Thebes

Tiresias makes an appearance in Sophocles' Oedipus the King (c 429 BCE).

Through a series of unlikely circumstances, Oedipus unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. When Thebes is hit by plague, believed to be divine punishment for the murder of the king, Oedipus calls on the local prophet to help him identify the guilty party. Tiresias, knowing the truth, tells Oedipus that it would be better to leave well alone; Oedipus becomes angry at his refusal to co-operate, and insults the old man, resulting in Tiresias revealing the truth and warning the king that he will be destroyed if he persists in ignoring his words. Which of course comes to pass: Oedipus finds out what he has committed murder and incest, and puts out his own eyes.

Tiresias has also walked among the dead in Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus visits the Underworld to seek Tiresias' advice, which is of course ignored, leading to the wrecking of Odysseus ship.

In these two lines, Eliot neatly links three of the the recurring themes of The Waste Land: prophecy; bad sexual experience; and death by water.

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