’m sure about Teiresias. No matter how he was blinded or how he gained the power of foresight, he was nonetheless the famous blind seer in Greek mythology. If you ask me who Teiresias is, I will tell you in brief words, “He is the blind man who gives sight”.

Acting is in the Mind of the Beholder

1.2 In groups of six, read the extract from “Bingo” by Edward Bond (Now Read On, pg 28). Discuss how you might perform the scene. Consider these elements in your discussion: number of characters, what they are doing, the mood and the setting.

1.3 Group performance of “Bingo” by Edward Bond.

That was the instruction of the activity that we had to do in the first tutorial with Miss Kasthoori. We were given an extract of a play with purely dialogue – no characters’ names, no setting and no stage direction. Using the play text, we were asked to interpret and act out the play in groups of six. One of the groups performed the play as two journalists who are sitting in the bar, talking about what news to write for tomorrow’s newspaper. As for our group, we interpreted the play as a conversation between two writers who are angrily discussing about what to write in their office, for they are having writer’s block.

However, after the tutorial, my mind was full of question marks. Are we allowed to perform a play based on our own interpretation on the characters, mood and setting? Isn’t it the playwright’s duty to fill in all the information and we have to act according to what he wants? All the while, I thought stage director should follow the playwright’s directions, while the cast of actors and theatrical backstage workers have to follow the instructions of the stage director.

Since we were using the play text taken from “Now Read On” by Malachi Edwin Vethamani and John McRae, I decided to read the explanation in the book to have a better understanding about the play, as well as the activity. After reading the book, all my doubts were cleared. According to the book,

The difference between a play and the other kinds of text we read is: a play text is mostly just the dialogue, and the performance fills in the rest.

If we cannot see a performance, it is up to us, the readers, to fill in the gaps for ourselves.

“Now Read On” by Malachi Edwin Vethamani and John McRae

Moreover, the book also explained the flexibility of “Bingo” by Edward Bond.

Since we do not know the characters’ names, or the setting, we have complete freedom to interpret the text – to build up a context, to create characters, and to make a performance.

“Now Read On” by Malachi Edwin Vethamani and John McRae

Besides “Now Read On”, I also referred to other source, which is Theatre: “The Stage of Seeing” by Milly S. Barranger. According to Milly S. Barranger,

The script belongs to the playwright, but once this original creative act – this blueprint for performance – is completed and handed over to director, designers, actors, and producers, the playwright in one sense becomes peripheral to the final process.

Theatre: The Stage of Seeing
Chapter Four: The Playwright’s Role, page 7

By Milly S. Barranger

In conclusion, my doubt about the tutorial was cleared through referring to books and other sources. I wonder what the playwright of “Bingo”, Edward Bond would think when he saw the way we interpreted his script and performed the play that day. Will he be smiling, crying, laughing or fuming?

Different Interpretation

Throughout the play of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, I noticed that the protagonist, Oedipus like to refer people as “child” or “children”. When he first appeared in the play, he called his citizens “my children”. How would you see Oedipus when he addresses his citizens as “my children”?

In the lecture, we have discussed about the question. The label portrays Oedipus as a caring and loving king. It also shows the element of irony, because Oedipus wants his people to treat him like their father, but he killed his own father, King Laius.

However, I interpreted it in a different way. In my first impression, I did feel that Oedipus is a caring and loving king, who treats his people like his own children. After further reading, I find him as an arrogant man, as he likes to use the label “child” or “children" to show one’s lower social ranking. In Scene I, when he has conflict with Teiresias, he mocks at Teiresias’ blindness and calls him “child of endless night” (Scene I, page 1394, line 150), although Teiresias is very much older than him and is highly respected in the society. He is trying to tell Teiresias that Teiresias cannot harm him with his words, as he is more powerful for having higher social status –

Oedipus: “You child of endless night. You cannot hurt me or any other man who sees the sun.”

(Scene I, page 1394)

In other words, Oedipus often addresses his citizens as “my children” to imply that they are of lower social status as compared to him (other than showing his love to his citizens). Thus, when he has lost his throne and experienced downfall in social status, he starts to call them “my friend” (in Exodus, page 1418, line 100) (although he still uses “my children” at times), as well as labels himself as “child of evil” (in Exodus, page 1419, line 135), which shows his lost of ego.

To Transform a Poem into a Play

To analyse a play is hard, to write a script is harder. One of the challenging tasks in EDU 3217 Teaching the Language of Drama is to write a script for a one-act play. Furthermore, the script is to be used as teaching text for the language classroom, specifically for upper-secondary students. A tough task indeed!

According to what we have learnt in past lectures and tutorials, there are many criteria to be fulfilled (refer to the blog post “Criteria of a Good Play for ESL Classroom") before a play can be considered as a good play that can be taught to the students. For this post, I will only concentrate on one of the criteria, which is the sense of novelty. We will write a script, but write it differently. Confused? Now read on…… (Hehe, the famous quote in EDU 3217!)

Everyone can write about anything, but it is the style of writing that makes the difference. For a writer, the pen is the mightiest. I got this enlightenment from the famous poet, Dorothy Parker, when I was given a task to study her biography in EDU 3216 Teaching the Language of Poetry. She is famous for her caustic wit in portraying the hard truth about the world. Thus, her works normally entail the element of irony, as she writes it in a sarcastic, cynical tone.

