Page:Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica.djvu/323



But now he is speaking of Teiresias, since it is said that he lived seven generations — though others say nine. He lived from the times of Cadmus down to those of Eteocles and Polyneices, as the author of Melampodia also says: for he introduces Teiresias speaking thus:

"Father Zeus, would that you had given me a shorter span of life to be mine and wisdom of heart like that of mortal men! But now you have honoured me not even a little, though you ordained me to have a long span of life, and to live through seven generations of mortal kind."

They say that Teiresias saw two snakes mating on Cithaeron and that, when he killed the female, he was changed into a woman, and again, when he killed the male, took again his own nature. This same Teiresias was chosen by Zeus and Hera to decide the question whether the male or the female has most pleasure in intercourse. And he said:

Of ten parts a man enjoys one only; but a woman's sense enjoys all ten in full."

For this Hera was angry and blinded him, but Zeus gave him the seer's power.

"For pleasant it is at a feast and rich banquet to tell delightful tales, when men have had enough of feasting; and pleasant also it is to know a clear token of ill or good amid all the signs that the deathless ones have given to mortal men." 269