Читать книгу The True Story vs. Myth of Witchcraft - William Godwin - Страница 99

Tiresias was one of the most celebrated soothsayers of the early ages of Greece. He lived in the times of Oedipus, and the war of the seven chiefs against Thebes. He was afflicted by the Gods with blindness, in consequence of some displeasure they conceived against him; but in compensation they endowed him beyond all other mortals with the gift of prophecy. He is said to have understood the language of birds. He possessed the art of divining future events from the various indications that manifest themselves in fire, in smoke, and in other ways, ³⁴ but to have set the highest value upon the communications of the dead, whom by spells and incantations he constrained to appear and answer his enquiries; ³⁵ and he is represented as pouring out tremendous menaces against them, when they shewed themselves tardy to attend upon his commands. ³⁶