Serpent Visions
While most can recall the Greek heroes Odysseus and Oedipus, most (including me) would not remember the name of the blinded seer who appears as a side character in both stories. Teiresias, that hobbling old man who is the deus ex machina in stories stuffed with “deus,” has an extraordinary story himself. In Bronze Age Greece, generations before Odysseus, Teiresias is a young courtier to the king of Thebes. Like many a young man, he is full of self-importance and does not consider the lives of his wife and daughters. But when his wife dies in childbirth, Teiresias is struck by the loss. He stumbles into the forest where he strikes apart two mating serpents, and his life is changed: he is transformed into a beautiful young woman, Teira.
In this new guise, Teira sees the world anew and quickly sheds the self-identity of a man. She travels to Corinth and becomes a priestess of Aphrodite. The world becomes larger than ever before: she understands the old goddesses have been supplanted by the new Greek pantheon; she sees context of political machinations; and, for the first time, Teira knows love. But Teira does not last. Again transformed, now back into a much older body of Teiresias, his eyesight is taken, and his second sight is granted.
Told as an oral history, like the Iliad or the Odyssey, Teiresias relays his story to his eldest daughter, Manto. The author does an excellent job of pacing and character development in a challenging structure. Manto, despite having a passive role as listener, is still very much a character with resentments, preferences, and agency. Webber intertwines aspects of multiple religions while also sprinkling familiar myths and characters amongst the adventures of Teira. Highly recommended.
