Out Like a Lamb

Tiresias

'Twas not until I lost my sight
that I discovered I can see;
first male now female, left then right
'twas Hera made me blind, despite
that Zeus was on my side, well pleased.



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April 13—Discovery

A quintilla is a Spanish stanza of five octosyllabic lines. It employs two rhymes and no three consecutive lines may rhyme nor may it end in a couplet. The most common scheme is abaab, but abbab, aabab, ababa and aabba are also permitted.

In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. One story holds that Hera and Zeus disagreed about which of the sexes experienced more pleasure during sex, with Hera arguing that the answer was men, by far. When they consulted Tiresias, he asserted that women had greater pleasure than men, and Hera thereupon struck him blind. Zeus, in thanks for his support, gave him the gifts of prophecy and longevity.