ABSTRACT
Soothsayers are generally involved in foretelling the future or determining answers to questions through supernatural means. Soothsayers, diviners, and oracles play an important role in early mythology. In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, soothsayers like astrologers and alchemists were considered scientists, relying on visions and the movements of the stars to make their predictions. The blind Tiresias a Theban soothsayer, is himself father of the female Manto, who in turn is mother of the prophetic Mopsus. In good Greek fashion, of course, he flees from what he believes to be his natal parents only to unwittingly kill his true father and marry his birth mother upon arrival in Thebes. Cassandra is another prominent prophet in Greek antiquity, with the dubious distinction of having her pronouncements perpetually disregarded. The word prophet comes from the Greek, meaning "speaker for." An oracle, especially in the ancient Greek sense, is an answer given by a god to a question asked by a human.
