Mythology : Tiresias, intersexed figure of Myth

Tiresias

One day when walking on Mount Cyllene, Tiresias (whose name means "interpretor of signs") saw two serpents coupling. On striking one of them, he was transformed into a woman. He, now she, lived as a woman for seven years until by the same method was changed back to a man. Some say that he changed back and forth like this six times, and ended her life a crone. Other versions of the story say that Tiresias was once called upon to settle an argument between Zeus and Hera over whether males or females experienced the greatest pleasure when making love. After being involved in a ménage á trois with them, he declared that the woman experienced greater pleasure. Hera was angry at this (though why is unclear) and blinded him. Zeus, to compensate, gave Tiresias the gift of prophecy. When Tiresias was to leave the earth, he didn't die, but was carried directly to the underworld and Hades, who with Persephone he serves as mediator between the living and realms of the dead. Tiresias was an allegory of the seasons for the ancient Greeks. Spring was considered a masculine season and it is in this time that he strikes the sepent and is changed to feminine gender. This was the coming of Summer, considered to be a feminine as all plants would blossum in that season. As this draws to a close, Tiresias returns to male in Autumn. At the end of this time he judges the argument between Zeus and Hera and is transformed again into a woman. When Zeus gives him second sight, he transforms back into a man in Spring, and the cycle begins anew. As a transgendered woman, and tarot reader, tiresias has meaning to me.