"Tiresias goes blind for having seen what must not be seen, the
coupling of two snakes, or perhaps the nakedness of Athena, or perhaps
even the Gorgon in the eyes of the goddess with the penetrating gaze
(oxyderkes). He then predicts to Narcissus that he will go on living as
long as he does not see himself, and to Pentheus that he will lose his
life for having SEEN the sacred rites of Dionysus, or for having LET
himself BE SEEN as a boar by the Bacchants."
Jacques Derrida, Memoirs of the Blind. (Brault and Naas trans.)
