t on the rightness or wrongs of either Odysseus’s or the suitors’ position. Teiresias shade’s speech to Odysseus is a strictly objective foretelling, but nevertheless crucial to the plot and character development. He states that Odysseus will land on Thrinakia; that if his shipmates eat Helios’s cattle they will be destroyed; that Odysseus will make the suitors pay in blood; and that if he makes reparations to Lord Poseidon he will be granted a gentle sea-borne death. Though Teiresias S prophecy is devoid of the bias that signs and omens possess, it contains enough to characterize not only him but also Odysseus. Teiresias is level headed and just, "forever charged with reason even among the dead". Odysseus is characterized by his reply to Teiresias: " my life runs on then as the gods have spun it". Odysseus does not try to escape his destiny or change the prophecy to suit his personal desire; he merely accepts it and thereby accepts the will of the gods. Although there are myriad examples of divinities avenging themselves on mortals for wrongdoing, there is only one good example of divine condemnation contained directly within a prophecy. Aigisthos is warned by the gods not to kill Agamemnon, but he ignores the advice and is eventually slain by Orestes, Agamemnon’s son. By his very act of not heeding to the prophecy, he invites the gods’ revenge; the gods avenge themselves by allowing the prophecy to be fulfilled. In this case, the gods condemn Aigisthos through the prophecy because he did not listen to it in the first place! Easily the most often seen type of prophecy is that of divine instruction. A sample follows: Hermes gives Odysseus advice and help on how to overcome Circe’s trials; Circe also later tells Odysseus the route he is destined to take home, and the trials he will face; through Calypso, Zeus prophesies that Odysseus will return to the "civilized world" on Skheria after twenty da...