Nonetheless, as successful as she might seem, she suffered from marriage failures and depression, which causes her to attempt numerous suicides. Some critics perceive her famous poem “Resume” as her personal account of her suicidal attempts. And it is her style of writing and her poem “Resume” that inspire our group in our script writing, as well as the title of our play – Resume.

In brief, our play “Resume” is about a counselor, Ms. Leela who needs to counsel a student, Mei Ying, who wants to commit suicide. In this play, Ms. Leela, like Dorothy Parker, is sarcastically giving her personal account of suicidal experience. Her description is intended to give a notion to the readers that suicide is gruesome, as opposed to the general perception of an “easy and quick death”. Thus, the play is trying to advice the readers to avoid suicide, just as the last line of Parker’s “Resume” that states, “You might as well live”.

Wanting to do things differently to get the sense of novelty, we decided to transform the poem into a play. Is it possible to transform a poem into a play? Initially, we were wondering too. Moreover, there is one big problem with doing things differently - either you will get a big "yes" for your creativity or a big "No" for your stupidity. However, we believe that a play is an art, and art is all about creativity, and creativity involves novelty, and lastly, novelty involves taking risk. Nothing is impossible. With strong will and determination, dreams will come true. Just as the poetry in our play has stated,

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is a dream, raise it.

Life is a gift, cherish it.

We dream to do things differently, make it possible by accepting the challenge and our gift is of course our production of the script. No matter the script is well-praised or badly condemned, “Resume” will always be a gift we cherish forever.

How would I Teach What I Have Learnt?

In the previous post, “Criteria of a Good Play”, I had explained how the knowledge of what makes a good play is related or useful to my area of study. Apparently, it helps a great deal to teachers who are teaching drama, for it provides the skill of choosing a good play for their students. In this post, I’m going to discuss whether I would be able to adopt and adapt this skill that I’ve learnt for my future lessons (Well, if I were a teacher).

First of all, I will explain how I would adopt the skill in my future lesson of teaching drama. To teach drama, I can use the skill of choosing good plays to select a play that is able to create students’ interest and attract their attention. In other words, it helps me to choose a play that is able to make students to read it again and again willingly. It would be a play that is read with pleasure, but not with pressure. This is very important to avoid students to feel bored with the main teaching material (the play) that will be analysed repeatedly for many lessons. Moreover, the learning process will slack down once students stop reading or even refuse to look at it again.

Nonetheless, besides choosing an interesting play, teacher who teaches drama should be able to choose suitable plays for their students too. Now, I will explain how would I adapt the skill in my future lesson. In choosing plays, I will choose plays that are suitable to students’ level of proficiency (vocabulary), level of understanding and world knowledge (related issues), besides considering their interest.

Lastly, let us review the question again. Would I be able to adopt and adapt the skill of choosing a good play for my future lesson? The answer for the question will be a big “yes”, for this skill will be very useful in my future lessons.

Criteria of a Good Play

What aspects of the lectures or tutorials are related or useful to my area of study? My answer to this question will be the teaching the criteria of a good play. In one of the lectures of EDU 3217, we were taught about the criteria of a good play, which are stated as below:

• Thought-provoking / satisfies the intelect (Make the audience think)
  
• Shows organization (Clearly shows relationship between time or characters)
  
• Show ideational content
  
• Has economy
  
• Has sense of novelty (E.g. the plot is not dull and predictable)
  
• Has impact to the audience
  
• Moves or emotions grip the audience (Audience willing to stay until the end to know what will happen next. Suspense.)
  
• Concerns with human issues or experiences (e.g. parent-child conflict.)
  

Besides that, in the third tutorial, we were given a task to read three one-act plays, i.e. Tan Kee Aun’s “The Ring Doesn’t Fit”, Vincent Jeremiah Edwin’s “The Ring” and Rheitta Desmond’s “Selfish Mr. Pederson”. Among the three plays, we need to choose the play we liked the most and the play we disliked the most. Other than the aspects discussed in the lecture as shown above, some additional factors that make a good play are stated as follow:

• Simplicity

(e.g. choice of words, clear development of plot, reasonable number of characters)

• Have moral values
  
• Appropriate length
  
• Witty style of writing
  

Why would I say teaching the criteria of good play is related to my area of study? Well, in my opinion, an effective teacher does not only possess good teaching skills, but also skillful in selecting and utilizing teaching materials. Moreover, if the teaching material is the central tool (e.g. comprehension text) and not assisting tool (e.g. visual support), teacher need to choose it properly. For instance, in teaching the language of drama, the chosen script is the most important teaching material of all – the central tool. By having the knowledge of what makes a good play, teacher will know how to choose the appropriate play for ESL classroom.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that one of the important aspects that is useful and should be taught to future English teachers is the skill of choosing a play, as they will need to teach drama one day. As for the other question, “What aspects of the lectures or tutorials that are unrelated or not useful to my area of study? “, the answer remains unknown. (as I have not found any unrelated aspects yet)